Meet Our Tutors - Anna

Anna Drozdova

 

How did you get into fermenting?

I am Russian from Latvia and since childhood fermented foods were big part of my everyday life. My mom used to make sauerkraut, and she still does at 89. 

My personal journey started around 15 years ago when my 6-month old son developed eczema and I started digging for information looking for the root cause. This is how I came by the GUT health, microbiome and this information literally blew my mind. Our health is directly connected and depends on our GUT health. And one of the effective ways of keeping our GUT microbiome happy was consuming ferments. So I started with what I knew best - sauerkraut. To date this is my tastiest and favourite ferment. Although, now I ferment anything I can lay my hands on :) 

With all that knowledge I made radical changes in our lifestyle and among other things fermented foods and drinks became part of our everyday diet.

How long have you been teaching fermentation?

My Pandora Box of fermentation opened up with sauerkraut, with time I started adding other ferments into our life like kombucha, kefir, kimchi and many others.

Around 10 years ago friends at my son’s home education group asked me to show them how to make sauerkraut, because the one that I was bringing over was so tasty. I did and so started my teaching career. Interestingly, I studied “English as a second language teacher” at the Uni. I guess it was meant to be. 

What is the main reason why you are such a champion of fermenting?

I love eating! I love tasty food! 

My fermentation background when my mom was making kraut and kombucha and my own journey with my son made me fall in love with ferments and probably defined my love for fermented foods. I can’t stop now, I am just so in love with its taste, benefits and simplicity!  

What are your fermenting plans for 2024? 

In the next year and years ahead I plan to keep promoting fermentation as best I can and as widely as possible, including my online classes for the Russian speaking community around the globe. It is tasty, it is really good for you, it is so simple to make, it is highly accessible, it saves you so much money and it is a very creative process where you can be a true artist and colour your fermentation canvas with any flavours you choose.