Bean, Pea, Oat & Vegetable Lacto-Ferment - Made Feb. 24/26

- 2 1/2 cups of oat groats

- 1 1/4 cups of dried speckled peas

- 1 1/4 cups of dried black turtle beans

- 3 cloves of garlic minced

- 1 cup of frozen beet leaves

- 2 med. sweet potatoes (yams) coarsely grated

- 1 1/4 lb. of sliced frozen chiogga beets chopped in the food processor

- 1 cup of frozen sorrel leaves 

- 1 cup of frozen parsley leaves

- 1 3/4 lbs. of frozen sliced cucumber diced

- 2 cups of frozen chopped rhubarb 

- 1 small green cabbage (3 lb.) chopped in the food processor

- 3 Tbsp Himalayan pink salt

I'm trying something a little different this time...  I was needing another large glass bowl... However, I was also finding them VERY heavy to work with... so I checked on the Internet and discovered that although ferments don't do well with metal, they said it was OK to do the initial mix in a stainless steel bowl... so I bought three 6 quart stainless steel bowls and I'm using these to do my initial mixing... I'll mix everything together and add the salt just before I put the mix in the jars, so it has very little contact with the metal... We'll see... Like the last few times, I tried to reduce my cooking time and therefore my use of electricity by soaking the  peas & beans overnight first and then chopping them in my food processor... I completely covered them with hot tap  temperature water which cooled as they soaked overnight... I  also soaked the oat groats over night using the same quantity and temperature of water as for the peas & beans... The oat mix was then soft enough to use without needing to be cooked or processed at all.  It seems  I can omit cooking entirely...  I then mixed everything together, filling 8 liter mason jars packed firmly to the shoulder...  This uses even a little less salt than my last mix, but it tastes salty enough... maybe I don't really need more than 1 tsp. of salt per liter... We'll see as I go along...  Like the last time there's enough water in the mix for the initial ferment. I thought like the last time, it might be too much once they started fermenting... but it wasn't, so if they need extra liquid later I'll just add a little water to top them up after they've fermented for about a month... If they need it...

I left them covered on top of my hot water heater for just over a day... They were fermenting well, so I moved them to the fridge, to stabilize and be eaten... later... 

Oat, Pea, Parsnip, Cucumber Lacto-Ferment - Made Jan 22/26

 

- 2 1/4  cups Oat Groats

- 1 cup of dried speckled peas

- 1 1/4 cups of dried oregon giant peas

- 1/2 a large zip lock bag of frozen chopped leeks

- 2 cups of frozen fennel leaves

- 2 lbs. of frozen parsnip chopped in the food processor

- 1 cup of frozen sorrel leaves 

- 1 cup of frozen parsley leaves

- 1 3/4 lbs. of frozen sliced cucumber diced

- 2 cups of frozen chopped rhubarb 

- 1 small green cabbage (2 lb.) chopped finely

- 3 Tbsp Himalayan pink salt

I like these legume and grain vegetable ferments so well, I've decided to make most of my ferments with this kind of base...

Like the last few times, I tried to reduce my cooking time and therefore my use of electricity by soaking the  peas overnight first and then chopping them in my food processor... I completely covered them with hot tap  temperature water which cooled as they soaked overnight... I  also soaked the oat groats over night using the same quantity and temperature of water as for the peas... The oat mix was then soft enough to use without needing to be cooked or processed at all.  It seems  I can omit cooking entirely...  I then mixed everything together, filling 7 liter mason jars packed firmly to the shoulder...  This uses a little less salt than my last mix, but it tastes salty enough... Like the last time there's enough water in the mix for the initial ferment, but I may need to add a little extra water after they've fermented for about a month... 

It seems I've found an ideal location for beginning the fermentation process... covered on top of my hot water heater... This batch was left there for only a day... at this point I drained off enough liquid to fill a 750 ml jar to the shoulder (I'll use this to top up the jars with liquid later if needed) and left them uncovered on the floor where it was a little cooler for the night... They were then clearly fermenting well... so I moved them to the fridge, to stabilize and be eaten... later...  In fact, I did need to add back all of the liquid I drained off about a month into the fermentation process...

Oat, Bean & Vegetable Lacto-Ferment - Made Oct 6/25

- 2 cups Oat Groats

- 1 1/4 cups of dried black turtle beans

- 3/4 cup of dried adzuki beans

- 3 med./small yellow cooking onions chopped

- 4 cloves of garlic, the last I have left from last year, minced

- 1 bunch of celery - stalks & leaves chopped

- 3 med. chiogga beets chopped in the food processor

- 34 fresh sorrel and 4 chard leaves & stems  from my garden chopped

- 1/2  a  2 lb. head of cauliflower chopped

- 1 small green cabbage (2 lb.) chopped finely

- 3 Tbsp Himalayan pink salt

It's been awhile since I made a ferment - almost a year... My body asked me to cut one meal from my diet entirely and reduce my intake of salt as well as of fruit... so I've been slowly eating my way through my large stockpile of ferments...  I'm making this one because I don't have any of my breakfast, which has now become brunch... complete protein ferments left (one that includes both grain & legumes)... I've reduced the salt and used less water to soak the beans and oats for this one too... We'll see how that works...  It will still be some time before I do another ferment, as I still have quite a few from my previous batches left to eat...

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... I  also soaked the oat groats over night... The oat mix was then soft enough to use without needing to be cooked. Like I did for my last ferment like this,  I used my food processor to chop the 3 beets as well as the beans ....It seems  I can omit cooking entirely...  I then mixed everything together, filling 6 liter mason jars packed firmly to the shoulder...  I

This mix fermented unbelievable quickly!!!  I left them to rest covered on top of my hot water heater  for only a day...  when they exploded out of their jars and just pressing them back down didn't arrest their speed... so I moved them to the fridge, with a tray underneath in case even the colder environment didn't slow them down sufficiently.  Here they can stabilize and be eaten... later...  As an aside... the amount of salt tastes MUCH better for me now and there was no shortage of liquid in the mix for the initial ferment, but I did need to add a little water to each jar after they'd been fermenting for about a month...

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 covered 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 for saltiness, but I would definitely 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...