Three very delightful things today:

The beetroot kvass is tangy, lively and very lovely. It always surprises me, because there is a difference in taste from the taste before bottling and refrigerating, and after it has been in the fridge for a while. Being in a closed container it gains some effervescence that is beautifully lively on the tongue. The taste somehow changes too. Divine. #fermenting

The makrut lime pickle that I made recently is SO VERY GOOD. I had it with some scrambled chilli tofu this morning. Excellent.

I was out watering the garden as the weather is heating up over the next couple of days, and poked my nose into the tulsi bushes to check for bees. Only 1 bee at that late hour, but busy, diligently collecting the pollen. I think she didn't make her required quota for the day, and had to work late.

Back to the beetroot kvass which has been fermenting for 6 days....

One jar has ginger with the beetroot, and one has fennel, cumin and other seeds.

The one with ginger had a slow fermentation start (due to ginger) but the seed one was bubbling away well within a day.

I tasted them today, and they are very close. I might bottle them today, or maybe tomorrow morning. The 6 days is close to #KirstenShockey's recommendations for US weather (it is winter here), and double the time it takes in our Summer.

The taste of both is less beetrooty than other batches, as I used less beetroot. But still lovely. I now know I can just use what beets I have on hand and it will still produce good product.

The one with the seeds is sweeter than the one with ginger. Both taste "alive" which is what I look for in beetroot kvass, not "flat".

Very pleased with it. I think I will leave them 1 more day (decided while writing this) then bottle and refrigerate.

I finally tore out my tomato plants this week and I'm using the last few green tomatoes and some homegrown chillies to make a lactofermented salsa.

Everything from the garden is diced along with some onion, garlic and some vine leaves I liberated from a neighbours garden. I'll let it bubble away for two or three weeks and see how they go.

He probado la masa madre y está rica. Lo primero que he notado es la acidez del ácido láctico, pero después aparece el sabor de la levadura, que realmente me ha recordado a la cerveza.
Esto va bien. A ver si el domingo me lío la manta a la cabeza y hago el primer intento de pan.
#fermenting #masaMadre #sourdough

Cookbook browsing today....

Fermented Vegetables, 10th Anniversary Edition, by Kirsten Shockey.

An excellent addition to any fermentation book collection.... always a pleasure and inspiring to browse.

What cookbook will you be browsing this weekend?

Worst grapes ever!

Some of the doomsday prepping I undertook in 2020 appears to have come good: here's our first harvest of olives. I would have liked to leave them on the tree longer, but the king parrots had other ideas.

Started another jar of home-grown garlic fermenting in our bees' glorious honey. The first jar disappeared very quickly! Delicious on sauteed mushrooms or drizzled on steamed brocollini.
#Beekeeping #Fermenting

Ha tardado, pero al fin está rezumando. Y yo que pensaba que había dejado suficiente espacio.
Me viene un poco mal porque justo hoy me voy de viaje y no tengo intención de llevármelo. Lo pondré sobre un plato y que haga lo que quiera.
#chucrut #sauerkraut #fermenting #rezumanding

do I have mutuals who have built or used a fermenter from domingoclub? I want to get in touch! #fermenting

Getting in a quick check of the ferments.

10th day for Okra - crisp, lost a little of its "fresh" taste, garlic is more prominent, and little more funky-fermented. Like a mature ferment now. I refrigerated it - a good benchmark for okra - 9 days for fresh and crisp, 10 days for mature and more prominent flavours.

Vinegar-in-the-making is on day 31 - it is now SOUR and TART, like real vinegar - a surprise when I tasted it. Another 3'ish weeks until it is "shelf-ready", whatever that means.

Quite happy with progress.

Este es el aspecto de mi masa madre tras 36 horas de fermentación (anoche se me olvidó refrescarla ). Creo que tiene buena pinta, pero no me convence su olor. No sé explicar a qué huele, pero no es lo que yo esperaba. ¿Alguien escapaz de describir a qué tiene que oler?
#masaMadre #fermenting #sourdough

So an update on the #fermenting bits.

https://aus.social/@LifeTimeCooking/114289077925097396

I have to post a link because mastoAU has suddenly restricted its posts to 500 char. Does not work for my food and garden posts.

So an update on the #fermenting bits.

The okra is going ok, ...... sort of. I am very curious about it. First, even tho I used unfiltered water it has been fermenting, so that is good. It is the second ferment where I accidentally didn't use filtered water and both are good.

But I noticed some of the slime came out into the brine. Very interesting. It looks less slimy now than it did, and I might take an okra out tomorrow and inspect. It has to be ready as there is no way the okra will not float once I remove one, and I am not faffing around trying to find a way to keep them under the brine in that small jar.

They do *look* good tho.

Vinegar-in-making is still doing its thing. It still tastes like sweet vinegar. Weeks to go yet.

I bought some nice, proper bottles with those metal-attached tops - ... clip lids ... for the vinegar when it finishes. Quite cute. I used one and transferred the Hawaiian Chilli Water into it, as it has a smaller top. Presumably I won't pour too much of it on my food now. It does look cute in the bottle tho.

I use the Hawaiian Chilli Water and also the Fermented Blender Rinsing Water from when I made a chilli paste quite a bit. Delicious drizzled over almost anything, and into rice with some herbs. Funky and spicy.

Considering another ferment for when the okra is finished. I read that fermented eggplant is #ChefKiss

Je suis une magicienne : j'ai récolté une tonne d'ail des ours, et je l'ai faite retnrer dans un bocal de 750mL . En route pour la lactofermentation, j'ai aussi mis quelques boutons de fleurs d'ail.

I'm a wizard , I can fit a ton of wild garlic leaves in a 750mL jar ! #fermenting now, with some flower buds too.