• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • r ranson
  • Timothy Norton
  • Jay Angler
stewards:
  • Andrés Bernal
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Anne Miller
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • M Ljin
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • thomas rubino

What can I use as a weight?

 
pollinator
Posts: 382
Location: 18° North, 97° West
140
kids trees books
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I want to try my hand at fermenting.
I live in a small town in southern Mexico and of course, there's delivery nearly everywhere on the planet now--but I'd like to use something local as my weight to hold the ferment below the brine rather than order online because 1) because that's the green thing to do and 2) this is my first foray into fermenting and I'm notorious at abandoning hobbies so it could also be my last.

If it depends on what I'm fermenting. There's a local red onion plus habanero pepper that is usually preserved in vinegar. My husband loves this so I thought I'd try a fermented version because we currently only rarely eat anything fermented and I'm looking to add some fermented foods into the family diet.

Can I use a rock? I assume it has to be something non-reactive, so not metal, and maybe not just any old kind of rock. I can find chunks of marble where I live that are about the size of the glass fermenting weights I saw on YouTube.  Would that work? I have a couple of very very small ceramic plates from Japan that will probably fit inside the mouth of a wide-mouth jar? But is that heavy enough? A shot glass? Is that wide enough to hold down the onion and pepper slices?

Feel free to jump in with any other bits of advice as well.
 
Steward of piddlers
Posts: 6649
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
3355
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
In an ideal world, you want something that is both non-reactive and not porous.

Unfortunately, a lot of stones like marble are in fact porous and could set you up for disaster.

A few suggestions as stand-in fermentation weights is listed here: https://culturesforhealth.com/blogs/learn/natural-fermentation-how-to-keep-fermented-vegetables-submerged#:~:text=Mini%20jelly%20jars%2C%20condiment%20dishes,to%20help%20keep%20vegetables%20submerged.

I'm kind of curious about the cabbage leaf technique. I might have to try it myself!
 
pollinator
Posts: 703
Location: Sierra Nevada Foothills, Zone 7b
155
dog forest garden fish fungi trees hunting books food preservation building wood heat homestead
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
When I ferment hot sauce I cut some of the long peppers in half or quarters, long ways and use them to wedge all the other material down so I can't pop out of the brine. So I use nothing. It works for that but it's totally dependent on the size of your jars and materials. Just know that it probably evaporates faster this way so you have to watch your liquid levels.

 
pollinator
Posts: 1202
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
527
6
urban books building solar rocket stoves ungarbage
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I think you have a good idea with the shot glass, but maybe a larger glass like a juice glass or tumbler would be a closer fit, or a smaller glass jar. You could add some small stones for added weight inside of it if it floats (water would also work, but might evaporate away!).
If you have to use a stone, maybe coating it completely in wax would seal it up.
 
pollinator
Posts: 1274
Location: Chicago
435
dog forest garden fish foraging urban cooking food preservation bike
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have used a smaller half-pint “jelly” jar filled with water as the weight for a larger wide-mouth jar. A large cabbage/fig/grape leaf under the weight keeps small bit from floating up.
 
Posts: 9817
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
2969
4
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I picked up some beautiful river worn stones on the beach at our local river once for using as weights...the surface of the white ones dissolved in my kraut!
We ate it anyway as I had washed and boiled the rocks first but I haven't used them since.

I had previously and now again after the rocks use a jar as mk describes and it works pretty well.  Sometimes some bits get past it and I just fish them out.

I would love the ceramic weights or even glass ones that I've seen for sale.
 
pollinator
Posts: 1109
Location: Greybull WY north central WY zone 4 bordering on 3
331
hugelkultur trees solar woodworking composting homestead
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have a couple of big slabs of quartz that would be my first rock  choices.  Basically total non pourous and chemically resistant.  Second choice would be to go hunt up a couple of large quartzite gravel pieces as it is widely available here and also mostly non pourous and chemically resistant.  Third choice would be a glass punch bowl upside down rolled to let the air out.
 
master gardener
Posts: 5293
Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods
2890
7
forest garden trees books chicken food preservation cooking fiber arts seed woodworking homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I used narrow jars in the mouth of a wider jar many times. I've also used rocks, boiled to kill microbes, but they etch as the lactic acid builds up. It wasn't a problem for me, but I could see some people not liking it, and it might prevent you from reaching as low a pH as you might otherwise. The cabbage leaf works fine as long as the produce under it isn't cut too tiny, causing a million floaters that are impossible to wrangle.
 
Melissa Ferrin
pollinator
Posts: 382
Location: 18° North, 97° West
140
kids trees books
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thank you you are brilliant!
I think I will try the shot glass--narrow jar--I have a few rather narrow jars olives came in that I think I can fit inside the mouth of the other jars. and I can put a stone inside if it seems like it needs a bit more weight.
 
pollinator
Posts: 5520
Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b
1523
  • Likes 8
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Well dang, in four hours everybody said everything I would have said and the problem is already solved! What a delightful collection of lovely lunatics we have here!  

So, a postscript anecdote: When I moved into a 1930s farmhouse in '94, I was puzzled by a small collection of clean, rounded field stones in the basement well room, which was also a fine cold room. Anyway I kept them -- sensing a mystery to be solved. It took me years to realize these were kraut stones that had probably been used for five decades. Together they would cover the surface of a large ceramic crock, fitting together perfectly. When I moved, I left the kraut stones for the new owner to figure out.
 
gardener
Posts: 5510
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio,Price Hill 45205
1162
forest garden trees urban
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have a left field answer for this, which has been percolating in the back of my mind for years.

A Calcium aluminate cement such as RapidSet CementAll is food safe, so you could cast any shape you want.
They are  however somewhat porous.
I think beeswax would fix that issue, but as long as your ferments are healthy,  I don't think  it should matter.
A fermentation weight infused with lacto bacillus seems like a good thing

 
Posts: 121
12
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
If you have them, the old ‘bail top’ mason jars use a glass lid that would make a decent weight.
 
Take me to the scene of the crime. And bring that tiny ad:
The new permaculture playing cards kickstarter is now live!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/garden-cards
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic