Our first attempt at fermentation

Over the weekend between some gleaning of the gardens and coop cleaning and building a raku kiln for my wife's pottery, I collected up some of our smaller heads of green cabbage that had split open or were just too small to do with much with and decided to use them to make some kimchi.

While we have made sauerkraut in the past this was a little different in the sense we used a 1-1 brine (1 Tbsp. salt - 1 cup of water) solution and submerged the cabbage, carrots and diakon.  Traditionally salted cabbage is all that is used to make the sauerkraut to draw out its own water and when it is warm out it usually goes bad for us.
I ran into problems in that no two recipes for kimchi were the same, some where more of a pickle using vinegar, to me that is not conducive to fermentation.  Some didn't even provide measurements, an assumption that the authors made that could lead to failure.  After reading up in some of my fermentation guides I came to the conclusion that as long as the brine is correct to the amount of vegetables we would be good.


With four heads of cabbage in hand I removed all the damaged leaves and sent those off to the chickens, since cabbage and kale are two of their favorite things.  Loosely chopped the cabbage in to larger chunks and diced the carrots, about 1 cup, and shredded about 1 cup of diakon, placed them in an 8 cup fermentation crock and proceeded to mix 8 Tbsp. of kosher salt to 8 cups of water and cover the vegetables with the brine.  The key now is to keep the vegetable submerged in the brine so I placed a plate that was about the same diameter as the crocks opening the pressure of the brine on the surface of the plate kept it submerged.   Covered it all with a clean towel to allow it to breath and set it in the corner of the kitchen out of the sunlight but warm (around 70 degrees), this is where I have mixed information and we will update the post on the overall out come.  Some recipes call for 24-72 hours to let soak, others say 24 hours and I found several that called for 4 weeks.  We welcome any recommendation any of you might have on what you do for fermentation.  I opted for a wait and see, since I like my kimchi to have a crunch with heat ( that part is coming in a minute).

After 24 hours, and another day of garden work and some squirrel hunting I checked the vegetables and the cabbage and carrots where soft but snapped when bit so I decided now is the time to process the paste.  The paste is the part where the additional flavors are added, I opted to go with an onion, six cloves of some spicy red garlic and 8 dragon chili peppers along with a good chunk of ginger with a Tbsp of fish sauce.

Some recipes called for hand mashing, grating or food processor, I chose the food process and again this should be a paste but the onions left so much liquid it was impossible to make a paste, but the smell was wonderful.

Now we took the cabbage, diakon and carrots out of the brine using a metal colander to separate the liquid from the vegetables, make sure to set the brine to the side, you are going to need it.  Place all the vegetables in a glass bowl or metal pot, do not use plastic bowels or utensils for processing due to inviting bacteria into your mix.

Dump the paste mix into vegetables and mix thoroughly with clean utensils so that all of the vegetables are coated.  Grab yourself some of your canning jars or 1/2 gallon glass jar and pack the vegetables into the jars.

Now the key is to only pack to the fill line of the jar(s) so that there is about 1/2 inch of head space. Ladle the brine into the jar(s) to cover the vegetable, cover and shake to get the air to rise to the top and add more brine to cover if needed.  The key is to keep the vegetables submerged so you do several things, you can place a stone, (make sure it has been washed and boiled for 10 minutes) on top of the mixture to keep it packed, this is good for small pints or quart large mouth jars or if you use a 1/2 gallon pack it only half full with vegetable cover with brine and take a second jar pint size will work, fill with extra brine or water, tie a string around it and lower it into the container so that it compresses the vegetables, the sting will help you remove it later.  You can loosely close the jars or cover with a paper towel and use the ring to hold in place.  Place the jars in a container to catch any brine that leaks out during the fermentation, this should also force any air out of the containers, and place in a cool dark location for fermentation to continue.

We will continue to update this post as we progress on the fermentation and let you know of any adjustments we have to make in the mean time here are some fermentation troubleshooting tips at Makesauerkraut.com

How to save heirloom tomato seeds

1.      Cut one or two of the best tomatoes in half (not end to end but around the middle) and squeeze out the seeds and gel into a small container. We recommend a small canning jar with the ring.

2.      Label the jar with the type of seed and variety.

3.      Add 1/2 cup of water and swirl it around.

4.      Cover the jar with a cloth or paper towel to keep out fruit flies.  Be sure to secure with either a ring if a jelly jar or rubber band to keep it in place.

5.      Store the container out of the sun, for 3 to 5 days.

6.      There will be an odor as the fermenting takes place.

7.      A mold film may form on top, which is normal.

To separate the seeds

Film of mold sealing the jars

If you covered the jar with a paper towel, carefully remove the film that has grown on top of the seed and water. There will not be a film if you used a fermenting lid.

Add more water to the jar and swish it around. The best seeds and those you want to keep will sink. If you are using a fresh tomato from the garden almost every seed will be viable.

Carefully pour off water, discard floating seeds, and the bits of pulp suspended in the liquid. Repeat this process, adding more fresh water, until all the pulp is gone and you have clean seeds.

Drain them as well as you can and spread them in a single layer on a screen or a paper plate to dry. We don’t use paper towels at our house so I patted the seed dry with a muslin kitchen towel. You can use paper towels, but I’ve heard that the seeds tend to stick to them. Plastic or ceramic plates do not work well to dry your seeds. The tomato seeds need to have the water wicked away from them and that won’t happen with plastic or ceramic. If you’re saving more than one variety, be sure to label the plates.

Let the seeds dry for five to six days at room temperature in a well-ventilated place. You may want to stir the seeds with your fingers daily to break up any that are clumped together. This will help them dry quicker.

In just a few days the seed will be completely dry and ready to go into storage. Tomato seed has a very long shelf life and once dry it doesn’t need any special care. Place the dried seed in small manila envelopes or zip lock bags.  I use old yogurt containers with lids. Be sure to label the container with the date packaged.

How to Make “Willow Water” root hormone

Here is the procedure for making willow water:

1. Collect young first-year twigs and stems of any of willow (Salix spp.) species, these have green or yellow bark. Don’t use the older growth that has brown or gray bark.
2. Remove all the leaves, these are not used. Don’t waste good green material though, compost the leaves or throw them in the garden as mulch.
3. Take the twigs and cut them up into short pieces around 1" (2.5cm) long.
4. The next step is to add the water. there are several techniques to extract the natural plant rooting hormones:
   a) Place the chopped willow twigs in a container and cover with boiling water, just like making tea, and allow the “tea” to stand overnight.
   b) Place the chopped willow twigs in a container and cover with tap water (unheated), and let it soak for several days.
5. When finished, separate the liquid from the twigs by carefully pouring out the liquid, or pouring it through a strainer or sieve. The liquid is now ready to use for rooting cuttings. You can keep the liquid for up to two months if you put it in a jar with a tight fitting lid and keep the liquid in the refrigerator. Remember to label the jar so you remember what it is, and write down the date you brewed it up, and to aid the memory, write down the date that it should be used by, which is two months from the date it was made!  
6. To use, just pour some willow water into a small jar, and place the cuttings in there like flowers in a vase, and leave them there to soak overnight for several hours so that they take up the plant rooting hormone. Then prepare them as you would when propagating any other cuttings.
   The second way to use willow water is to use it to water the propagating medium in which you have placed cuttings. Watering your cuttings twice with willow water should be enough to help them root.

Reprinted from https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/diy-instructions/home-made-plant-rooting-hormone-willow-water/