Different fermenting times for different vegies

Sometimes my vegies don't ferment at the same time. FOr example, most vegies are done and ready and the garlic is too sharp to eat raw on my salad. I tried to preferment the garlic in the same batch as the others, but it took too long and made the others slimy. Now I am prefermenting garlic and beets separately. I've noticed that beets stay crunchy for a long time. It's also related to cruciferous vegies so it should add the right kind of lacillus bacteria. When the garlic is ready, I'll add it and the beets to the other vegies. I am fermenting beets because they have great color = anthocyanin antioxidants, but they have a lot of sugar in them. Hence sugar beets. Fermenting eats the sugar as it turns the vegies. ALso , there is some indication that beets may lower cholesterol. We'll see how this experiment turns out.
John S
PDX OR

Hi John. I'm new to all this and working on my first saurkraut. Are beets fairly easy to ferment? Did you use a starter?

John, are you using large chunks of garlic?
I grate mine with a 'microplane' style grater for general flavouring, otherwise I ferment whole cloves on their own and just throw them on top of...everything!
Welcome to permies Joanne
Dunno John's technique, but I've just started a beetroot ferment, cut into fairly chunky with just grated garlic as flavour.
I did the beet greens separately as they'll get soft much faster

Joanne McCartney wrote:Did you use a starter?

I only use salt and water, although I understand that it's best to use whey when fermenting fruit, such as tomatoes.

I find beets very easy to ferment. I slice them because that's the way I typically eat them. I like eating sections of garlic cloves that have been fermented enough to not be so spicy. I like the idea of slicing them up so they decrease the spiciness faster. I think I will try that soon. Grating may be too much processing. In general, I try to keep the form as close as possible to the original plant food. I think it's healthier, but slicing the garlic is probably a better mid solution. Thanks for the idea. I have read and I agree experientially that it's good to have a pretty high proportion of cruciferous vegetables in your sauerkraut. Not only are they among the healthiest of all vegetables, they seem to help to get the correct form of bacteria more successfully. Beets are related to cruciferous vegetables. I often use at least part of the liquid from my previous batch to get them to ferment correctly more quickly and with less salt. Then you don't have to worry as much about the proportion of cruciferous vegetables.
John S
PDX OR