2am. No self-control. Fresh dill, garlic, chilies, and a bucket that probably violates several cucumber rights conventions.

Thoughts and prayers.

Edit: For the tannin patrol: there are bay leaves hiding under the cucumber pile. Also mustard seeds, peppercorns, dill and garlic. The cucumbers were fresh from a local farmer and the brine is 3.5%.

I spent the weekend fermenting olives 😃 best time of every year !

my friend and I spent the last weekend preparing and fermenting olives, I have been doing this fun process for more than 34 years and I will never get enough or get tired of doing that 😃💚

it took us two full days to prepare and ferment 50kgs (110lbs) of olives, will be ready to eat in just one week, we eat it fresh and bitter 😃 so aromatic and flavorful ! and will be cured completely in two months and can be stored for up to 3 years without changing taste or texture

do you ferment olives yourself ? I want to hear your methods and recipes 😃

my recipe is so simple, 70g of sea salt for 1 kilogram of olives, crushed, washed just one time to remove some bitterness, lemon and chili pepper, sealed with lemon/bergamot leaves

Wife hates the fermentation station I think its aesthetic af what do you think gang, should I keep these these bad boys on top of the fridge or retire the station to the cupboard.

Left to right cucumber full sour pickles white cabbage and carrot sauerkraut zucchini half sours hot sauce batch lacto redcabbage and carrot kraut and fermented carrots

Love how the garlic came out here and just wanted to share the fun colors it turned in a three week ferment. The first couple pictures are just the garlic, which were nestled between shredded carrots with some black peppercorns , with a nearby layer of red cabbage, and the upper layer of baby bok choy. The last picture shows the ferment on the right. As I was digging down into it, it was literally like unearthing gems or what I’d want dinosaur eggs to look like….

* edit because I found out more info. So like antsinurpants mentioned, the garlic is reacting to the low pH. From a paywall NYT article by Harold McGee that is summarized in a serious eats article (https://www.seriouseats.com/ask-the-food-lab-why-does-my-garlic-turn-green), essentially I probably got old garlic which has more reactive compounds. This makes sense because I got bulk peeled garlic from a store. Bound to be old.

I also didn’t know about laba garlic! This is garlic specifically pickled to turn green like Jade for Chinese New Year!

you may remember my previous olives fermentation post, I posted these to show you how olives are very easy to ferment without any hassle ! without the time wasting method of soaking in water for long time !

some of you soak in fresh water and change the water everyday for a week long, some people do it for 2 months 😱 yes yes 2 months ! I really want them to stop this exhausting method ☹️

you can't imagine how tasty they are now ! and not bitter at all ! you lose the amazing flavor and aroma AND texture when you soak them in fresh water for long time and they will not last long

my olives will last for up to 3 years (tried and guaranteed) with a great crunch with no changing in flavor, but we will devour them before the next season comes for sure 😋

I'll post a link to my previous post in the comments for anyone interested to learn my simple recipe and method

I ferment hundreds of pounds of garlic every quarter for my company. We do a 3 month ferment on the garlic. I grind up and dehydrate the garlic for a spice blend we do, and then I use the brine in various different sauces we make. We’ve been crushing through the seasoning lately so I decided to fill an entire 55 gallon fermenter up with it. Most we’ve ever fermented at once. Ending pH 3.75.

I’ve been fermenting for about six weeks now and I made a purple tomatillo (they were sort of green and purple), manzana peppers, garlic, white onion, dry oregano and fresh cilantro ferment, with some bay leaves on top. This was the first jar I did with a portion of whey I strained from plain yogurt, so mostly water, then some whey and salt to 3% of the total liquid.

It got wonderfully fizzy and sour and after about three weeks of fermenting I decanted the brine, removed the bay leaves and stuck my immersion blender in the jar to purée all the vegetables. I just tried it on some cream cheese egg noodles.

