It's gut check time at FLX Fermentation Festival this weekend 

[
      {
        "name": "500x250 Ad",
        "insertPoint": "5",
        "component": "15667920",
        "parentWrapperClass": "",
        "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
      }
    ]

If you’re anything like me, you love fermented foods. Kombucha. Miso. Beer. Kimchi. And this weekend at Cumming Nature Center in Naples, you can join other ferment-heads for the annual FLX Fermentation Festival — a two-day, hands-on extravaganza of interactive workshops, demonstrations, kids’ activities, and a vendor fair.

The “FLX Fermentation Festival: Where Cultures of Community Converge” will be led by Contraband Ferments’ Cheryl Paswater, who will give the keynote address and host a series of workshops about how to ferment everything from vegetables and condiments to shrub and switchel beverages and miso.

“I got interested in fermentation about 13 years ago when I began my healing journey,” Paswater said in a press release. “My gut was a wreck, I wasn't getting answers from conventional doctors and I was reading a lot of books on gut healing and that really sparked my interest in looking at ways I could heal through food, herbs, and microbes.”

Whether you’re interested in improving your digestive health or you just love the signature vibrant and acidic flavor of fermented foods, there’s something for everyone. Additional workshops will be hosted by Other Half Brewing, Komerebi Shoppe, Fruition Seeds, and other food and beverage experts.

The FLX Fermentation Festival will be held at Rochester Museum & Science Center’s Cumming Nature Center, 6472 Gulick Road in Naples.

General admission is $5 per person and $15 per family for “Fermentation Activities” not including workshops) on Saturday, Aug. 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A Saturday workshop pass is $45. “Fermentation Intensives” are extended workshops hosted by Paswater that take place on Sunday, Aug. 15 — Miso Making from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and Shoyu & Aminos from 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. $75 each.

Go to the FLX Fermentation Festival page at rmsc.org for more information, tickets, and workshop registration.

Daniel J. Kushner is CITY’s arts editor. He can be reached at [email protected].