chrissyA, please share with us some of your "recipes" that you've been using in your new crock! You might inspire me, who knows?

I would like to attempt my own too now that I have tried what they are supposed to taste and feel like, I have a benchmark. Before it was all guesswork.

Why certainly Drea - Thanks for asking...

http://divinehealthfromtheinsideout.com/2011/02/lacto-fermented-asian-veggie-medley/
http://awesomepickle.com/tag/salt-brine/
http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2011/06/lacto-fermented-dill-baby-carrots.html
http://www.affairsofliving.com.....gluten-free-acd.html

I've omitted the whey when called for

I've got the asian medley going right now - it smelled super funky at first, I thought I'd have to put it outside , but now that it's mellowed for about a week, it's starting to smell very promising

Since I've spent so much money on that crock, it's got to earn it's keep   I've been Googling and searching like a fiend looking for stuff that looks interesting. I've found zillions of great sites, but I haven't had a chance to try very many. I can only do a new batch every two weeks - I let my ferments go for two weeks because my kitchen isn't very warm, even in the summer.

I don't have a "fancy" crock, but I've made some tasty ferments over the past months...my all-time fave is thinly sliced turnips, green onions, ginger, carrots, and a little cayenne; technically, cayenne is an avoid, but I live in New Mexico .

When cabbage was just a neutral (it's back to being an avoid on my SWAMI), I made many batches of sauerkraut.

I've learned a lot following your thread...

Did I share my fiasco attempting a fermented peach chutney?

No, please do tell...

I found a recipe for lacto-fermneted peach chutney (scroll down to near bottom), and our peach tree was overloaded with fruit this year, so I thought that was a good use for them.

All the ingredients sounded lovely together, so I made 1-1/2 gallons of chutney and set it to do its thing. I tasted the batch after 2 days and thought it was very good but could use an extra day. Not true. That extra day made it go from pretty darn good, but still salty, to tasting (and smelling) like sour stomach. I just couldn't toss it (in the beginning), so I rinsed a batch, then added it to a skillet, added agave, and cooked it. Nope. Still sour stomach. In the end, the whole thing went into the compost. So sad.

So if you decide to try it, let me know how it turned out. Not sure what happened on my end. I'm burned out on peaches for this year, and have 5 quarts of peaches I "canned" in water to tied me over until next year.

Ah, the unexpected outcome...   I guess the bright side is that you didn't spend money on them

Quoted from chrissyA

I've got the asian medley going right now - it smelled super funky at first, I thought I'd have to put it outside , but now that it's mellowed for about a week, it's starting to smell very promising

The Asian Medley is finished fermenting. It turned out to be very delicious(yay!), a little garlicky for my taste, but in all fairness, I'm not a fan of garlic... Even so, I won't have any problem eating the whole batch  

I also did a small batch of horseradish, because fresh just isn't practical, and the only jarred I've found is made with vinegar   I grated it finely and let it ferment for four days. It was perfect! The flavor is milder than I expected, but that's good because, of course, horseradish can be overpowering. I was a little afraid that by fermenting it, the flavor might become to a bit sour, but with only leaving it for so short a time, there was no change in the taste of it. Good  

I'll have to try the horseradish.. I love it thanks.  The easiest recipe for an A I think is to just buy a bag of julienned broccoli and carrots and just dump them in a bowl, add salt, and mix and squeeze and then when it's got enough liquid, to stuff it into the jar and let it sit.  I can't have cabbage..it's an avoid.\

I never heard of fermenting fruit Drea. Is that possible? I would think it would turn into  vinegar and then alcohol instead of a pickle. Exception would be pickled lemons that I used to eat with my Indian food. Yummy. And did you know that if you get pregnant, and you have eaten the lemon pickle before that, if you are having a son, you will crave lemon pickle during  your first trimester. My ex told me that and said it's very common to know in India.  I craved lemon pickle with both sons... that's so weird.

Quoted from Andrea AWsec

I use bok choy it is like cabbage but OK for A's and maybe for every blood type?

When the SWAMI says to avoid Pickle, brine    
Does that mean to avoid fermented vegetables or just cucumbers ?  I'm still confused.  

Quoted from Mayflowers

I never heard of fermenting fruit Drea. Is that possible?

It sounds improbable to me as well, but they say it works Drea has tried it.
http://divinehealthfromtheinsideout.com/2010/07/smoky-peach-salsa-lacto-fermented/

Quoted from Mayflowers

When the SWAMI says to avoid Pickle, brine    
Does that mean to avoid fermented vegetables or just cucumbers  ?  I'm still confused.

Mayflowers - I had that same dilemma a while ago... But the Typebase specifically states that pickle brine is vinegar based - hooray  

http://www.dadamo.com/typebase4/depictor5.pl?304

Quoted from chrissyA

Mayflowers - I had that same dilemma a while ago... But the Typebase specifically states that pickle brine is vinegar based - hooray  

http://www.dadamo.com/typebase4/depictor5.pl?304

Thanks..however, my SWAMI says  Pickle, brine  and   it says Pickle, vinegar. Both are avoids and the brine is a black dot..  
Well the good news is the basic brine pickle is neutral for secretors.. I'll just have to ask when I go back for a check up.

