Red Cabbage, Rhubarb & Cucumber Lacto-ferment - Made Nov 6/21

 

- most of a head of red cabbage (about 6" in diameter) chopped finely

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

- 20 med/small apples cored and chopped (about 5 cups)

- 1 1/2 cups of frozen chopped tree spinach leaves

- 1 med./large onion chopped

- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- approx. 2 cups of chopped frozen rhubarb

 2 1/2 Tbsp. Himalayan pink salt plus 1/8 tsp. sprinkled on the top of each jar

I mixed everything together except the cabbage and then  for ease of further mixing I transferred 1/2 of the mixture to my second large glass bowl and then added the cabbage in equal proportions to both bowls... After stirring everything well, I put the contents of both bowls into one and then transferred the mixture to 4 liter  mason jars, firmly packed to the shoulder.  After filling the jars I sprinkled the extra 1/8 tsp of salt on top of each jar.  I think they may ferment slowly as they start their fermenting process already quite cold from all the frozen ingredients and this is a precaution to keep mold from forming...  However, they only spent 4 days covered in front of one of my rads (my "warm" cupboard over my stove is no longer SO warm) so my precaution was probably unnecessary...  At this point it was clear they were fermenting well so I moved them to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten...

Note: I pick the apples from a local tree that I don't think has ever been sprayed.  They are a little on the sour side so most people don't like them.  Consequently I think I'm the only one who gathers apples from this tree and I've been taking them for almost 10 years now... They are usually VERY good; tart and crisp with just a few bruises here and there and I'm usually able to keep them in my COLD bedroom until April or May of the following year.  However, this year worms have invaded.  There's A LOT of waste and as many of them are already starting to get soft, I'm not at all sure I'm going to be able to keep them like I have in the past. I've cored and quartered about 6 large bags full and put them in my freezer.  These won't be crisp, but they're still fine for cooking or fermenting and I'm using the rest in all my meals and ferments as quickly as I can...salvaging the edible parts starting with the worst looking apples so they don't lie around for long...  as a result they're in this ferment too... and the quantity is just what I would normally get from about  20 med./small apples...

However, this has taught me something about worms and apples... Until now I felt like worms weren't so serious.  I'd always been able to cut out wormy parts while still leaving a fair amount of good eating apple behind...  This has NOT been my experience this year.  Also, even though the tree I collect from isn't sprayed the damage has been slight. There were only a few wormy apples and I could deal with a few.  I also didn't realize the impart worms can have on an apple's storage keeping ability. It's clear I need to address this issue with my own small apple trees.  They're still too young to produce fruit, but I need to start thinking about how I can mitigate the potential damage... I know I do NOT want to spray!!! So I'll need to investigate alternatives...

Zucchini, Chard Stems and Apple Lacto Ferment - Made Oct 3/21

- 1 large zip-lock bag of frozen zucchini chopped

- 1 large zip-lock bag of frozen chopped chard stems

- 2 med. carrots coarsely grated

- 1  med./large onion finely diced

- 2 cloves of garlic minced

- 20 small/med. "wild" apples cored and chopped

- 30 fresh sorrel leaves chopped

- 6 smallish leaves of green cabbage finely chopped

- 2 1/2 Tbsps Himalayan pink sea salt

I mixed everything together, then firmly packed it into 4 liter mason jars.  However, these were filled a little high (just above the shoulder) so I scooped out a large spoonful out of each jar and added this to a 125 ml. jar, filling it to about 1" from the rim... The other jars are now filled just to the shoulder, which should leave enough expansion room... I left them in my warm cupboard over my stove for about a week...  These fermented differently... Two of the jars fermented more quickly and were moved to the fridge before the week was up, but the other two were slower and were moved a little after a week.. The small jars always seem to ferment slower, so it was moved last.    They spent a little longer in the cupboard than usual.  I think because they started off SO cold and the weather is no longer hot, so the cupboard isn't quite so warm either... and  warmth REALLY makes a BIG difference!

Bean Lacto-Ferment - Made Sept. 17/21

 

- 1 1/4 cups dried black turtle beans cooked

- 1 1/4 cups dried adzuki beans cooked

- 4 small pieces of kombu seaweed (approx. 1 1/2" square) crumbled

- 1 leek green & white parts chopped

- 2 cloves of garlic minced

- 5 stalks of celery chopped
- 1 large red beet coarsely grated
- 1 leaf of horseradish chopped finely

- 30 leaves of fresh sorrel chopped finely

- 10 "wild" apples cored and chopped

- 3 large leaves of green cabbage finely chopped

- 2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. Himalayan pink salt 

I added the beans to boiling water, cooking them until they were tender (about 2 1/2 hours).   Again this time I did not cook the kombu with the beans.  Instead it was mixed with the rest of the ingredients.  After mashing the beans with the water they'd cooked in,  I added this  paste to the rest of the ingredients, adding the cabbage last, after I'd mixed the other things together and the whole mixture was an even warm temperature (NOT hot)... I then packed it into four 1 liter mason jars  filled just above the shoulder.  They're a little full, but I think they'll be OK...   They weren't OK... after only a day and a half the mixture was exploding out of the jars... so I removed the excess, filling a 500 ml. jar a little more than half full... and then moved all of them to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten... 

