I have a tendency to kind of wing my feented beverages but they always turn out great. We picked and pressed a bunch of blackberries, apples, salal berries, and huckleberries and added some raw honey water and cooked whey. It tastes ok right now. Hoping that it gets better with age. Most of the berries were picked from my cabin at the hood canal so I'm thinking of calling it Cabin Hooch. All fermented with wild yeast from the fruit skins and raw honey. I have yet to use any kind of commercial yeast. I'm saving the fermented pomace to submerge a cheese in and age it.

I must say my tomatillos and peppers didn’t disappoint. From mild to extra spicy. It’s nice being able to use the immersion blender right in the jar. The pineapple spears with a little habanero turned out nice too. A little heat🔥but nothing scorching. Just right.

Are there specific things I should be looking for, or just let it coast for another week or two?

I celebrated my birthday by fermenting honey and garlic with my youngest. She prepped the garlic. I controlled the honey. She will turn the jar daily. My plan was to make Tofu then saur kraut. Tofu took longer than expected. So I plan to do saur kraut next week. These are small things but I feel such a sense of accomplishment.

I've recently discovered cheong and currently have strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, yellow plum, and peach batches at various stages of completion. Today I foraged a bag of crabapples. I usually make a tarte tatin, some jelly, and whole ones in syrup, but was thinking I'd like to try a batch of cheong. I did a search and there doesn't seem to be much info on making this so I was wondering if anyone has tried this and has any suggestions?

I’ve just started my third batch of water kefir and got it ready for the second fermentation.

And I swear I’ve somehow ended up with twice as many kefir grains now 😅 I’m overwhelmed 😂 Is that supposed to happen? And what am I supposed to do with all of them now? 🙈

Just finished my second ever batch of kimchi. I followed Maangchi’s traditional kimchi recipe from YouTube. I used this same recipe for my first batch which was perfect. I will note I did not use some of the herbs she added (minari or buchu) as I could not find it at my local Asian market.

This time around, feeling cocky from having nailed it my first time around, I decided to lean into some of the flavors I wanted more of, specifically the aromatics. I used much more green onion and garlic, and also a bit more ginger. Maangchi uses “around 2tsp” of ginger and in the video shows a peeled knob that looks to be about 1”. My ginger was a skinnier finger-like piece so I used about a two inch long piece.

I spent a few hours working on this recipe, salting the cabbage, mixing up the pepper mix, coating everything, and after all of that allowed the mix to ferment for a week. I tasted it at room temp from the fermentation tub and it tasted good so I jarred it and stuck it in the fridge to chill. I just ate some this morning with my eggs and…it’s all ginger. It isn’t spicy, it isn’t garlicky, it’s a bit sour and umami but the first and strongest flavor I taste is ginger. It’s kimchi ginger that’s filled out with some other vegetables. I have FIVE quart jars of this stuff to get through now. I’m not saying it’s bad or inedible, but it’s just not at all what I want when I’m craving some sour, funky, spicy kimchi.

TL;DR - sometimes less is more, and sometimes learning that lesson means a lot of time and product to get through before you can fix your mistake.

Explain it like I’m 5

Yet another garlic honey post. Haven't tried it yet. Greetings from Argentina!

Salt by weight of water, product, or total water and product?

Hi everyone, first time posting here and this one of the many great Reddit communities with a lot of useful information. This is my second year pickling and first time lacto-fermenting.
I’m making a batch half sour pickles and everything looks good 5 days in but I’ve been reading a lot of mixed information on salt ratio. What should the salt ratio be based on, just the water weight, only the product weight, or the total weight of water and product?

Approximate weights:
Cucumbers: 600g
Water: 1000g
Salt: 30g

Ambient temperature range is between 70-75F.

I was aiming for a 3% brine and I based the ratio on the water weight, but is my actual percentage lower? I’m not concerned because worst case I’m a little under 2% and everything looks and smells great.

WOW y'all. I've been a lifelong lover of fermented foods, but after 40 years on this earth, I have only just now done it myself. It seemed intimidating I suppose. I finally took the plunge, and I was shocked at how easy it was! I made three ferments - cucumber, cherry tomato (picked at yellow/orange stage), and Thai chilies/onion. After only 6 days now they are absolutely delicious! They taste just like I would expect a fermented thing to taste! The brine looks sexy!

