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.
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
