I became acquainted with Rachel Caygill’s desserts after a three-month stint preparing for a standardized test. Some sixth sense had me ordering pie, with cherries baked soft, but still toothsome and soaked in syrupy sauce.

“All fermentation is a form of pickling, but not all pickling is fermentation,” says Austin Durant as he takes me on a tour of his various projects. By “tour,” I mean he sets down several jars of fermented goodies and I happily sample them all. From a smooth Finnish yogurt called viili to a complex, delicious kimchi lacking the monotonous sourness of its store-bought counterpart, I become more and more taken by the power of yeast and bacteria.