Fermenting Tips & Seasonal Vegetables Checklist (winter)

Fermenting Tips & Seasonal Vegetables Checklist for Your Next Ferment (winter season)

Fermenting makes the best kind of hobby if you ask us! The whole process is fascinating and you end up with a tasty, tangy, full of nutrition food that is really versatile in its use. You can eat it on its own, add to other meals or get creative with your choice of vegetables, spices and flavours. There's almost no limit to the things you can ferment. 

The best part is that you can start fermenting with just two ingredients - fresh vegetables and salt. So simple! From there you can build on the flavour profile of your ferments.

Continue reading this post to learn some tips & tricks how to make your fermenting process a success every time!

5 tips to set you up for success:

1. Don’t overfill! Fermenting veggies are very active and bubbly - they can ooze out of the jar and make a mess if you’re not careful. Fill only to the shoulder of the jar for a dry salted ferment, such as sauerkraut. For pickled veggies in brine, fill to the neck.

2. Don’t underfill! Leaving too much headspace in a jar will allow extra space for oxygen to hang out, which can lead to oxidation of the veggies or brine or a scummy growth on the surface. Remember that a 1-quart jar will hold about 2lbs. of veggies when dry salting, or 1lb. of veggies when brining.

3. Add a weight! Fermenting veggies become swollen with carbon dioxide, floating to the surface and sometimes poking up out of the brine where they may spoil. Always place a weight on top to keep them submerged. Pickle Pebbles Plus work well for this purpose and feature a new gripped handle for easy removal. 

4. Seal the jar! Using a lid keeps excess oxygen out. Oxygen coming into the jar contributes to scummy surface growths, such as kahm yeast or mold.

5. Vent it! Sealing up a jar full of fermenting veggies can lead to a dangerous explosion if you don’t allow some way for the gases to escape. The Pickle Pipe will do this for you. It is the perfect one-way valve to release the gases while preventing oxygen from entering the jar.

Now that, we’ve covered the basics, we can move on to the fun of fermenting and dive into some inspirations of what kind of seasonal vegetables you can ferment today (winter season)!

Eating seasonal produce (no matter where you live) is so much better for you as it contains a lot more nutrition, richer flavour and on top of that they just cost less (often are on sale as well).

Your winter vegetable fermenting checklist:

✔️ Turnips

✔️ Sweet potato

✔️ Garlic

✔️ Cabbage

✔️ Carrots

✔️ Beets

✔️ Onion

✔️ Beans

✔️ Radish

✔️ Brussel sprouts

When comes to all the necessary tools to start fermenting, you are in the right place because we have everything that you need!

Ask yourself those two questions:

• Are you planning to ferment a variety (more than one) of vegetables?

Our Complete Fermentation Kit is perfect for you. It contains all the tools you need! Just get your Mason Jars ready.

• Do you want to start with one batch to test out the process?

Here is a Single Jar Fermentation Kit. Pick your favourite vegetable and see how it goes!

Helpful Resources:

Here you can find some additional resources and videos related to fermenting that will help you begin your fermenting journey! 

Don’t forget to show us what you are fermenting by posting in on your social media and tagging @masontops

We would love to see it! 💙