We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Danny Berke. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Danny below.
Danny , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
The way I got into pickling & fermenting specifically, which is primarily what I blog and write recipes about, happened a long time after I was already obsessed with food and cooking. It grew out of my vegetable gardening — another hobby I enjoyed since I was a kid but which I couldn’t seriously pursue until I was an adult and a homeowner. When your cucumber plants finally don’t die on you and you learn to grow them by the dozens and then hundreds, pickling and food preservation in general becomes the next logical step unless you want everything to go to waste (sharing with friends and family is another great way I deal!).
Vegetable gardening and fermentation (an essential method in food preservation) both teach something really critical – patience. They also benefit from being a creative problem solver, which is a skill I feel I possess. A major way I think someone can speed up their learning in the area of gardening and food augmentation – and most other skills and hobbies in this world – is by being diligent about learning. If it’s an area you love and enjoy, it may feel like work but at least it’s work you’re drawn to and can see tangible results from.
So for example, some early fermenters & picklers run into common problems of food spoilage or other issues, rendering all the food bought or grown for that project ruined. This can be a terrible feeling (not to mention costly in terms of time and money), and it’s one people report routinely on my blog or in one of my various social media spaces, especially the Insane in the Brine Facebook group. We are all there to lend support, to help the person trouble-shoot to improve things in the future, and to remind them we’ve all been there.
At the same time, reading books, watching YouTube videos, reading from freely posted university journals in food sciences, etc., are the kinds of things one can do on their own to really accelerate learning, even if it’s less appealing than constantly being in the kitchen or getting on social media pages to look at and show off wild food experiments. I resisted this type of more serious learning for a long time, and no doubt it could have sped up my knowledge base. At the same time, while all my years of trial and error probably added to my costs, I can’t say that’s a bad thing to do either. I can also say that it’s worth overcoming any impulses against trying something new because it seems too complicated; if you’re interested in something, just go for it! Even when things don’t work out as you hoped, you try to learn anything you can from it and with another try or two maybe you’ve got something really great.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I think I answered this largely in the last question, but I will add that my background was not in food science or culinary arts. I got more and more into it as a hobbyist and first and foremost that’s how I still see myself. I am in awe of so many chefs, food scientists, and other folks doing amazing food things on social media, but I feel part of my appeal is that I’m just this kind of regular guy and that if I can do it, you can too. I work hard to make attractive dishes (and photos) but I’m not a photographer or a food artist. I don’t have all kinds of bells and whistles or gimmicks. I’m just showing honest to goodness healthy, all-natural, nutritious foods, presented beautifully (I hope!) but which also doesn’t seem out of anyone’s grasp. And I try very hard to write recipes with a clarity that will make this happen as well. I love that a frequent keyword from my Amazon book reviews that pops up is “easy to follow.” Seeing that makes my day.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Although I haven’t really articulated this explicitly, a major goal of mine (also in my professional life, which is as an English-as-a-Second-Language educator and administrator) is to help people recognize and reach their own creative potential. I will say, in several places in my first cookbook (the second one hopefully coming in early December of 2022), and in some of my social media communications, I do mention about using my recipes like a template rather than a strict code, taking the liberty to modify things based on one’s own desires, tastes, and creative sensibilities.
But really what I’d like to see happen is for my followers to get a sense of how to create something from the ground up based just on an interesting idea. Sometimes folks will say, “I want to create such and such kind of sauce but I have no idea how to start.” My books are, in my opinion, a great example of bringing these wacky ideas into reality, but now I am thinking more about how to help others do that for themselves more independently, rather than only referring them to similar recipes out there or giving my own draft recipe to address that idea. Of course, for those who really don’t feel they can do that, I’m happy to help meet people where they are as well. I really believe everyone though, will have some really cool ideas, if you ask the right questions and push the right way.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I always understood entrepreneurship or starting a business to involve a necessary amount of start-up costs. In the case of fermented food production, which is what I initially dreamed of, with the exception of a few isolated states with great “cottage food” laws (I don’t live in one of those!), there is a tremendous amount of red tape and licensing expense. I almost can’t comprehend sometimes how people make it happen; it’s really impressive.
I already had a family at this point and, comfortable as we were, we were nowhere near a position to start investing money in a business like that, especially with no formal background and my partner and I already having full-time jobs with loads of commitments, financial and otherwise. Well, to be honest, I may have been willing to risk it, but understandably my partner was not.
It was really deflating, as there has been more than one business idea I’ve gotten really passionate about over the years, but eventually I always had to relinquish that hope. And this time, like the others, I almost let it go. There were nights on end where I was lying in bed, thinking of how I could take my passion and interest and make it a business (with at least some kind of income, even if modest), without any kind of real overhead cost.
Being in this challenging position ended up being one of the greatest things in my life. It finally dawned on me that there were plenty of ways I could pursue this passion on a deeper level, to earn some income from it at the same time, and without any serious financial risk. Hosting workshops and blog writing was my initial foray into having a business dealing with fermented and pickled foods, and culinary adventures more generally. It was a kind of compromise with my partner, and one that I’m still so deeply grateful for several years into it.
I’m sure not every business can start off like this, without any financial risk, but I hope it’s really eye opening that there are ways people can do things that they enjoy and feel passionate about and make some kind of income or living while doing. And who knows? From there, things can always develop further. Or you can decide eventually you’re ready to stop or to find something new, and it’s not going to make or break you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://insaneinthebrine.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insaneinthebrine/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2085548908329490
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9KpARpQikD2mX_yFgN2SuA
- Other: A group I moderate on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/FermentedHotSauce/
Image Credits
My photos are approved for use