Eat this: Cabbage Patch Kimchi

click to enlarge

When Jessie Palmer came home to Cape Breton after four years of teaching in Seoul, she missed Korean food almost immediately. Almost. “I was really excited to eat a lot of cheese and bread, and I did that for a week and then I felt really awful,” she laughs. That’s when Palmer started making her own batches of kimchi to cure her personal cravings—she’d learned how from a fellow teacher in Korea—but it wasn’t until about a year ago that she decided to share the fruits of her fermentation with the public. “I’ve always loved cooking, and loved eating, especially,” says the now Halifax-based Palmer, who sells her patiently made, dairy-free probiotic, Cabbage Patch Kimchi, at the Halifax Forum Farmers’ Market (2901 Windsor Street) on Saturdays, and as of last week, The Carrot (2063 Gottingen Street). Though there are over 100 ways of making kimchi, and Palmer’s interested in experimenting with daikon and white kimchi next, right now she makes a traditional nappa cabbage kimchi, as well as a vegetarian version, which swaps the fish sauces for shiitake mushroom and seaweed reduction. “I’ve really perfected this one and I’m so happy with it,” she says.