Bean, Oat & Vegetable Lacto-Ferment - made Nov 28/24

 

- 1 1/4 cup dried Pinto beans

- 1 1/2 cups dried Black Turtle beans

- 2 cups Oat Groats

- 3/4 cup Oat Flakes

- 2 med. yellow cooking onions chopped

- 3/4 lb. of frozen parsnips chopped in the food processor

- 1 bunch of celery stalks chopped

- 3 med. red beets chopped in the food processor

- 2 cups of chopped frozen sorrel leaves & stems from my garden

- 1 cup of chopped frozen parsley root leaves from my garden

- 1 green cabbage (2 3/4 lb.) chopped finely

- 4 Tbsp + 2 tsp Himalayan pink salt

As usual, I worked with the beans and  oats separately....  Like the last few times, I tried to reduce my cooking time and therefore my use of electricity by soaking the  beans overnight first and then chopping them in my food processor...  This time though, I also soaked the oat groats over night and the flakes for a little more than an hour in the morning... The oat mix was then soft enough to use without needing to be cooked. I thought the beans might also be soft enough after being processed in my food processor, so I didn't cook these either...  I also used my food processor to chop the 3 beets and the parsnips.... I'm curious to see if I can omit cooking entirely...  I'm especially curious because my body doesn't usually do well with raw foods... I'm counting on the fermentation process working like cooking does for my body's  digestive process...  We'll see how they ferment and how it all tastes and whether my body can work with it...  It's made a BIG mix so I SURE hope so!!!  I then mixed everything together, filling 7 liter and a 750 ml mason jars packed firmly to the shoulder...These rested overed on top of my hot water heater for less than a day before they were exploding out of their jars... so I moved them to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten...

My 1st impressions:

- The mix is quite watery.  At this point, if I did another mix this way, I'd use only just enough water to barely cover the beans and oats... This time I used enough to ensure they were thoroughly covered at all times...  However, what now seems like excess water may get absorbed as fermentation continues slowly in the fridge...  Another option might be to not soak the flakes; trusting that these would have sufficient water to soften with what is already in the mix... Well... I was just going to leave them and see... BUT I see this evening, even cool, in the fridge, they are exploding out of their jars... so I siphoned off some of the excess liquid.. a total of 2 cups worth and re-packed them down firmly.  I think they'll be OK now... but this also gives me a fairly accurate measure of just how much less water I need to use for another time...

- Although I used my regular amount of salt... This tastes quite salty...  As the vegetables and grain soften with fermentation this may get absorbed into their fibers and taste less salty..  It isn't too salty to use even as it is, so before deciding if I want to adjust the amount of salt I use for this technique, I'll wait and see how it is when it has matured.

This won't be ready to use for another 1 1/2 - 2 months and I won't be ready to dig into it until then either... For now, I'm leaving it, just as I made it, to stabilize in the fridge and I'll see when I actually start using it if I still feel I'd like to make adjustments to future batches done this way...

An Update at the end of December/24:

After a month in the fridge this mix had absorbed most of the water, so to keep it hydrated I added back all but about 1/2 cup of the liquid I'd siphoned off earlier... It's still too early though to tell if this is a technique that's worth repeating... in another month or so it should be ready to be properly tasted and tested...

 A Further Update January 25/25:

I started eating this today... I don't have to adjust the salt.,  It's OK, although I think I would prefer a little less...  This ferment is more textural than my cooked version i.e. not as soft and easy to chew.  I would say slightly "crisp or crunchy", not at all difficult to chew or chewy.  I've ended up adding back all of the "liquid" I removed when they first went into the fridge.  It's been needed. I will definitely be continuing to use this method... I may even end up using this method almost exclusively, as long as my body digests it just as well and for now it feels like it will, as I think it makes a truly delicious ferment... and I quite like the additional textural interest!

