And here is a free PDF of the JADAM manual:
The guy who started JADAM is the son of the KNF guy, they are similar but not the same, the main difference is that one uses brown sugar and other inputs for ferments and the other does not.
Permies.org is a great site if you want to read about permaculture techniques and theory, lots of smart folks over there. I think these comments do a good job of clarifying some questions for me, maybe they’ll be helpful for you too:
" Brand new member here. Been absorbing lots of good information on these forums for awhile now, but never had anything to contribute until now. I wanted to say that JADAM did not originate in the tropics. Korea is quite temperate, with cold snowy winters and hot summers, similar to most of the US and Europe.
KNF is a technique taught by Han Kyu Cho. Jadam is taught by his son. KNF has roots in traditional east asian farming practices … and there are a surprising number of things they got right despite most of modern soil science not having been discovered yet. All the techniques are simple and accessible for the small scale gardener or farmer, eapecially if you substitute different but similar plants growing locally for the plants recommended by the method.
Jadam in my opinion is more pragmatic and less steeped in “ancient” or “wise” methods. Youngsan Cho saw what his father was doing, saw that it worked amazingly well, and proceeded to re-examine it with a scientific eye. He further simplified what was already a simple method.
One example of this … KNF uses brown sugar in almost all its methods. Jadam says it is not necessary. The main practical difference is the KNF fermentations do not smell putrid. For the home gardener this probably matters, but the plants themselves could care less. When you are at farm scale though, Jadam will save you money by removing an unnecessary input.
As someone else mentioned, unprocessed sea salt mixed with water is practically the same thing as seawater. In the mountains, you may have access to rock dust, which serves a similar purpose of providing trace minerals."