There are human activities we’ve practiced for millennia, and others that are relatively new. For example, Facebook was started in 2004, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a town renamed in 1638 after a London university founded in the year 1209. Nearly three billion people now use this social media platform. Controlled fermentation began between 10000 and 6000 BC in what is now the Middle East, and almost every civilization since has included at least one fermented food in its culinary heritage.
Fermentation is the chemical transformation of organic substances into simpler compounds by enzymes produced by molds, yeasts, or bacteria, and it occurs without our intervention. Human-caused fermentation was first employed for the preservation of milk from camels, cattle, sheep, and goats; the dawn of cheese and yogurt. There is evidence of a fermented beverage made in China from rice, honey and fruit from 7000 BC, and people started making wine from grapes around 6000 BC in what is now the Republic of Georgia. One can imagine that weekly wine tasting flights, like those now at Oakland Yard, were in regular rotation shortly thereafter.
Ancient Egyptians first experimented with yeast in dough fermentation for leavening bread at least 6,000 years ago, and fermentation techniques developed there between 3,500 and 300 BC are still in use today. The Sumerians started making beer well before 2000 BC, and because they were the first to use a written language, there are many documents from Sumer related to brewing, including The Hymn to Ninkasi, a song of praise to the goddess of beer.
So, while posting on social media and surfing the web are rather novel activities for us, we have been writing, eating bread, and drinking beer and wine for a good long time, and after a two year hiatus from Oakland Yard’s weekly tasting flights, and two weeks without bread from States Coffee, we’re ready to get back to these these ancient practices with gusto. In addition to our newly reinstated Saturday afternoon tasting flights, this week, Oakland Yard will resume pouring THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS. And, after a well-deserved baker’s holiday, and just in time for tomato season, States Coffee x Bread across the street will again sell loaves from Fridays through Mondays, beginning tomorrow, Friday the 5th. We’re also very excited to have our good friend and gifted winemaker, Brendan Willard of Phantômé Cellars, pouring his current lineup this Saturday!
TONIGHT: THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS – Italian Reds & French Whites. Flights $15 from 5-9pm and full menu of wines by the glass available too!
SATURDAY, August 6th: PHANTÔMÉ CELLARS tasting with winemaker Brendan Willard. Brendan pours flights of 4 California wines: reds, white and rosé - Flights from 2-6pm and wines by the glass all day until close.
Cheers,
Max