Fermenting vegetables is good for you and cuts down on food waste | Gardening Australia

Fermentation is one of the world's oldest ways of preserving food. Fermentation can transform ingredients that would typically go to waste into a delicious and nutritious condiment or snack. If your kitchen bench or fridge has ever overflowed with a glut of fresh produce, then fermentation is for you!
Adam James sold his inner-city café to start his own business fermenting fruits and vegetables full time. Adam has converted his small home in Hobart into a small-scale fermentation station, packed with jars of colourful ferments.
Tino and Adam gather end of season produce from a friend’s local farm. The produce has past it’s prime and can’t be sold at restaurants or shops, but they are perfect for fermenting.
Adam is going to share a simple technique known as wild fermentation.
Wild fermentation makes use of the naturally occurring bacteria already present on fresh food. This style of fermenting is all about creating the ideal conditions for the good bacteria (Lactobacillus) to thrive. In doing so you create an environment that is inhospitable to bad bacteria.
No matter what your ingredients are, the principles of wild fermentation are the same: veggies + salt + time = delicious and healthy ferments!
What you need for wild fermentation:
Vegetables + salt and, depending on your vegetables*, filtered water.
To know how much salt to add calculate between 2% and 5%** of your total vegetable weight.
Using kitchen scales add the appropriate amount of salt to your vegetables
In this video Tino and Adam are making a salsa, so they blend the vegetables using a food processor or stick blender.
Pour your vegetable salt mix into a large fermenting croc or into sterilised jars
Add a sprinkle of salt onto the top of each jar/croc to discourage bad bacteria
As your vegetables ferment, they release a very small amount of CO2. It’s important to loosen the lid and release the gas daily to prevent a build-up of gas (otherwise you may have a fermented explosion on your hands yikes!)
Adam notes, “It’s common for a whitish mould to form on the surface. This is called kahm yeast and is completely harmless. Simply pour/scrape off the surface. If other colours of mould appear then best to discard and start again”.
Pickling Brine recipe
Vegetables, filtered water + sea salt
For a pickling brine it’s best to use a 2% salt brine. For every 1 L of filtered water add 20grams of salt.
Bring water to the boil, remove from heat, add salt and stir to dissolve.
Allow the brine to cool to room temperature before adding it to your vegetables. You can leave the vegetables whole or dice them up. The smaller your vegetables are cut the faster the fermentation will happen.
Put your vegetables into a clean jar or fermenting croc and top with your 2% brine.
Make sure all vegetables are submerged and leave at room temperature for between 1 week and 2 months.
*Vegetables naturally high in water such as tomatoes, will not need to be fermented in a brine. Vegetables such as carrots and radish don’t naturally hold enough moisture so it’s best to ferment them in a brine. Whether you use a brine or not also depends on what kind of ferment you are making. Eg. pickled radish you would make a brine but a fermented hot sauce you would use naturally occurring moisture in the vegetables.
**the amount of salt you add depends on taste but somewhere between 2-5% will provide the ideal conditions for good bacteria to thrive.
The salt is the preservative. Depending on the vegetable, you would add a filtered non chlorinated water.
For a chilli ferment you can afford to add extra salt making the salt to veggie ratio about 4-5% but if you are fermenting root vegetables like carrots you would want more of a 2% ratio.
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[@emmabuggles]

That kids is a legend haha

[@munrosewarne6551]

I now have crock envy. Wonderful episode GA. Thanks.

[@JoyKOz]

Over the years I let my pickling/fermenting go.... methinks it's time to start up again now that I am retired.👍😋😍

[@FionaRyanTIFFINbitesized]

I’m going to make a smaller version of this, once my kim chi is out of the crock on Tuesday. I’ll be using tomatoes, capsicum, chillies, cucumber and a corella pear that seems to be full on tannins. Cheers

[@sweetvuvuzela4634]

Sauerkraut is good for your immunity too I guess all fermented food works well

[@jamshidnikkerdar2074]

Great 👍

[@juliannevillecorrea]

thank you love from karnataka india !

[@mondraymondo]

What a good idea!

[@sunnyxhx529]

hi guys, its lovely to see this video, im gonna give a try. if using the big crock pot, should I have to leave it under the sun or should i avoid sun light? how about in a small glass of jar, should it be in the fridge our just in the pantry? 😇

[@FionaRyanTIFFINbitesized]

I wouldn’t put it in the sun. Fermenting works best in an a temperature stable environment (similar temp during the day and night) which is why many people store this in their garage. I make smaller quantities so just allow the ferment to happen in my walk in pantry. Don’t put it in the fridge as that will inhibit the ferment.

[@ameeraljadie1282]

❤❤❤❤

[@bulkan.evcimen]

"Any salt will do" I always thought that using salt with anti-caking agent would inhibit the fermentation process.

[@Killthebatsman]

Good point! Not sure but I’ve also heard the same...

[@meganyoung5804]

Great episode. Just one question - if I was going to ferment carrots (as was mentioned) and possibly beetroot as well would I chop, slice them or grate them ie how small do the pieces they need to be. Thank you

[@WibblyWobbly]

They can be anything, it doesnt affect the process. Only that big chunks will ferment longer. I cut them in stick, fox example. Just because i like to eat them that way.

[@tams7411]

Yeah I don't think it's a good idea that he's giving the raw mixture to his kid. Alot of those plants shouldn't be eaten without being cooked or fermented, and it'll taste different when it's fermented anyway so there isn't a point trying it before hand :/

[@Killthebatsman]

I don’t think there is an issue with the mixture being raw but you’re right that there isn’t a point tasting it prior to fermentation

[@shawnsg]

What exactly in the mix can't be eaten raw? As far as taste goes, it's going to constantly change flavor up until you eat it all or throw it out since the fermentation process never stops.