Garlic Lacto-ferment - Made Sept. 11/21

 

- 10 Bulbs of Garlic - cloves peeled and coarsely chopped

- 1 leaf of  green cabbage chopped finely

- 1 1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt plus 1/4 tsp. added on top later

This is a another new thing for me... I usually add garlic to my ferments and often to my meals too,  However, I've had difficulty keeping the garlic I use for my meals, so I'm trying this... Maybe I will like this as well or better than fresh garlic... We'll see... I put the garlic in 2 batches into my Cuisinart "mini-prep" to make a fairly fine paste, like I do with my fermented ginger.  I then mixed it all together and packed it into one 750 ml jar,  firmly packed to a little less than 2" from the rim...   I could have used more garlic and filled the jar, but this is my first experimental try and I got tired peeling garlic cloves. Since it didn't fill the jar I could also have used slightly less salt, but this tastes just FINE so maybe this is the "right" amount of salt to use with garlic...I let it sit in my cupboard over my stove for 4 days before moving it to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten...  It isn't a lively ferment and since it is a paste the only sign of fermentation are bubbles appearing low down in the jar.  However, they are there and I expect to eat this slowly over a long time, so it's OK for it to ferment slowly.

After 2 days in my warm cupboard this is fermenting nicely... there are bubbles in the garlic paste and it has pushed up in the jar a little.  It is a beautiful light, spring green color from the cabbage leaf and it tastes VERY good, but not especially salty, so I think when I make this again I'll continue using a higher than normal amount of salt.  Like my ginger ferment, this is one I'm going to use slowly over a long time as the flavor is quite strong.  However, unlike the ginger there is NO extra water on top of the ferment to keep air away from the fermenting mixture.  Consequently, I've added a little less than 1/4 tsp. of salt sprinkled over the top as a precaution.... maybe unnecessary... but when I use it I'll take trom what is below and keep the extra salty part on top best I can and hopefully it will last a LONG time with no mold developing..  Since it is a VERY spicy paste, I intend to leave it in the warm cupboard for another day or two to make sure the bacterial culture is firmly established.

Onion & Leek Lacto-ferment - Made Sept 11/21 & again Sep 21/21

- 13 Med. onions diced

- 2 large leeks -  green & white parts chopped 

- the remainder of a green cabbage I've been using for awhile - about 3" in diameter chopped finely

- 2 Tbsp Himalayan pink salt

This is a new thing for me... Leeks and onions were both on sale so I have lots and I like both!  I usually add onions to my ferments and also to my meals,  Maybe I end up using this instead of the onions I cook with my meals... We'll see... I mixed it all together and then packed it into 3 liter mason jars and one 500 ml jar, all firmly packed to the shoulder...  These have fermented unbelievable quickly!!  They spent just over a day in the cupboard over my stove. At this point they were fermenting so well that they were threatening to overflow, so I moved them to the fridge  to stabilize and be eaten...

2nd Batch... made Sept. 21/21...

Although I haven't tested my 1st batch, I had more leeks than I could possibly use fresh and my freezers are too full to put more there, so I've done a 2nd batch...

- 6 med. onions diced

- 3 large leeks - green & white parts chopped

- 3 large leaves of green cabbage chopped finely

- 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp. Himalayan pink salt

I was guessing at the quantity and thought I'd have the same or a little more than before, so I used a little more salt.  However, I only had enough to fill 3 liter mason jars firmly packed to the shoulder.  Consequently this mix will be a little saltier than my last batch. This fermented VERY quickly... only lasting a day in my cupboard; so they are now resting comfortably in the fridge waiting to be eaten...

Cranberry, Celery, Leek & Apple Lacto-Ferment - Made Sept. 8/21

 

- a little less than 2 cups dried cranberries chopped coarsely

- 1 bag (340 g) of frozen cranberries sliced in two
- green & white parts of one leek chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 5 large stalks of celery chopped

- 2 meal sized pieces of frozen squash - skin finely grated and flesh chopped
- 10 med. "wild" apples cored and diced

- 25 leaves of sorrel chopped

- 2 Tbsp Himalayan pink salt

- 4 small leaves of green cabbage chopped finely

This uses the VERY last (I found one more small jar) of my dried cranberries sweetened with sugar...  I won't buy or use these again I'm SURE there's something added to them that prohibits fermentation and they are too sweet for me to use otherwise... This is the 3rd time I've used these. I've chosen ingredients that aren't very sweet to mix with them... We'll see how it works this time...  I've mixed everything together, making enough to fill 3 liter mason jars firmly packed to just below the shoulder ([plenty of expansion room if they need it). These spent 3 days in the warm cupboard over my stove.  At this time I could see they were fermenting well,so I moved them to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten.

Pepper, Celery, Apple & Leek Lacto-Ferment - Made Sept. 6/21

 

- 1 large bunch of celery chopped

-  green part of 1 large leek chopped

- 20 small/med. "wild" apples cored and chopped

- 8 sweet red, orange & yellow peppers chopped

- 2 cloves of garlic minced

- 14 sorrel leaves finely chopped

- 1 1/2 cups of frozen chopped rhubarb

- 4 leaves of green cabbage chopped finely

- 2 1/2 Tbsp Himalayan pink salt

I mixed everything together; then firmly packed it into 4 liter mason jars and one 500 ml jar, filled to the shoulder. These spent less than 2 days in my cupboard over my stove.  At this point I could see they were fermenting well, so I moved  them to the fridge to stabilize...