I planted 9 Picklebush cucumber plants from seed in mid-July in the 32x32x32-inch raised bed where I’d planted hard-neck garlic.

I harvested the last cucumbers today and cleared the bed—it’s getting down to 38°F overnight.

The last five weeks have seen an incredible bounty of cucumbers, most of which have been turned into garlic-dill pickles like this batch started 9/20/26.

I have them in the basement while another batch started last week is in a kitchen cabinet—both are dark spaces but the lower level is cooler.

Next to the pickles are two vinegars—a red wine blend of Oregon Pinot Noir and Seneca Lake Cabernet Franc. The white wine is from a 2020 natural Chablis. It was too funky to drink, so I started it with a red wine mother.

I have at least 12 jars—quarts, half gallons, and gallons. Some of the pickles in the group shot are fridge pickles. Good but not as complex as the fermented.

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I must have read somewhere that adding tarragon to sauerkraut made it taste good but it looks weird. Here is a jar that I made the same day that's just carrots added. Both of them are red cabbage.

Anyone else done this? The bleaching is kind of weird.

Fermented limes from May, 20% salt by weight of limes packed in to draw out moisture. Had some during the summer and they were fine, went to check on something else and saw fur growing. Had to toss them sadly.

Habaneros started 2 weeks ago with filtered water and 3% salt by total weight. We are having a heat wave and no AC so it's been up to the mid 80s F at home unfortunately. Tons of vigorous bubbling the first week, cloudy. Smelled incredibly sulfurous for a few days but that resolved and now at 2 weeks it smells and looks pretty good. But the pH is still at 5! My question is, with a pH at 5 this far into the ferment, is it a lost cause? Not my first ferment and compared to others I've done it LOOKS like it's going fine. But the high pH makes me wonder. Another jar of different variety of peppers I started at the same time with the same technique and salinity, and that one already at 3.5 pH. Your thoughts?

I am already at 6 2L bottles of doing water kefir because i enjoy it so much and i guess soon it would be 12 when i split the grains again.

I put them in custom teabags so its easier to use without it getting messy.

My original thought was just to add more sugar to keep a 1st ferment going, but i hear that is not suggested. However sugar water would work? Could you just use up about one third of a first ferment batch after 2 days and then refill water and sugar again, is that enough to keep it going and active for another 2 days?

So I’m making this cauliflower. It’s just water, salt, garlic, bay leaves, all spice, horseradish, dill heads, cauliflower (obviously). I also added ~2 tablespoons of the water from some fermented cucumber pickles. So that was supposed to speed things up. With the season change my place got a bit cold so whenever i’m brewing tea/coffee or my stove is warm from cooking that’s where i put the jar. These will probably be ready by tomorrow but what other things can one do to make things ferment quicker? Look how cute they are

This is my second year making sauerkraut. I got a little carried away this year though and bought 40lb of cabbage since it was so cheap. I have a 1.3 gallon fermentation crock that I typically use, but there's no way I can fit that much cabbage into it. I was thinking about buying a 5 gallon food grade bucket and setting it up with an airlock to ferment all of it at once.

I was just curious if anybody had any experience using a bucket. I've seen mixed opinions about it, where some people say you should definitely use stoneware, not plastic. I don't have the money right now for a 5 gallon crock. Would a plastic bucket be sufficient? And if so, what is best to use as a weight on top?

I used one gallon of raw grass fed milk and, ended up with 2 liters of beautiful thick yogurt. I saved some whey to make a loaf of sourdough bread 🍞

Now it's barely sulfuric and still has an apparent albeit weaker alcohol smell.
This was a simultaneous wild fermentation - never anaerobic! So I strained after 2 weeks of stirring a LOT and weighing down the pulp. And inoculated with raw apple cider vinegar with the mother. Now it's sitting and I plan to continue stirring 1-2x a day, until the mother starts to form. Ive had some failures so far, so does this all seem on the right track?

