The Slow Travel Sauerkraut Workshop

The Blue Noun Sauerkraut Workshop is a recurring event that happens at Blue Noun for our language holiday guests.

This page is about why we share sauerkraut (health benefits and English language), who can join, and the story of how it became a feature on a Blue Noun English language holiday.

Practical Information

Days & times vary
Free

Duration: 1.5 hours

Some food juices may stain clothes. All ingredients provided. Bring your own empty jars (and lids).

 

How to Join Us

Blue Noun runs a WhatsApp group to let you know when the workshops are on.

If you are in the Blue Noun community (someone who helps our language guests), think of this as a regular invitation to join us in making your own sauerkraut. Drop in once, or make it a regular way to keep your personal sauerkraut supplies topped up. 

What is Sauerkraut?

Sauerkraut is a fermented food. The food breaks down by natural bacterial processes. As this happens, the bacteria multiply, so alongside a tasty, salty cabbage condiment, you get an army of gut-loving good bacteria which then move into your gut and help process the food there.

Too many bad bacteria cause stomach issues, from bloating and wind to pain, and, if you are like me, even energy loss, low mood and cloudy thinking.

The good bacteria multiply, taking the place of the multiplying bad bacteria, rebalancing your gut, and helping you extract nutrients from the food you swallow.

Caroline (introduced properly below) describes the gut like a meadow, and every time you are eating sauerkraut, you are throwing a handful of wildflower seeds onto it. Without wildflower seeds, your ‘meadow’ is barren grassland or even harmful weeds.

Why Blue Noun Shares Sauerkraut

By taking my first sauerkraut workshop (more below), I learned that it’s a surprisingly nice environment for talking.

There is something ancient about coming together, hands in the mix and sharing stories as we knead and press. Across Scotland, women used to gather like this to work wool or gut fish. It is missing from our modern culture and, in my opinion, we feel the lack.

Kitchen and cooking workshops are great for language. They’re full of phrasal verbs and informal language.

You may never hear ‘pop it in here’ in an English class, but it is spoken English, and you will hear it across the UK.

But while cooking and recipes give you a tasty meal to enjoy together, sauerkraut gives you a tool for the world.

Feeling good in English is not just about language; it is about having a healthy relationship with language.

Sometimes this happens on a mindset level, but the best coaches know that it is important that it happens on a physical level too. They are all interlinked. It’s why we include invitations to our local woodland sauna, yoga, and nature walks in our holiday offers.

This is known as holistic language learning, which means treating the whole person, not as if language is detached from the identity of the person.

In our opinion, this is largely what is wrong with most language schools’ methods. You can read more about this here:

→ Confident English: Why Feeling Good Speaking Matters More Than Progress

 

“Something magical happens at the sauerkraut table.” 

Caroline Greene, 2025