We had so much fun with citrus in January, but it’s time to start thinking about February’s Mastery Challenge. This month, we’re tackling the topic of fermentation. This is a huge area and truly, one could do an entire year’s challenge just exploring the many facets of fermented foods.
The plus side of that is that there’s a ton of choice within that single topic and there’s plenty room to explore and find a project that works for you and your household. You could make…
- Kimchi
- Sauerkraut
- Hot sauce
- Yogurt
- Sourdough
- Homemade vinegar
- Kombucha
- Ginger bug
- Brined pickles
- Kefir
- Kvass
If you’ve never tried to ferment anything, I suggest sauerkraut as a good starting place. It’s an easy entry point and can be done with just a wide mouth quart jar, a 4 ounce jelly jar, a piece of clean kitchen towel, and a rubber band.
If you’re looking for a little more detail on sauerkraut making, I made a Facebook video a couple years back showing you how to do it. I also talked about various airlocks and fermentation helpers in that video, if you’re curious about the available tools.
Here are some recipes from the archives if you’re not sure where to start.
Krauty the Vampire Slayer from Ferment Your Vegetables
Red Cabbage Apple Ginger Kraut
Cabbage and Carrot Kraut
Quick Chopped Cabbage Kimchi from Korean Home Cooking
Kimchi from The Agricola Cookbook
Fermented Hot Sauce
Fermented Dilly Beans
Fermented Tiny White Turnips
Finally, let’s recap how you participate in the Mastery Challenge. You choose a project that fits the challenge and you make it. Around the 15th of the month, I will publish a post here on the blog that will include a Google Form. You will use this to report your project (though this is not required, it ensures that I am able to include you in the monthly data).
If you want to share a picture of the thing you made, post it to Instagram with the hashtag #fijchallenge. And if you have questions, join us in the FIJ Community Group over on Facebook. Most importantly, have fun.
For the fermentation February challenge could you do wine from fermented grapes?
If you can get your hands on wine grapes at this time of year, you are welcome to try it.
Really looking forward to this month! Got a batch of kraut going yesterday and already have several batches of vinegar in the aging process. This will be a good month to give them a taste-test. Definitely want to try another batch of hot sauce too. I never got to try the one I made last summer, someone knocked the jar out of the bridge and the bottle broke. It smelled good though. Thank you for continuing the Mastery Challenge this year, Marisa!