Mushrooms & Sauerkraut
OCTOBER 2025
Where is the salt?
In autumn, when the garden harvest is in, people start thinking about how to preserve what they’ve grown for the winter. This has been the case in Latvia for centuries – and many Latvians still continue this tradition today.
Preserving or fermenting cabbage, cucumbers, and other vegetables not only helps keep food through the colder months, but also gives dishes that familiar, Latvian “taste of home.” Today, it’s well known that fermented foods aren’t just traditional – they’re also beneficial for digestion and overall health. Apparently, our ancestors already knew this!
So this month, as autumn settles across the Northern Hemisphere, we’ll explore how Latvians around the world ferment cabbage, pickle and preserve cucumbers, and how they forage for mushrooms and prepare them for winter.
YOUR STORIES
- Visi
- Argentina
- Audio
- Australia
- Bashkortostan
- Books
- Brazil
- Bread
- Cabbage
- Canada
- Catering
- China
- Costa Rica
- Cucumber
- Denmark
- Fermentation
- Festive table
- Germany
- Hostesses
- Italy
- Mushrooms
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Photo
- Piparkūkas
- Pīrāgi
- Quote
- Recipe
- Romania
- Soup
- Story
- Switzerland
- Uncategorized
- United Kingdom
- USA
- Video
"So it has happened that I’ve been living in Germany for some time now. Homemade food carries a kind of genetic memory — of grandma’s pancakes or dad’s pike patties, those familiar childhood tastes. Even the stewed sauerkraut on the Christmas table reminds me of the cabbage fermenting days at grandma’s countryside home. In autumn, when the big heads of cabbage were harvested from the field, they were...
"My grandma, Eunise, pickles vegetables on the regular. Cucumber, carrots and cauliflower. She adds onion and garlic and her secret ingredient are cloves. She cooks them in water, vinegar and salt (two cups of vinegar for four large cucumbers) until the cucumber loses its green hues and then stores it in jars in the fridge. My grandparents eat pickled vegetables everyday at lunchtime. As kids, me and my...
I am not a child of exile, but it so happened that I have been living in Canada for seven years now. Latvia has always been and remains dear and close to my heart. I am proud to have been born in Latvia. This square was created with the idea of showing what I truly miss here when thinking about Latvia. It’s the fragrant forests and fields, the...
Inese Šteinbaha: We make our own sauerkraut. My mom, Māra Rozenberga, is the one running around the stores looking for the right kind of cabbage. She knows exactly what they should be like. We even have our own cabbage slicer, brought from Latvia.
Mushrooms & sauerkraut OCTOBER 2025 Searching for Latvian mushrooms Toronto, Canada When I was a little girl, my greatest joy in summer was going mushroom picking with my father in Latvia’s beautiful forests. Wandering around the world, I’ve seen many beautiful forests. I’ve walked through them, searching for the mushrooms of Latvia. I didn’t find them…” Aina Zūlis. Quote from the “Story Quilt” project by “Latvians Abroad” museum 2018 Oktober...
Pēteris Freimanis shares childhood memories of his grandmother’s sauerkraut and tells how he began fermenting cabbage himself, inspired by his friend Aigars. This activity has become a tradition for him.
“Little Māra went into the forest, the green forest was her home.” I heard this from my grandmothers while going mushroom picking together in the beautiful forests of Latvia. Unforgettable memories. I lived in Garciems for the first six years of my life. During the Second World War, my family began the life of refugees. On October 4, 1944, we left Riga. Upon arriving in Germany, we lived...
They wanted to arrest me and Aina. We went to the forest to pick mushrooms, and they wanted to arrest us. Apparently, we were trying to poison someone! The police arrived. The English people who walk there saw us picking mushrooms and had reported us to the police. When we bought that other house — the bungalow — it was near the forest. During the day, my friend’s...
Aija Zichmane (née Bramane)’s parents began fermenting cabbage in Canada in the 1960s. When they grew older, the sauerkraut-making tradition — along with the large fermentation barrel — was taken over by Aija and her husband Klāvs. Every autumn, they organized sauerkraut-making gatherings, involving a wide circle of relatives and friends. Today, the tradition is carried on by the next generation, and Aija’s son-in-law, a Canadian named Brad,...
Liene is marinating cucumbers for the first time, which she says is a skill every Latvian should know. She partly follows her grandmother’s recipe, half vinegar and half water, and partly improvises.
On Facebook, you can find Madara Riley, a Latvian living in the United Kingdom, who is very passionate about mushroom picking. She shares her stories, experiences, knowledge, and inspires others.
Larisa Mednis thinks that her interest in mushrooming comes from her Latvian roots. A number of years ago Larisa joined a mushrooming club in Michigan, USA, where she learned to forage and identify mushrooms from specialists in the field. Today Larisa holds a certificate in wild mushrooming from the State of Michigan, which allows her to legally sell mushrooms. As a vegetarian, Larisa uses mushrooms as a meat...