Pea, Parsnip, Beet, Fennel & Yam Lacto-Ferment - Made Nov 22/24

 

- 1 large zip lock bag (2 lb.) of chopped frozen fennel leaves and stalks 

- 1/2 a sweet potato (my parents called them yams), coarsely grated

- 2 med (3/4 lb.) red beet coarsely grated

- 1 med. onion diced

- 3/4 of a cup of dried dwarf grey sugar peas soaked and then chopped in my food processor
- 1 lb. of frozen parsnips chopped in my food processor

- 30  chopped sorel leaves & stems  (leafy greens) from my garden

- a 4 lb. green cabbage finely chopped

- 4 Tbsp of Himalayan pink salt

After I chopped the peas in  the food processor I thought I would cook them but decided they were soft enough as they were so I didn't... Also after chopping the frozen parsnip in the food processor I was so pleased with the result that I decided to chop the beet and yam this way too... So aside from chopping the sorel, onion and cabbage (I've tried this in the food processor before and was unhappy with the result) by hand I just had to mix everything together... SO nice and SIMPLE and EASY...  Certainly easier than grating by hand and even easier than shredding with the food processor... We'll see how it ends up... It filled 6 liter mason jars firmly packed to the shoulder. Heat does make a HUGE difference in the speed of fermentation... I only left them covered on top of my hot water heater for one day...  before moving them to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten... 

Mainly Onion & Leek Lacto-Ferment - made Oct. 19/24

 

- 19 med. onions diced

- 2 large leeks white and green part chopped

- 2 large carrots coarsely grated

- 2 med. rutabaga coarsely grated 

- 30 leaves and stems of fresh sorel from my garden chopped

- 1 smallish green cabbage (2 3/4 lb.) chopped finely

- 5 Tbsp of Himalayan pink salt

I've REALLY enjoyed the onions I've fermented each year...  They have been especially useful in the spring and summer when the onions I could buy weren't so "good"... so this year I'm doing it again... a little differently though... I've used leeks again but added a little rutabaga and carrot and again used the sorrel leaves (which has grown HUGE in my new garden).  I've also used a whole small green cabbage instead of just a few leaves... I find I'm not using cabbage quickly enough, so I think from now on I'll be buying what I think will be the right size to use whole for a single ferment...  

I packed the mix firmly to  just below the shoulder of 8 liter mason jars, then left them beside my hot water heater to begin their fermentation process.  This mix has taken FOREVER to strongly ferment... After leaving the jars for more than 10 days, I finally decided I wasn't going to use these for a few months so it would be OK if they were SLOW.... and moved them to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten anyway...  However, I've learned something... Fermentation seems to require a temperature above about 21 degrees Celsius to proceed quickly.  I had that when I began fermenting this batch, and I almost moved them to the fridge after 3 days... but because I hadn't filled the jars as full as I usually do, there was plenty of head room available for expansion... so I left them... and the temperature dropped... It wasn't cold in my apartment, but it was mostly between 18 and 19 degrees Celsius and it just didn't seem to be warm enough...  As soon as the temperature climbed above 20 degrees Celsius they fermented more rapidly again...  Since the floor around my hot water heater wasn't warm, I also moved them to around the top and this supplied a little more heat... Well... now I know... I need to make SURE they are warm enough!!!

Sweet Pepper, Celery Vegetable Medley Lacto-Ferment - Made Jul 15/24

 

- 1 large bunch of celery with leaves chopped

- 3 cups of frozen chopped cauliflower

- 1 sweet potato (my parents called them yams), coarsely grated

- 7 sweet orange, yellow & green peppers chopped

- 3 meal sized pieces of pumpkin - skin finely grated and flesh diced

- 1 1/2 cups of frozen chopped fennel leaves

- 20 sorrel leaves finely chopped

- 1 med. onion chopped

- 1 clove of garlic minced

- 4 leaves of green cabbage chopped finely

- 4 leaves of red cabbage chopped finely

- 3 Tbsp plus 1 tsp. Himalayan pink salt

I mixed everything together; then firmly packed it into 5 liter mason jars, filled to the shoulder and one partially filled 500 ml. jar. I think this has been my fastest ferment ever...  Probably due to the very hot humid weather we've been having. They sat beside my hot water heater for less than a day before it was clear they were fermenting well so I moved them to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten... 

