Lifting cucumber vines, anticipating the first crunchy fruits.
Eyeing the peppers for any signs of color change.
Snapping off the first tight heads of broccoli.
I'm trying peas first, using the recommended salt ratio of 1 pound for every 5 pounds of vegetables. But this really does taste a bit too salty to me, and the bubbling fermentation process has not started yet on the third day, so I'm going to add more peas. As you can read in the link above, the salt slows the fermentation process, and fermentation can be achieved with very little salt. But the less salt you use, the more risk of surface mold. The most important part of fermenting is to keep the vegetables well submerged below the brine. Some vegetables will produce their own brine, such as shredded and packed cabbage. The salted peas did produce some brine, but not enough to cover, so I added brine to the recommended proportion of 1/4 lb salt to a gallon of water.
The peas in their brine are covered with a clean towel, weighted with a plate and mason jar full of water. There's an inch of brine covering the peas.
I'll also be doing a dill and garlic cucumber crock, lacto-fermented pickles are crisp and wonderfully sour, compared to the limp boiled variety.
3 comments:
We *love* our fermented veggies around here. If you don't have a copy of Sandor Katz's "Wild Fermentation" yet I highly recommend it!!
I just made fermented dilly beans for the first time and they are SO good and it is only day 2. I followed One Busy Mom's instructions...so easy and there is much less salt. Her blog is on my side bar if you want to check it out.
Pampered Mom, I've come across that name a few times doing research on lacto-fermenting. I have gotten some great information from the "Wild Fermentation" website and Forum (on my sidebar under websites).
Country Girl, I've filled up my allowance of jars for canned green beans, and there's still plenty more left on the plants than we can eat, so I'll have to give that dilly bean recipe a try, sounds great.
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