Called by the living | The Press

Under the marquee, around fifteen people are busy sheltered from the burning autumn sun. The task is physical… We’re still talking about four tonnes of cabbage.

“There are families, bums, less bums and professionals who need to get out of the city for a day,” Julien Clot replies to me, when I ask him to draw up a portrait of the volunteers I will meet throughout the course. the day. Although they have a varied profile, they all have a passion for living things.

Does it sound hippie? It is. And it’s perfect.

The Kimchi Celebrations are an initiative of SymbiOse AlimenTerre, the company specializing in artisanal fermentation founded by Julien Clot. For eight years, every fall, the team spends a few days in five cities in Quebec. Around a hundred volunteers join him there to concoct kimchi and sauerkraut.

(Parenthesis for the uninitiated: kimchi is a traditional Korean dish made from lacto-fermented vegetables. Lacto-fermentation is a preservation method based on the production of lactic acid. The end result supports the intestinal flora in addition to ‘be delicious.)

I took advantage of a magnificent Saturday afternoon to participate in the first Celebration of the season, in Mont-Tremblant. Several of us had the same good idea…

“It gives us leverage,” Julien Clot explains to me: the volunteers work in exchange for sauerkraut and kimchi, which allows us to generate value to give back to the producers. Instead of buying organic cabbages in bulk at 45 cents per pound, we give $1.10 per pound to the producer. It makes a big difference in the end! And it creates sparks, events like today…”

I can attest to that.

I begin my work by cutting onions with three other volunteers. Five minutes later, here we are talking about our attachment issues, our romantic traumas and our definition of healthy sexuality.

“It’s the best podcast I’ve ever heard,” says a participant posted a little further on.

Louis Béchard, Julien Clot’s right-hand man, warned me from the outset: “It’s an incredible social event which gives rise to great discussions. » It’s so true that I hesitate when he invites me to test another workstation… I’m happy with my new friends and our friends.

I ended up following him, impressed by his knowledge (and his good stories).

Human fermentation

I discover that the process is divided into several chores. We must harvest the cabbages at the Cent Péps Garden, one kilometer from the Cabane à Tuque, where we are based. They must then be washed and cut; a task which André Pelrine, dean of volunteers, naturally inherits. The 85-year-old man participates every year in the Mont-Tremblant Celebration. “No one supports him, it takes four to follow him!” », says Simon Meloche Goulet, owner of the place.

You then have to grate about four tons of cabbage with large graters with four blades (I’m still tired of them); prepare the onion, garlic, turmeric and ginger paste (only the last two ingredients are not local); cleaning and slicing daikons with graters that I find terrifying (but are safe); to mix everything ; add the salt (necessary for lactofermentation); massage the mixture until it disgorges sufficiently (what regulars call “machutherapy”); put it in a barrel; and pounding her with a huge wooden stick (a step that releases and exhausts, in my experience).

At each workstation, I fall under the spell of a new person. I am surrounded by trippers from 20 to 85 years old. Around us, children are playing. The afternoon is mild.

“Beyond cabbage fermentation, there is human fermentation,” summarizes volunteer Mathieu Bélanger with a smirk. People pair up and discussions emerge. There is time, space and harmony to do it…”

Satya Larouche is, like me, at his first Kimchi Celebration. She wanted to learn how to preserve food and she wanted to do it as a group: “It’s a question of interdependence. Being autonomous alone and sitting on this wealth is useless. It is sharing that makes us resilient. »

This idea is aligned with Julien Clot’s mission. Every day, the SymbiOse gang offers a lactofermentation workshop to new participants and they all leave with the recipe for their excellent golden kimchi, so they can make it at home.

He seems sincere.

This year, we should produce 14 tonnes of lactofermentation, if the next Kimchi Celebrations – in Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley and Mont-Saint-Grégoire, after those which took place in Les Éboulements, in Charlevoix, and in Saint- Adrien, in Estrie – are taking place as planned. The recipes will spend a month and a half in cold storage before being ready for consumption. Between 10 and 15% of the lot will be given to volunteers and the rest distributed among numerous points of sale.

In the meantime, I hit the road again, more tired than when I arrived, but more smiling too. My turmeric-stained fingers grip the steering wheel, as I marvel at the glowing mountains. I realize that I have just touched on something that I was missing without knowing it. A sentence from Julien Clot comes to mind, about agriculture…

“If we create places that allow people to work even just a few hours a year in welcoming spaces, we can recreate solidarity in the chain. »

I think he is right.

The next Kimchi Celebrations are currently taking place in Estrie (Saint-Adrien) until October 25, then in Montérégie (Mont-Saint-Grégoire) on October 28 and 29. To participate, simply register online.