Bean, Pea, Oats and Vegetable Lacto-Ferment - Made Jul. 10/24

- 1 1/4 cups of dried Speckled peas

- 1 1/2  cups of dried Black Turtle beans

- 2 cups Oat Groats

- 3/4 cup Oat Flakes

- 1 med. yellow cooking onion chopped

- 35 leaves and stems of sorel from my garden

- 2 carrots coarsely grated

- 1 med. chiogga beet coarsely grated

- 2 med. celery roots (celeriac) coarsely grated

- 2 meal sized pieces of frozen pumpkin - flesh diced and skin finely grated

- 3 cups of frozen chopped fennel

- 8 leaves of green cabbage chopped finely

- 4 Tbsp + 2 tsp. Himalayan pink salt

I cooked the bean/peas and  oats separately. using the same method as I did the last couple of times... which took a little over 1 hour for the peas and beans...  The oat groats and flakes I cooked for 1/2 an hour...  Since I also soaked the oats overnight they were softer and required almost constant stirring to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning...  I mixed all of the other ingredients together except the cabbage. I then added the cooked bean/pea mix.  Although it was already a bit like a paste after running it through my food processor (which I did prior to cooking),  I did mash it a little to make it even more of a paste... and then the cooked oats were added to the mixture.  I added the cabbage last after the whole mix had cooled to just warm. The mix filled 7 liter mason jars firmly packed to the shoulder.. These fermented VERY rapidly! They spent just over a day by my hot water heater  for me to see they were fermenting well, so I moved them to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten... 

 

 

Bean, Pea, Oats and Vegetable Lacto-Ferment - Made Apr. 11/24

 

- 1 cup dried Speckled peas

- 3/4  cup of dried Adzuki beans

- 1 cup dried Black Turtle beans
- 2 cups Oat Groats

- 3/4 cup Oat Flakes

- 2 med. yellow cooking onions chopped

- 1 1/2 cups of frozen  chopped rhubarb

- 1 large red beet coarsely grated

- 1 large sweet potato (my parents called them yams), coarsely grated

- 8 stalks of celery chopped 

- 1 1/2 cups approximately of frozen chopped sorrel from my garden

- a small green cabbage (what is left of one I've been using for awhile) chopped finely

- 4 Tbsp + 2 tsp. Himalayan pink salt

I cooked the beans/peas and  oats separately. a little differently this time...  Again, I tried to reduce my cooking time and therefore my use of electricity by soaking the peas and beans overnight first and then chopping them in my food processor before cooking them .. SO... I ended up cooking them  for just over 1 hour, which is a substantial reduction from my previous 2 1/2 - 3 hour cooking time.... so I'll be doing this again in the future... The oat groats I cooked for 3/4 of an hour, adding the flakes for the last 20 minutes of cooking time...  I mixed all of the other ingredients together except the cabbage. I then added the cooked bean/pea mix which was already a bit like a paste so I didn't have to mash it... (another saving with my new method).  I then added  the cooked oats to this mixture,  adding the cabbage last after the whole mix had cooled to just warm. The mix filled 7 liter mason jars firmly packed to the shoulder.. After only a day and a half beside my hot water heater I could see they were fermenting well, so I moved them to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten... 

 I use these oat/bean/pea combination ferments along with some yogurt and fresh fruit , a few nuts or seeds, a little kombu seaweed and some powders such as spirulina, chlorella and ashwagandha for my breakfasts... It makes a  light, small but VERY nourishing feeling meal to start my day...

 

Celery root (celeriac), Celery & Beet Lacto-Ferment - Made Mar. 7/24

- 2 bunches of celery chopped

- 1 sweet potato (my parents called them yams), coarsely grated

- 1 LARGE red beet coarsely grated

- 6 leaves of green cabbage finely chopped

- 1 med. onion diced
- 2 large celery roots (celeriac) coarsely grated

- approx. 2 cups of frozen chopped sorel leaves & stems  (leafy greens) from my garden

- 3 Tbsp  + 1 tsp of Himalayan pink salt

I mixed everything together... filling 5 liter and one partially filled 500 ml. mason jars firmly packed to the shoulder.  This fermented VERY quickly.   In only 2 days it was exploding out of the jars... so I re-packed them, replacing the 500 ml jar with a 750 ml jar and moved them to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten...