How do cabbage and spices become ingredients for community building? In Korea, the answer is kimjang, the fall tradition of making and sharing kimchi. This week on The Big Why, we visit a farm in the Bitterroot Valley where a group of Montanans came together to keep a food custom alive and find comfort and connection among the cabbage.
Austin Amestoy: Welcome to the Big Why, a series from Montana Public Radio where we find out what we can discover together. I’m your host, Austin Amestoy. This is a show about listener-powered reporting. We’ll answer your questions — large or small — about anything under the Big Sky. By Montanans for Montana, this is The Big Why.
Today, reporter Edward O'Brien is back with us. Welcome back, Ed.
Edward O'Brien Austin, it's always wonderful being here. Thank you so much. This week's episode brought to mind a quote coined by 17th century French aristocrat and scoundrel, Francois de La Rochefoucauld: "To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art."
Austin Amestoy I wonder how long you've had that one in your back pocket, Ed. Intriguing, please go on.
Edward O'Brien Our friend and colleague, Clare Menahan, brought this wonderful question to The Big Why table. Full disclosure, Clare is Montana Public Radio's major and planned giving manager, and we're thrilled she joins us today. Clare, welcome aboard.
Clare Menahan Hey, great to be here guys, thanks so much for the invite. I love food, and I love trying new dishes. Growing up, my dad would sometimes make kimchi, this Korean cabbage dish, and he'd put bits of pear and apple, which I always thought was a bit unusual. I saw this ad recently for an event, something called a kimjang over in Stevensville, and I recognized the accompanying photo on the poster as kimchi, but not much else. So I wanna know, what is kimjang? And what's the significance of having one in Montana?
Austin Amestoy Okay, well now it's time for me to give full disclosure. I've never had kimchi before, so I've definitely never heard of kimjang either. This event in Stevensville definitely has me intrigued though, Ed. Tell us more.
Edward O'Brien Learned a lot as well. So guys, kimjang is the ancient Korean autumn tradition of preparing and sharing kimchi for the winter.
Austin Amestoy So it sounds like kimchi is the cabbage dish. Is it kind of like fermented coleslaw?
Edward O'Brien While cabbage is the common denominator, that's pretty much where the similarities end. Some kimchi styles are fermented, yes. Others, however, are unfermented and crunchy and bright as a fresh salad. Kimchi offers complex flavors, and there are over 200 varieties. It can be spicy or savory. It usually involves some fish sauce and rice flour along with spices and very distinct flavors. And it can either be a side or a main dish.
Clare Menahan So if kimjang is preparing lots of kimchi for the fall and winter. It almost sounds like a big food festival. Is that right?
Edward O'Brien Yeah, kimjang is ostensibly about food, of course, but I learned it's about much more than that. It's a tradition deeply ingrained in Korean culture. It's as much about family, place, and resilience as it is about cabbage. In fact, in 2013, UNESCO, that's the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, added Kimjang to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Clare Menahan Tell us more.
Edward O'Brien So I spent a chunk of a recent weekend at Winter Kissed Farm outside Stevensville where the kimjang was hosted. And what a beautiful setting with the Bitterroot Range overlooking the farm, its greenhouses and various outbuildings. In fact, gunshots rang out in the hills overlooking the valley as hunters tried to fill their freezers before the end of big game season. Very autumnal weekend in Western Montana.
Clare Menahan Hunters and kimchi, how very East meets West.
Edward O'Brien The first step in making kimchi is brining the cabbage. Then it's rinsed and seasoned. So the hard work started Saturday as about a dozen volunteers dissolved coarse salt in big food grade tubs filled with water.
Austin Amestoy How much kimchi are we talking about here?
Edward O'Brien According to Sohn Jung-a, who, with her friend and fellow businesswoman, Hana Lee, organized this first ever kimjang at the farm, the kimjang will yield something like 150 pounds of kimchi. They're using Napa cabbage, about 40 heads of it. Jung-a calls this particular variety the queen of kimchi because it's the classic primary ingredient of the dish.
Jung-a The more times that I make kimchi, the more I feel connected. I think about my grandmother a lot, my mom's mom, and sometimes I see them when I'm making kimchi, and it's a part of me.
Austin Amestoy So, Jung-a is from Korea?
Edward O'Brien Her dad is from New York, but her mom is from Seoul. South Korea has not always been the global, cultural, and economic powerhouse it is today. Jung-a says this cabbage-based dish has humble origins from a time when most Koreans experienced extreme poverty. Kimchi is sustenance, and for generations, it meant the difference between life and death.
Jung-a Kimchi has been a big source for our survival as a people.
Edward O'Brien At the same time that it was a source of survival, it's become a source of community and belonging too. Jung-a's co-organizer, Hana Lee grew up in South Korea. She's lived in the States for some 15 years. Lee fondly remembers learning from her mom, making kimchi when she was a child. She even taught me a Korean phrase I found fascinating, "son-mat."