That's what mine says too... To be vigilant, I avoided cultured veg for the duration on my wash-out, but now I eat piles of the stuff  

Quoted from chrissyA

That's what mine says too... To be vigilant, I avoided cultured veg for the duration on my wash-out, but now I eat piles of the stuff  

I'm going to start again. I'm going to make some bok choy and start eating it.. Unless I hear from Dr. D ....      

This thread has been here for a long time, and he never once popped in to say that any of us were doing things wrong. He's responded to other threads, so I know he's been at least skimming the boards, so I assume he's aware of this thread and is OK with it.

Thanks for the wonderful thread!!!  

I am fermenting my veggies.... However I was taught that you need to let them ferment for 4 weeks. This is because they dont totally ferment in a  few days.  
On my counter I have a jar of carrot sticks, carrot shreds/garlic, 2 cucumbers, 2 sauerkraut , a mixture of squash/peppers/cucumbers/onions , 2 jars of beets and 3 jars of oriental cucumbers. .
My eight weeks is up now.   Here is how I did it.
I used Fido jars with the locking lid.  
I put my veggies in the Fido,
put  a grape leave on the top and
filled the  jar with salt brine (1 tablespoon of Redmonds Real Salt to 2 pints of water.)
I closed the lid and put it on the counter.
the fido lid will gas itself .  So there is no need to burp the jar. One of the beet jars does not have a grape leave in it.  Absolutely no slime on top!

My oldest jars have been on the counter since 8/25.  Since I do not open the jars, no air gets in and they dont have any mold.  I am moving them to the fridge this weekend.  I cant do a taste taste this week because of a special detox diet I am on for the next 10 days.  I cant wait!!

On this web site, the lady has all kinds of fermenting experiments on the different jars used - which ones worked and which ones did not. (look on the right hand side for links to different studies she has done.  http://www.nourishingtreasures.com/
One study she had used the Pickle It jar... It is a fido jar with a gas lock on top.  Her fido ferment turned out better than her pickle it jar ferment.  The thing is, the pickle it jar cost like 25.00 for one and the same size fido jar cost 5.00.  


Here is where I got my Fido Jars http://www.crateandbarrel.com/search.aspx?query=fido
They have them on special right now,  and you can buy all kinds of sizes. They also have a special on shipping for 4.95.  The lady who's web site is above says to go to the Christmas Tree Shop and pick up the Fido jars even cheaper.

I had a Fido jar and it worked great for about two months. Then it stopped working, the lid will not stay closed, the wire will not stay in the groove and the jar is useless  

Please view the video on this link.  It goes along with the below listed ingredients and instructions:

http://library.cmu.ac.th/ntic/lannafood/method_clip.php?id=180

http://library.cmu.ac.th/ntic/lannafood/detail_lannafood.php?id_food=180

This is the old fashioned way to make cultured vegetables Thai style.

The first ingredient is green vegetables –mustard greens (300 g)

The second ingredient is cooked sticky rice (use 1 tablespoon of rice)

You can buy this from a Thai restaurant.   1 order will be about $2.00.  You need only a little.  You can store the rest in the freezer for next time.   You may be able to use cooked white rice but I have never tried.  

The third ingredient is 1 tablespoon of salt (can be any kind).

Forth ingredient : 1 cup of water.  The video shows water from soaked sticky rice (you normally have to soak the sticky rice in water overnight before cooking the rice) but you can just use regular water.

Instructions on how to make:
Massage vegetables with cooked sticky rice until rice is broken down.  Then add salt then massage together for a few minute.  Then put water or soaked-rice water, then cover and put away for 2 days.  It will be ready to eat when the taste is sour.  Then you can refrigerate.

http://www.dadamo.com/B2blogs/blogs/index.php/2000/05/21/where-can-we-get-some-culture-1?blog=9

I started a veggie ferment about a week ago, after about 4 days i noticed that it was above the liquid (i hadn't looked at it for a couple of days because i got busy).  I put it in the frig. today, do you think it's safe to eat?.  I smelled it and it doesn't smell rotten.

Thanks!

I read about fermented almond 'pate' today... cultured nut spread, who'd a' thought?
Has anyone seen Portlandia, esp that 'Pickle It' scene??  

Mickey - The veg will still be good. If there's mold, simple remove what is affected and the rest  will be fine. I let my veg "culture" for two weeks!  But take it out of the fridge - that will slow the fermentation almost to a halt. What you want to do is add enough brine to re-immerse the vegetables. One Tbsp salt  to 2 cups of water, so the water is once again above the veg.
     Re-post if you have any more questions  
    

I don't ferment, but for those of you who do I just saw this in the Williams Sonoma
holiday book.....A lovely fermentation pot/traditional crock for $79.95 and a farmhouse culture crock , 16 oz. with silicone lid for $9.95.