Lacto-Fermentation, what's bubbling now...

I won't extrapolate once again about the whys and how-tos of Lacto-Fermentation, I do so all-too-often, and the chat can be found on this blog:  here and particularly in this article that appeared in Permaculture Magazine last year, and also of course on Sandor Ellix Katz's fab Wild Fermentation website.

I thought simply, as I chopped green and purple French beans this afternoon, to share what's fermenting at home now, to show what a range of vegetables can be preserved using this method.  As well as the sauerkraut that I made at the end of July and am eating away - for lunch today with beef carpaccio, raw baby yellow courgettes, cucumber and brown rice with toasted pumpkin seeds...

In the pots fermenting are the following:

Lacto-Fermented Cauliflower (1/2 lt jar)
And, in that jar:  1 Cauli head; 5g Salt; 1tsp whole Cumin; Blackcurrant Leaves; Parsley; Spring Onions; Water.

For those that can't stomach cauliflower this is a great alternative to the cheese sauce disguise, it really peps up the cauliflower, and makes of something dull a spritely veg, excellent too in curries and stir-frys.

Lacto-Fermented Courgettes (1lt jar)
In the jar: Sliced Courgette; Fennel Seedheads; Spring Onions; Fennel Leaves; 10g Salt; Blackcurrant Leaves; Water.

Lacto-fermented Cucumbers and Radishes
3 Whole Cucumbers (pricked); 5 Radishes; Blackcurrant Leaves; fennel Seedheads; Landcress; Rocket; Red Mustard; 10g Salt; Water.

Lacto-Fermented Beans
And this afternoon I made these beans, chopped with Fennel Leaves, 5g of Salt and 3tbsp of Cow's Whey (left over from home-made Cheese), squashed down and covered with water.  The Whey is thick with lactobacilli and works as an alternative catalyst to blackcurrant leaves.  I'll also be doing Lacto-fermented Beetroot, a real favourite, in the next few days.