Fermentation Experimentation

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Last Thursday, I attended a workshop on Fermentation held by the UC Cooperative Extension Master Preserver group. https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=29209

I learned a lot about household fermentation practices and sampled some delicious kim chi recipes as well as taste tested several ginger kombuchas.

They sent us home with our own bag of raw kim chi to ferment, an informative booklet, and a bonus SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast) to start our own kombucha!

I made a 2 gallon batch in my lemonade dispenser so as to hopefully do the ongoing batch method, ie, draining 80% of the first fermentation in 7-14 days, then feeding the SCOBY new sweetened tea.

The kim chi completes its fermentation rapidly, just 1-3 days. I plan on whipping up some fried rice and salmon to go with it tonight.

Additionally, I am making my second attempt at fermenting Moroccan Preserved Lemons. They are supposed to be quite the luxurious delicacy. I sectioned about a dozen lemons, drenched them with plain salt, and fist pumped them into a giant pickle jar. As they macerated in the salt, brine came up midway. I punched them down again this morning, and topped off with more salt and lemon juice. The scoop is, that if I upend the jar daily and keep it in a cool, dqrk place, I will have a mindblowing condiment in about a month.

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Speaking of lemons, tis the season of overabundance that beautifully coincides with renewed egg laying time for the hens! Above, I put up 5 pints of Lemon Curd incorporating 8 whole eggs and 8 yolks! Whew, glad to preserve the oval goodness in its prime!

Have you ever done any fermentation or put up your own preserves?

Love,cat
@creationofcare

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Excellent review @creationofcare, we preserve cucumbers and tomatoes in the summer, and also make jam from many berries for the winter!

Very nice! I ate all my tomatoes and cucumbers before I could preserve them. But I did make wild blackberries jam for Christmas gifts! Cheers and thanks!

looks sooo good! I am a complete addict to kimchi, use it in almost every meal! And kombucha is great too!
Those lemonds sounds great, I wish I was in a lemon growing area of the world!
The egg thing sounds interesting, never heard of that before! How does that become? Fermented eggs sounds a bit scary, as it makes me get scared of rotten eggs ;) But maybe it's good? Heard about salted fermented egg yolks..

Thanks! I was unclear about the eggs. Those went into 5 pints of Lemon Curd, which is lemon juice and zest cooked with sugar, butter, and eggs. It is like the filling in a lemon pie, nomz!

wow, that sounds so good! :D

Thanks, I like to give it as gifts too :)

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Wow, thanks so much!!!!

I used to make Kombucha but stopped. I try to get any added sugar out of my life :) And the sugar stays sugar - sadly....

S'truth you're right. Still. It beats soda etc

That is for sure!! i don't drink Soda - maybe a couple of times a year LOL Water is my favorite beverage - and coffee. Followed by herbal tea. that pretty much sums it up. No alcohol, juice only if fresh, green smoothies in the summer.
I made kombucha for quite a long time and let it ferment pretty far to almost vinegar. But I gave it up because of the sugar. Don't want to end up with diabetes like my parents and brothers...

I used to brew beer and my son made kombucha. I believe fermented food and drinks have a lot to offer for our health.

Hubby also used to brew. Trying to acclimate to the gross scoby lol!!!