It’s almost garden season again. Have you thought about how you’ll preserve all your garden bounty yet?
I only recently discovered fermented food and was surprised to find out how much I Iike it.
Fermenting food has been around for centuries.
Historians have found evidence of fermentation dating as far back as 7000BC.
While no one really knows how it came about, it’s likely that our ancestors figured out that they could store foods much longer with fermenting.
And around the time of the turn of the last century, fermented drinks were probably much less likely to make you sick than the water you drank.
There’s some really great benefits to eating fermented foods.
The bacteria that ferments your foods also makes the nutrients of that food much more readily available for your body to use.
The process of fermentation also produces additional vitamins for your body and enzymes that are highly beneficial for your digestion.
And good digestion can support everything from great skin to a strong immune system.
Some of the supplies you need to ferment.
It really doesn’t take much to get started fermenting. Here’s a list of the basics, in no particular order.
- Canning jars. I have found wide mouthed jars easier to use.
- Some kind of lid. There are several to choose from. You can be as basic or as fancy as you like. I’ve used sandwich baggies and I have special fermenting lids.
- A sharp knife for chopping or (as I just discovered recently) a food processor. It all depends on what you’re fermenting and what you like.
- Some kind of masher comes in handy if you’re making something like sauerkraut.
- Water or apple cider vinegar. You probably won’t want to use city water from your tap if it has added chlorine or fluoride. See more on that below.
- Salt for preservation
- Veggies.
- Last but not least all kinds of herbs and spices or onions, garlic and peppers. Be creative and try what you like. Make smaller batches with different mixtures to determine your favorite.
Now there are several types of fermentation. You can ferment grain or fruit as in beer or wine. You can ferment tea as in kombucha. And I’m sure you can ferment a number of other things but, what I’m talking about here is preserving your garden harvest and creating different flavors from all the veggies you’ll get from your garden.
A little about the water you use.
I have well water, so I never thought about this until I did the research.
City water generally has several additives like fluoride and chlorine. Some places add a chemical called chloramine too. Chlorine is not to much of a problem in that you can just let the water sit out for about 24 hours and it’ll evaporate. Or you can boil water to get rid of chlorine.
But, that doesn’t work with fluoride or chloramine. You can’t boil or charcoal filter these out of your water either.
If you have a home filtering system you can check what it says about what all it removes from your water. Otherwise, bottled water might be your best bet.
The fermenting process.
Fermenting takes a little time, but it’s not a hard process. It’s a great way to help preserve all of that garden bounty and give a your veggies a variety of tastes.
Step One
Clean whatever veggies you want to ferment well then chop them into bite sized pieces. In the case of a sauerkraut type ferment, you can shred them with a knife or better yet, with a food processor. I’m embarrassed to say I just realized the food processor thing. I’ve almost never use it….until now.
Step Two
Salt is the key. In most cases you’ll add 1-3 tablespoons of salt to a quart of water and allow it to dissolve. In the case of using cabbage or another high water content veggie you can use some of it’s own water content in place of what you would otherwise use. The salt will also help release the water from your veggies. I’ve got a recipe for sauerkraut here, if you’d like to give it a try.
Step Three
Fill the quart jars with your veggies. You can combine many different kinds, or not, it’s entirely up to your tastes. Experiment with different batches to see what you like best. Add your spices and herbs now too.
Step Four
You want to make sure the salt water mixture you pour over the veggies covers them completely. The point is to not allow any air to reach your veggies during the fermentation process.
Step Five
Next your going to add a lid to keep critters out, BUT you need to allow the resulting gases to escape. If you’re highly diligent you can just put a lid and ring on the jar very loosely and remember to just kind of lift it once a day to let those gases out.
I know myself better than that, I’m not that diligent and would never remember to do that. So, I bought a kit. It comes with what’s called pucks and breathable lids. These kits aren’t real expensive and it makes the process so much easier.
They run as low as $20 and you can probably spend as much as you want. There are several kinds, so you can decide what works best for your.
When I first started making sauerkraut I didn’t have the kit. I found a method that used sandwich baggies covering the veggies and then filled with water. I got to say it really was pretty inventive. You can see this method here.
Once you have prepared your veggies and got them in your jars, filled it with your salt water and situated a lid, now you wait.
Make sure you set it on a plate of some type because most of the time it will bubble over and will make a mess. Ask me how I know this 😉
How long do you wait?
As a rule you let your ferment sit from a few days to 6 weeks. The warmer it is the faster your food will ferment, but ultimately the amount of time is entirely up to you.
The taste will continue to evolve the longer it sits. Different foods have a different suggested minimum amount of time to ferment. Each recipe will give you timelines to follow. The trick to getting the taste you like is to test it periodically once you get to that minimum amount of time.
Once it gets to the flavor you like, put it in the fridge. The cold will slow the fermentation process to almost a stop and it will stay pretty much like it is. I’ve never had a ferment go bad in the fridge. So far, I’ve had sauerkraut sit in there for several months and catsup longer than that..
The fermenting process adds a tang to your food. But recently, someone told me they had tasted sauerkraut that had sit for 6 months and it was the best and mildest they’d ever tasted.
Now I can’t attest to that yet, but you can bet I’m going to try it.
Share what you know.
Leave a comment below to let us know what food you’ve fermented and how you did it. I would appreciate any inspiration you can leave.
If you haven’t yet, but you plan to try, let us know what you come up with. I can’t wait to hear!!
Until later-
Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey