Gardening Corner Harvesting, preserving, and fermenting

by Grace Bubeck – October 2023

The challenge in gardening for food is that it’s virtually impossible to grow according to our consumption. Plants have their own cycles, their times of ‘not yet’ fully grown or ripe, times of plenty and often too much, and of ‘nothing left’. And then nature has its influence with too much rain for the tomatoes, too many bugs, not enough heat, seeds not coming up, or an early frost.

So almost inevitably, if you grow some of your own food, you will want to preserve produce when it’s plentiful. There are only so many zucchinis or cucumbers or pears you can give away to friends! Canning and freezing are more traditional and well-known ways of preserving. In this article, I will talk about fermenting, as this is a third option that can add to your pantry and culinary pleasures during the lean months of winter and early spring.

Fermented foods have well-known health benefits, which I wrote about in my article in the August 2019 issue (available online).They are also incredibly flavoursome because fermentation produces many taste-enhancing substances, including the often maligned but naturally generated monosodium glutamate when soy beans are fermented to make soy sauce. Fermented foods like cheese, olives and chocolate, or drinks like coffee, tea, beer and wine taste so good they can be downright addictive (alcohol being another by-product of fermentation)!

For home fermentation, the easiest one to start with is lactofermentation. Lacto-bacteria are naturally on all vegetables. They thrive in a salty environment that safely eliminates all rot-producing bacteria at the same time. During the first few days, the fermentation process releases a lot of gas, which you will see as foam on top of your ferment. During the latter stages, the clear liquid around your vegetables turns characteristically milky: this is what gives lacto-bacteria their name. You will also see color changes: vivid greens become oliv-y (as in pickles), reddish colors get more vibrant (sauerkraut made from red cabbage turns into a beautiful, bright purple).

So how do you get started? There are plenty of fermenting recipes on the internet or videos on YouTube, but following those is a bit hit and miss. In my own experience over more than ten years, I’ve honed recipes down to a simple percentage which is easy to follow for any beginner with a digital scale: for a given amount of produce, say 1000 grams, you add 1,5% of salt, i.e. 15 grams. Cut the vegetables into slices or slithers so the salt can draw out the juice of the vegetable. Add whatever spices you like.

Then fill into a glass jar, cover with a big leaf or plastic and add a weight (I use smaller glass jars), or put a water-filled ziplock bag on top. Make sure the weight is heavy enough to keep the vegetables submerged under liquid, and keep some space at the top of the jar so as to prevent the ferment from overflowing as the gas pushes it up. Cover the jar with a cloth to keep fruit flies from entering, and check and taste regularly. The ferment is done when it has turned sour, milky, and changed color. Just how sour you like it is really up to you. An easy vegetable to start with is cabbage, it’s almost foolproof as long as it stays submerged in its own liquid, and it keeps in the fridge for up to a year. Branch out into other ferments from there.

My own favorite ferments are sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickles, as well as fermented spices such as ginger, garlic, green onions, celeriac, horse radish and hot peppers. These ferments go into soups and other dishes all winter long and make for lazy but very tasty cooking. Grind any of the spices into a paste in the food processor, mix in 1.5% salt, and use a water-filled ziplock bag on top. Garlic will turn very sweet when fermented like this – my absolute favorite of favorites!

Fermenting can be scary at the beginning, and it’s nice to be able to ask when you have questions. I’m happy to organize a local ‘fermenter’s question time’. Send me an e-mail (bubeckgrace@gmail.com) or call/ text 514 962-3251 if you’re interested. Also consult Fermented Vegetables, by Kirsten and Christopher Shockey.