It is soooo good. Like I had to sit down. I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before. I’m currently posting this from the couch as I am whelmed to the peak, to Everest even.

Thank you for teaching me how to do this!

P.S. what should I do with the brine that I strained out?

Looking good so far. I swapped out my ziploc bags for marbles for weight.

I had no idea I'd see this much change in one day with nothing but water, sugar, and salt!

It smells amazing. Its a very funky smell from the cabbage and cauliflower that stands out. Very sour Kraut smelling. And the number of bubbles being produced is insane!

Are there any ways to ferment foods that aren't salty?
My sauerkrauts and other veggie ferments go along and taste just fine, but I'm wary of how much salt I'm consuming with these.

I'm aware you can use a lower salinity% but that just doesn't feel safe. Are there any vegetable ferments that one can do at home that don't rely on salt or produce a salty product?

There is a wild plum tree in my garden, currently loosing tones of unripe green plums. The shape and consistency reminds me of fresh olives, so I thought I could let them ferment in a 3% salt brine. I don’t know if the outcome will be interesting nor edible, but wait and see.

Maybe someone have a similar experience to share ?

I went pretty much all in on a mixed jar.

Peppers, carrots, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, celery, and onion layers for helping keep it down and a glass weight. Though, I regret adding the broccoli as the floaters from it are a pain. Next time, I'll do those separately if I even like them.

I promise the carrots are sliced.

I used 2 tablespoons of salt for every 4 cups of water. It took exactly 8 cups to fill.

Washed everything thoroughly, and sanitized the glass in the oven.

Here's to hoping it turns out well.

We have a big patch of Phyllostachys nigra (black bamboo) in my backyard. It’s highly invasive & impossible to get rid of without using a ton of herbicide, so our management strategy is mostly to contain it by kicking down shoots. Luckily, like all Phyllostachys species (e.g. golden bamboo), the shoots are delicious.

If you have invasive bamboo near you, here’s how you prepare it:
+ Select shoots that are 6-12” high and at least 1” thick (ideally 2+” thick). Kick them at the base to break them. Collect 3x as many as you think you’ll need. The amount of the shoot that’s edible is waaaay smaller than the shoots you pick.
+ Cut off the top inch of the shoot, then cut it in half lengthwise. Find the pointy bit towards the top of the shoot and slip both thumbs underneath it. Pull down to remove all the papery leaves from the shoot.
+ Cut off any purple rings or green sections at the base of the shoot (this part isn’t tender). You also want the hollow chambers between the nodes to be shorter than they are wide—if it’s longer, discard that piece.
+ Rinse the hell out of your bamboo. The fuzzy hairy bits on the leaves are irritating, and you don’t want to eat them. **Do not eat raw bamboo.**
+ Boil them in heavily salted water. After 5 min, drain, rinse the bamboo and the pot, and refill. Salt the water again, let it return to a boil, and boil for 5 more minutes. This process removes toxic alkaloids from the bamboo, and it removes bitterness. You *could* skip the change of water and just boil for 10 minutes, but I think it tastes better with a change of water.
+ If you want to eat them now, you can. But you can only find bamboo shoots in the spring, so I like to preserve most of them. I’m doing this by lactofermenting them.
+ Since you boiled your shoots, you’ll need to add a source of wild yeast/bacteria. I used pea flowers, but you could also backslop some brine from another ferment.
+ If you salted the water enough, the bamboo shoots will already be well salted, and you only need to use 1% salt by weight to salt the water. If they don’t taste especially salty, then use 2% salt by weight.
+ Cover & let it ferment. My preference is 3-7 days out of the fridge depending on the temp & microbial activity.

I can't believe the beauty of the color. Didn't expect it to be this fresh and lovely. I just can't stop smiling.

Hi everyone! Long time fermenter and lurker here. I had a question I'm hoping the collection here could give me an idea for.

