What's fermenting in your kitchen?

Jason Hernandez wrote:This thread reminds me of my epic fail as a Peace Corps volunteer in Namibia. While it lasted, I got to experience the traditional kefir made by the Herero tribe. Too bad I didn't get to stay long enough to learn how to make it.

I know some Dominican fermentation techniques, though. First and foremost, since I have my own cacao trees, I have to ferment the beans as part of the processing -- let them ferment, preferably in the sun, until the berry pulp is gone, then the fermented beans go to the roasting stage. I have not done coffee beans, but I am told they work the same way.

More interesting, though, is a folk remedy taught me by a retired professor in the village. He swears by it to maintain a healthy prostate. I would have to find my notebook with the exact recipe, but two of the most important ingredients are annatto berries and garlic, and of course the fermentation culture obtained from the previous batch. He uses it as a condiment on most of his food.

Hey Jason,  are you still on Permies?  You have lots of interesting ferments mentioned here.  like to know more.  

Kombucha is always brewing.   One gal in  the fridge for drinking. Two gal jars on the countertop at various stages of fementation .  Right now we are also eyeing our cabbage for Kraut.

I don’t have much going.  Just kombucha and sourdough.  The more I read the more I remembered.  I have some lemons in salt, and some vinegar… mostly ACV from local apples but if someone brings me wine and there’s leftovers, I pour that in the vinegar.

Except wait!  I just began reviving my kefir.  Last fall I didn’t have goats to milk, so I just left the jar in the frige, loosely covered.  I kept meaning to refresh or feed , but nope!  All the water had evaporated out of it and the flavor was too sharp for me, so I rinsed the milk solids and cream off - really, just today, and poured some milk in.  It may take a few feedings to wake it up, but I think it counts…
And I am inspired to do more when the local fruit and vegetables begin.

I saw there was one reply I gave 6 years ago. Since then I have done (and am doing) more fermenting.
- There's the water kefir. Some years ago a friend gave me a small jar of it to start with. Ever since then I have it going on, feeding it new water with sugar and dried apricots every other day, so I can have the probiotic drink it made (I mix in a little fruit syrup/cordial). When I go away for more than two days I put it in the fridge. It's easy to revive.
- There's garlic honey, made with the first garlic I harvested this season. It's only one small jar, so I'll only use it when I feel I really need it.
- Two jars of 'kimchi' (made without a recipe, using a mix of vegetables and spices) are in the fridge now, so the fermenting won't go on any longer.
- And I have lemon-with-salt. Although it's more salty, I think it's fermented. I use small bits (half teaspoon) of it in salads.

Milk kefir is forever going.  Natto was incubating over the gas stove pilot until last night.  Now it's in the fridge.  Totally subjective, but I feel better eating a serving every day prior to exercise.  I will also forever maintain that natto will head off nasty GI bugs before they really get started -I would like to see this studied. I have decades of strictly anecdotal data about this.

Robert Neville wrote:Milk kefir is forever going.  Natto was incubating over the gas stove pilot until last night.  Now it's in the fridge.  Totally subjective, but I feel better eating a serving every day prior to exercise.  I will also forever maintain that natto will head off nasty GI bugs before they really get started -I would like to see this studied. I have decades of strictly anecdotal data about this.

Hi!  Natto? - this is new for me. Of course I can google it, but anything you’d like to share?
 
I recently got the craziest good book on wild ferments but am traveling at the moment.  I ll share it over the weekend. I can’t wait to try out some of the ideas.  Everything from fermenting bark and weeds to more traditional ferments.

As for my home; I have kombucha in various stages, need to dig out my water kefir grains, recently killed a generously donated sourdough starter, some fermented apples, an ages old honey garlic mixture that’s turned black, but I used it over the winter with no ill effects (and used it due to ill effects, ironically) usually some onion in honey that I like to drizzle on toast.  I often ferment oatmeal on the counter if I’ve made too much and then after it’s nice and sour will add some flour and make a loaf of sorts. I have a cabbage that’s been waiting to become kimchi, and a pineapple to become tepache. I have a few fruit peel vinegars in my cupboard.  

It’s nice to make a list.  I was thinking I don’t ferment much but my list was longer than I realized.  

I’m so glad to see this thread revived! There were a lot of inspiring  things here.

R Overman wrote:

Hi!  Natto? - this is new for me. Of course I can google it, but anything you’d like to share?

Natto is a Japanese soybean ferment through a bacteria, bacillus subtilis.  It's quite the hardy, spore-forming bug.  It's my understanding it has survived trips to space unprotected against vacuum, absolute zero and cosmic radiation.  On earth, it can survive inoculation into my hot, pressure cooked soybeans to at least 140F, briefly anyway.  I seed some dry spores in a quart (dry volume) of such beans, stir in a couple tbsp brown sugar to give them a jump-start, cover in perforated foil and incubate over the pilot of my gas stove at roughly 105F for about 20 hours.  I'll crack the door to modulate the temp.  The result is an odd bean ferment with stringy strands of polysaccharide that trail off your utensil like stands of hot mozzarella.  Some object to that texture or to it's odor -which I don't find very objectionable in the homemade variety.  You can find dry spores for sale imported from Japan, or you can go to an Asian grocery and buy frozen natto in single-serve styrofoam packets that also work passably well to get your own batch going.  

A further interesting aside is that it was once used to treat dysentery and was under investigation for it's antimicrobial properties before the advent of modern antibiotics.  I've found it useful to have in my own personal pharmacopeia.