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...