Symbiotic Cultures

Our June Rotation is now live!

This month brings a handful of firsts!

Squash Garum Hot Sauce is our first ever hot sauce. Built on a foundation of squash garum, it was designed to be more than a source of heat. Use it before, during, or after cooking as a versatile seasoning tool that brings vegetal sweetness, umami, acidity, and warmth to a dish.

We’re also introducing a new line of Koji Vinegars. By combining fresh rice koji with finished vinegars, we discovered an entirely new category of flavor. Softer, rounder, and more complex, these vinegars have quickly become some of our favorite tools in the kitchen. Please note that this Apple Koji Vinegar is available for preorder and will ship beginning June 10th. Orders containing this item will ship together once the vinegar is ready.

Rounding out the rotation is Barley Miso, made entirely from barley and barley koji. Nutty and caramelized malt forward, it may be our most expressive miso to date.

And finally, Shiitake Smoked Kelp Garum. Smoke, earth, and ocean, none competing for all the attention, brought together in one bottle. Whether used as a marinade, seasoning, finishing sauce, or ingredient, this is one of the most adaptable ferments we’ve ever produced.

Available now.

Today 5/31 at the Ballard Farmers Market, there’s a little bit of everything: new releases, market exclusives, and a few final chances before they’re gone.

Wild Rose Strawberry Vinegar makes its debut today and will be available exclusively through the Farmers Market and Sym’s Club this month. Stop by for a taste!

Shiitake Smoked Kelp Garum and Barley Barley Miso are also making their first appearance, with market visitors getting the first taste before tomorrow’s online release.

It’s a good week to be a miso, but it’s also time to say goodbye to a few favorites. This is the final week for Dungeness Crab Garum, Corn Miso, and Blackberry Fig Leaf Vinegar. Quantities are extremely limited and once they’re sell through, they shall not return.

Come say hello, taste a few ferments, and see what’s new!

This upcoming June Rotation and Sym’s Club is really taking shape.

Here’s a look at what’s currently in motion in the lab.

The May Rotation is nearing its end.

Remaining stock from this month’s lineup is now live before the next rotation arrives June 1st!

Some ferments disappear for a while and sometimes others evolve into something new. What we do know is that this will be Blackberry Fig Leaf’s final month!

One of the stranger parts of making koji charcuterie is that the final texture has very little to do with how it starts.

At the beginning, zucchini, in this case, is mostly just water. That water keeps the ferment soft, mild, and highly perishable. It tastes like a zucchini, which is beautiful in its own way, but that’s not what we’re here for today.

Drying changes the entire structure of the ferment. As moisture leaves, the texture tightens, and the product shifts away from fresh vegetable and closer toward something cured. Flavor compounds become concentrated, proteins and sugars become more noticeable, and the umami moves from subtle background depth into something much more direct and pronounced.

The difficult part is timing. Most of the process is just learning where that transition point lives.

Our May Rotation is now live!

A new set of ferments shaping how we’re cooking as we move into early summer.

The first run of koji charcuterie moved too quickly through the newsletter. We’re deciding whether it returns as part of a larger batch or stays as a one-time release.

If you were planning to try it, let us know.

Corn miso has been in steady use at for some time. It carries a soft sweetness with enough structure to hold in warm applications without falling flat. Be sure to use it where summer cooking needs weight without heaviness.