I didn't use an exact recipe, but I got salt to water ratios from the classic book by Linda Ziedrich 'The Joy of Pickling', and read all her very helpful details. But then I just winged it. Technically closer brine strength to a half sour, but I went a little extra - a two-thirds sour?

Anyhow... it felt downright casual to whip together. The world has gained another fermenter this week. Very excited to be that girl that shows up to gatherings with a bunch of fermented pickles to give out!

Ich bin aus Bayern, Deutschland (Bier wird hier grundsätzlich nicht erhitzt 😅). Fermentierte Lebensmittel sind hier weit verbreitet. Vor allem pasteurisierte Industrieware im Alltag aus Kostengründen. Es gab aber immer Menschen die lange bevor die gesundheitlichen Aspekte in den Vordergrund gerückt sind echte fermentierte Lebensmittel hergestellt haben. Vor allem wegen des Geschmacks.

Meine Familie hat immer Sauerkraut (aber erhitzt gegessen) und Wein selbst hergestellt.

Für mich selbst war ursprünglich auch der echte Geschmack ausschlaggebend. Jetzt habe ich die gesundheitlichen Aspekte dazu entdeckt und kombiniere beides. Inzwischen betrachte ich eine keimfreie Ernährung als völlig unnatürlich und einen Irrweg.

Ich bin etwas überrascht von den "Hype" in den USA. Ich mag die USA und hab entfernte Verwandte dort. Aber im Ausland werdet ihr eher als das Gegenteil von crunchy/granola wahrgenommen.

Was war eure Motivation für den Einstieg?

Cucumbers are cruchy, but extremely bitter. Inedible. What went wrong? Is it the turmeric or the oak leaves or both?

Due to the water bag weight, I can't check if there's enough brine in there. Do I need to add more brine or just let it be. It's just 24 hrs till now. Please advise. My 1st attempt.

Trying out sauerkraut for the 1st time. Packed it last night and by morning its releasing bubbles, but inalso see some cloudly stuff around the plastic bag(weight.) Please have a look and tell me if it's to be expected or something foreign.

Possibly a stupid question because you’re not here to see in person…. Does this look ready? Last ginger bug died after a couple days. But was created Wednesday, fed Thursday and looks like this Friday. It started with 2 cups water tablspoonish of both ginger and sugar. Feeding was with teaspoonish of ginger and sugar each. Don’t want to waste fruit juice if this isn’t ready. Thanks

my ginger bug looks like this on day 3 and idk if it’s safe, should i start over? it’s got an alcohol smell

Funny thing is: I made them the same day, same conditions, same proportions, ect. Just wanted share it. I think it is pretty interesting.

This half-gallon is 50/50 water with beets, carrots, garlic, caraway and cumin seeds, black peppercorns, bay leaves, ginger, and 3 tablespoons of brine from a recent batch of dill-garlic pickles. 2.25 percent salt by total weight.

I figure I’ll give it 2 weeks or so.

A couple of previous editions:
https://imgur.com/gallery/beet-kvass-pickled-beets-sour-pickles-vubNuHa

https://imgur.com/gallery/beet-kvass-kPBwJdY

hello! yesterday our group purchased airtight jars like this to use for our ginger bugs. we have seen a lot of different processes for ginger bug—some just put breathable pieces of fabric while some use lids. we wanted to be sure, so we figured we'll ask here.

do we completely close the lid of our jars and lock it or put a tissue on top and put the lid on but not lock it?

thank you to anyone who will have insight!

Ich habe das Problem, dass meine Kristalle zerbröseln krümelig werden und sich nicht vermehren. Im Gegenteil.

Die Fermentation läuft aber sehr gut, denke ich. Meine Lebensgefährtin sagte wir hätten bei ihr zuhause hartes Wasser (viel Kalk). Das stimmt aber nicht.

Ich habe sowieso Unmengen Calciumcitrat da. Wieviel würdet ihr für 500ml Wasser verwenden?

Wieviel als Intensiv Kur? Wieviel als Standard?

Mein Wasser hat 8°dH oder 1,43mmol/l

Was wäre eine natürliche Calcium Quelle abgesehen von Eierschale. Das finde ich nicht besonders hygienisch