In this hands-on workshop, we will dive into fermentation through autumn harvests, microbial life, and our own hands — approaching it as a daily practice of care: for community, soil, the body, and the future. We’ll touch on the cultural significance of fermentation in Prague’s culinary heritage, discuss Spreewald gherkins as a symbol of German Ostalgie, sauerkraut as a cultural stereotype, and explore why traditional fermented drinks like kefir or kombucha are now being studied for their potential health benefits.

Together with the artist Lenka Kubelová, whose practice has long centred around fermentation, we’ll pickle seasonal vegetables, prepare kimchi, and make a fermented lemonade inspired by chicha — a drink once described in Peruvian travel notes by Czech botanist Tadeáš Haenke. Fermentation can also be seen as a deeply political act: a tool for food security, communal sharing, sustainable urban life, and a form of resistance against social inequalities. In times of (not only) climate instability, fermentation teaches us to slow down, to listen to other forms of life, and to imagine new ways of living — in cities, with more-than-human worlds, and with ourselves.