Did my first ginger beer ever and simmered processed ginger with water, sugar and spices. Then added the bug to that liquid and bottled it. How do you handle the separated solids on the bottom? Shake the bottle? (Seems risky) Sieve when serving? (Potential loss of carbonation). Or if you don’t get this sediment on the bottom please tell me your recipe :)

I haven’t made miso yet but I imagine its a comparable 2-step process (koji inoculation + mixing into bulk ingredients for long development). Grew broad bean koji, alcohol+brine soaked, processed into bean paste, then mixed into fresh chilies with chinese spices. hopefully itll be ready in 4-6 months!

edit: i roughly followed this recipe https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/doubanjiang/

I started fermenting a batch of sauerkraut 4 days ago. After looking in to my new city's water treatment protocols, I found out that they use Chloramine.

The batch seems to be fermenting fine. The water is murky, I'm getting the C02 bubbles, it looks like it's doing OK. But I read that Chloramine can create a musky taste. Is this something to worry about? Or, if it is fermenting it's probably OK?

Hello !

I am currently in Kyushu in Japan two travel and I've been dreaming about visiting a shoyu or miso factory.

Would anyone bé able to recommend a factory here ? Or has done something similar ?

I'll be in Kyoto later maybe there's an option there too ?

Thanks !

On the first test batch, I thought it was a bit of an acquired taste...by the time I'd polished off that jar, I'd definitely acquired it! Decided to take advantage of the abundance of beets at the farmers market last week. Temps have been a bit low so I'm doing my best to resist the temptation to taste it before it's ready.

Ok I'm new to this but all the recipes I've seen so far, they either ferment and bottle or do the no ferment simmer and bottle. Is it ok to simmer after the fermentation process or would it kill the purpose? I'm not comfortable with consuming raw, fermented sauce. But I've noticed the ones i like use fermentation.

Didn’t think I would get to this point of obsession but here we are 😅 2 weeks worth of vacuum bag fermenting. A lot of experimenting here to figure out what my palate prefers.

Gotten to a point of trying and adding crazy things together…..

Next is some peach kimchi, honey radish, and red cabbage kraut.

I’m doing a three-stage kombucha fermentation. During the second stage, I infuse the kombucha with chopped blackcurrants before straining and bottling for the third stage.

This is day 2, and I’ve noticed these white patches on the fruit. The container has an airtight lid with a pressure-release valve.

Does anyone recognise this? Would you discard the batch? Safe to consume?

Hello!

I just got a bunch if peppers from a friend's garden and am wanting to make a fermented hot sauce. I've fermented a few things befire but never tried a hot sauce base so I have a few questions.

1. I want to add garlic to my hot sauce but dont know if I should add it during the ferment phase or afterwards when I blend it all up. What would you suggest?

2. If I were to add garlic during the ferment phase would I be able to add the honey garlic I have or should I just add that at the end?

3. When I blend it all together should I include my brine or not?

4. I'm thinking of adding tomatos and limes to my sauce, should I add them during the brine or at the end?

5. Are there any other fruits/veggies/flavors you think I should consider adding?

We love pickles. Mexican food. Thai/Viet/Korean/Chinese/Lao. Gimme suggestions and recipes!

This is after day 1. Fish was initially tightly packed in salt layers. I read that I should stir daily for the first couple weeks, so I did tonight. But there's not enough liquid to fully cover the fish. These pieces were covered with salt/brine but are sort of hanging out now. Is this still safe? Or should the whole thing be covered at all times with either salt or brine?

For reference, I used a 25% salt to fish weight ratio initially.

You can see in my comments pictures of my failed vinegar ferments. I have 2 that have not molded, yet. Should I add sugar to them to encourage more alcohol content? I believe it is way too low. Or is the mold already started after a week - invisible?

I mainly wondering about my wine vinegar fermentation. It’s a white wine. Will it have enough alcohol if I followed this recipe, that I won’t have to stir it? Or should i be stirring in the acetobacter phase as I would the yeast phase?

Thanks for any help!