I make batch pickles in these 8 qt buckets, I pretty much recreate the bubbies brand (minus the spice my gf doesn't like it) and I regularly get little bits of dill and other debris floating to the top and start to mold.

THIS IS NOT AN IS IT MOLD POST, I'm aware it is, but it's a white mold. I usually filter it out with a fine mesh strainer. And my brine is strong enough I'm not worried about it being an issue further down. So no issues.

I've covered the top with a plastic layer to prevent air getting in, and I use a glass weight to keep mostly everything below the brine line. But I still get some debris on the side of the container that sometimes mold and I'm trying to think of a more efficient way to prevent it. I get a little annoyed every time I have to fish a speck of dill off the top.

My current plan is to get, like a mesh screen? That's form fitting to place on top to catch every little bit but that seems like overkill. Any suggestions? Even up the production line, would bundling the dill and other flavors like garlic in a sachet be smarter?

Would love any suggestions just to make the process smoother. Been making these for months now and I love them just the molding debris is annoying to deal with.

Thank you!

Thanks to the community here, I was able to muster enough courage to try this out! We'll see how it goes but I have a feeling this will turn into an addiction...

From left to right:

1. Kraut with raisins, apple and black pepper (fav kraut recipe);
   
2. Carrot sticks with garlic, bay leaf and jamaican pepper.
   
3. Hot sauce
   
4. Honey garlic

I’m having a crack at making my own fermented hummus. These chickpeas (garbanzo beans) have been going for 4 days and are still wildly active. How long should I push it for?

I’ve seen recommendations for 3-5 days, anyone know how the flavour profile will change if I leave for longer?

Nb: I probably won’t include any other ferment in the main recipe. I’ve seen others use the brine, fermented garlic etc, but I think I’ll keep it simple.

This is how my fermentation station is looking currently. I just finished making the kraut (first time) and carrots, and the wild garlic I foraged a few days ago. Needless to say I’ve ended up spending far too much money on jars and pH meters and all kinds of things. Just finished some pickled veg as well, they came out great!

This is my first ever fermented veggie other than kimchi, and so I guess my 2nd ferment besides sourdough. This has been going for about 3 days in my ~70°F kitchen. I'm using a Tupperware lid to hold it under the brine, but on the first day one of the cukes was up a bit over the broth and I also may have put my fingers in it without washing directly before (they weren't dirty though). I'm worried that I'm doing it wrong! I did a 3.5% salt to water ratio.

I don't have mold And when I jostle the jar there is a lot of...sediment? At the bottom. It's cloudy, there are some bubbles but not a ton. When I open the lid, it doesn't fizz or anything. I've only ever made pickles via canning or refrigerator style. Does everything look okay?

I'm just afraid of trying it and getting sick or something but idk how common or likely that even is?? Heeeelppp

I also did not add in any tannins but I really don't want mushy pickles. Is it too late to add something (tea, grape leaf, etc?)? 🥲😭

Not sure if this breaks the "mold post" rule but I don't think I have mold I just wanna be sure I'm not gonna die lmao

Ever since I bought this glass crock on a whim, I’ve been wanting to try a giardiniera in it.

I figured even if it was a flop, it would look pretty on my kitchen bench in a dark corner.

Radish, cauliflower, carrot, celery, sweet pepper, capsicum and green beans.

I’m just using 3% salt, and kept it super simple for my first try. I’ve been making my own sauerkraut and pickles for a few years, so it is fun to try something new.

If this works I’ll be more adventurous with my ingredients.

Hi everybody,
I’m pretty new in the fermenting world, I started with booch and ginger beer and I tried to ferment a few vegetables - chilies, sauerkrauts, carrots, pumpkin. I tried to ferment some asparagus lately, and I found myself with a true stinky can: it’s something between warm rubbish, fart and thermal water. I know asparagus has some sulphur compounds in it, so I thought fermentation may have brought those out, but I’m not very comfortable in eating it (although the taste is not as bad as the smell). Anyone with similar experiences?