The Space:

The Evos Fermentarium An educational space, food processing hub, and living
example of the biological processes that sustain us.
The idea of the Evos Fermentarium is to have a classroom space which embodies
the ideas being taught within it A biology class filled with living things, and a food
class filed with food. All aspects of the life cycle of birth, death and rebirth will be
featured: Sprouting seeds, maturing trees, fermenting vegetables and dairy,
decaying compost with mushrooms growing from the remains. A hot meal will be
served at every gathering, made from ingredients processed or grown on site.

The Class:
The Biology of Fermentation A semester long exploration of fermentative biology.
Course Description: The primary goal of this class is to teach students how to
ferment food. Every week a different fermented product will be made in class from
scratch: Bread, sauerkraut, yogurt, cheese, kombucha, pickles, apple cider,
mushrooms, and more. But the goal is not just to practice these fermentative
processes, but to understand the biological theory behind them. How does citric
acid fermentation differ from lactic acid fermentation, and how do they both differ
from aerobic respiration? What role has microbial symbiosis played in evolution, and
how do these mutualisms affect your daily life? Course topics will span from organic
chemistry to mycology to evolutionary theory, while always remaining grounded in
the physical food process being taught.

How the course will be graded:

The majority of the course grade will be based off of class participation, and
measured by the quantity and quality of fermented products produced. In addition
to regular food production assignments, students will be expected to write one short
essay, make three educational videos about a choice fermentative process, and
make frequent in class presentations. There will also be a final exam which covers
the molecular pathways of the most common fermentation processes, as well as
topics in ecology and evolutionary theory.

Course Goals
The course has two main goals, one philosophical, one practical.
The philosophical goal is to cultivate in students an appreciation of Samsara that
is, the eternal cycles of death and rebirth which structure the experience of being
alive. The goal is to practice wrapping our minds around the counter-intuitive idea
that death is not the antithesis of life, but rather an essential component of it.

The practical goal is to start an autonomous food producing collective. The goal is to
build a brand. Class time will be spent not just fermenting food, but also acquiring it,
packaging it, advertising it, and distributing it. The organizational model will be nonhierarchical and anti-capitalist. We will explore distribution methods which eschew
classical money-goods exchanges, in favor of time sharing, barter, and gift giving.
Our first actions will include distributing food in downtown Binghamton, as well as
collaborating with the BU food coop to have our products available in their space for
free, with an option to donate.

Syllabus and Reading List:

Particular weekly course content will be determined by consensus based decision
making, weighted by the processes for which ingredients are most available. What
this means is that the specific kinds of food we produce will be dictated by the
whims of our agricultural / economic system, but the academic content surrounding
those processes will be decided upon collectively. Students are expected to do
independent research, and to communicate that research to the class. Sometimes
this will mean assigning a particularly pithy chapter they have discovered for the
other students to read. Other times this will mean making a video or teaching a live
mini-lesson which compresses an hour or two of research into a few minutes.
Students are expected to collect well written, accurate documents from a variety of
perspectives (evolutionary, chemical, culinary, activist). The class will maintain a
blog which aggregates these diverse academic sources for use in future semesters.
What follows is a preliminary list of sources we will draw from:
The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz Sandor Katz is a queer fermentation
activist. His books are considered seminal works of the modern DIY fermentation
movement. His writing focuses on the historical, political, and practical elements of
fermentation. I personally know Sandor and will try to have him give a guest lecture.
Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets Paul Stamets is a mycologist and activist, best
known as a popularizer of DIY mushroom growing, mycoremediation, and
permaculture. He writes practical mushroom growing guides with a strong
ecological and evolutionary emphasis.
The Chemistry and Biology of Wine Making by Ian Hornsey This is a book published
by the Royal Society of Chemistry which focuses on the history and chemistry of
alcoholic fermentation.
The Chemistry and Technology of Yoghurt Fermentation by Ettore Baglio This is a
book published by Springer which details the chemical processes of alcoholic,
homolactic, heterolactic, propionic, butyric, oxidative and citric fermentation.
The Physical Chemistry of Foods This book covers topics from the chemistry of
bread dough to the kinetics of lipid oxidation

In addition to these text resources, the class will receive guest lectures from local
brewer David Bittner and local mushroom grower Bill Sica. If funding is available,
more prestigious lecturers like Sandor Katz or Smugtown Mushrooms will be
contracted for workshops.

Practical and logistical questions:

Where will the class be located? Candidates include Sci 3 room 368, the research
greenhouse, or the BU food coop kitchen. Each has pros and cons.
How will the class be funded? It can be run on a shoe string budget, but initial
startup funding equipment and ingredients would be immensely helpful. Could there
be funding for guest speakers like Sandor Katz or Smugtown Mushrooms?
Can this class be added to the bio department course list? Can it count towards a
biology major? What needs to be done to integrate this with the bigger educational
system?
What are the legal issues surrounding food distribution on the BU campus. How
many of these can be sidestepped by avoiding direct monetary exchange?
How can students be recruited for the class? Ideal class size is 10-20.