Clare Menahan Yeah, I've actually heard of this. Son-mat literally translates to something like hand taste. It's like the love you impart to a dish when cooking, but also the unique microbiome on your mother's hand that impacts the ultimate flavor of the food. If you have good son-mat, it's a tremendous compliment.
Edward O'Brien Impressive. Well done, Clare. So think about baking with all its precision and meticulously measured ingredients. In a sense, son-mat is the opposite of that.
Hana Lee In Korea, when we cook, we eyeball. And then the son-mat is also that kind, like you're just measuring with your feelings.
Clare Menahan Oh, I love that.
Edward O'Brien At least 50 people packed into one of the farm's outbuildings on Sunday.
Jung-a Each participant will take home a half a head, at least, of kimchi. A lot of it will also go to our wonderful volunteers. Yeah, that's really the spirit of kimjang and sharing your kimchi with other people.
Clare Menahan Did you get a chance to meet any of the participants?
Edward O'Brien Oh, I was so fortunate to, yes, amidst the day's joyous and well-ordered chaos, I met Haley Chae as she helped wash and trim the brined cabbage. Chae, who was raised in South Korea, told me kimjang was an event she never expected to experience in western Montana.
Haley Chae I feel proud that a few Korean ladies, they are building communities and inviting all the Americans. So that is fun to me. This is not something easily done by private person. So I was just amazed and I want to observe and want to find my contribution.
Edward O'Brien The whole place smelled of the ingredients. Garlic, ginger, apples, gochugaru, or Korean red pepper powder, and more.
Korean Nari Lee is earning her master's in environmental studies at the University of Montana, and she's one of only two international students in her program.
Nari Lee When I peel the garlic, it reminds me of some very tranquil conversations with my mom, you know, when we made kimchi together. I guess kimchi is just always in our meals, so I didn't really appreciate it.
Edward O'Brien And here, you guys, Nari's eyes filled with tears.
Nari Lee I think having that spiritual time with, like, second generation Korean, starts such a comforting experience. And I feel like home here. I just realized how grateful I am being a daughter of my mom.
Clare Menahan Oh, what a lovely moment you shared.
Edward O'Brien Oh, it really was.
Austin Amestoy So, Ed, you talked with folks as they blended all those ingredients and folded them into the cabbage. What happens from there?
Edward O'Brien After grinding and preparation, kimchi bound for fermentation is packed into airtight glass jars or crocks left at room temperature for a few days to develop its signature tangy flavor and then moved to a cooler place to slow the fermentation and allow the mixture to mature. So as I mingled, I met an artist who specializes in a key part of that final process. Helena's Adam Field creates kimchi-specific fermentation pots called onggi.
Adam Field It has some breathability to it and so there is some micro-respiration that happens and that contributes to a healthier ferment, a more vibrant ferment.
Edward O'Brien Fields' onngi are stunning. He studied traditional Korean pottery making techniques under an onggi master in South Korea. He told me that as a Caucasian who learned his craft from the best of Korean potters, he feels a unique responsibility to be a conduit for almost sacred cultural art form.
Adam Field Cultural appropriation is the term that comes to mind, and that's the last thing that I want to be doing.
Austin Amestoy So what did people at the kimjang think of his work?
Edward O'Brien Oh, they loved it. And as we wrapped up our conversation, Field scanned the property and gesturing toward the participants pointed out that the event was really about a lot more than preparing kimchi.
Adam Field In a world where a lot of us are interacting with people through our screens, look around at these 50 or 60 people that are here, how many phones do you see out? And there were none. Mostly we're meeting people that we haven't met before, at this event.
Austin Amestoy Boy, those moments of real human connection are so important and hard to come by these days, it feels like sometimes.
Clare Menahan I have to ask, did you get a chance to sample any of the kimchi?
Edward O'Brien Oh yes, Hana Lee graciously gave me that sample, my first ever fresh kimchi.
Clare Menahan As opposed to fermented?
Edward O'Brien Exactly. Again, the fermented style will sit and change in character as time goes by. As the sun set, I sat in my car and awkwardly used chopsticks – I don't have strong chopstick game – to taste it with some savory pork she generously added. And you guys, the garlic, the ginger, the crunch, and the spices melting, melding, combining with the pork. I want more.
Even more than the food, though, I savored the cultural moment I had just experienced. Rare in western Montana sometimes.
Austin Amestoy Lesson learned, we can't tape The Big Why hungry, you guys. Thank you both so much for being here today. It was a great conversation.
Clare Menahan You bet.
Edward O'Brien Thank you, Austin, very much.
Austin Amestoy: Now we want to know what makes you curious about Montana. Submit your questions below, or leave a message at 406-640-8933. Let's see what we can discover together! Find us wherever you listen to podcasts and help others find the show by sharing it and leaving a review.
