Are fermented foods hard and safe to make at home?
“You don’t ferment foods; your microbes do. Your job is to set up the right environment for your microbes to thrive and ferment! ”
So many of us are a bit nervy when it comes to the world of fermenting foods because it can seem overwhelming (are you thinking, ‘where do I start?’), too hard or even risky. Here’s the thing - learning to ferment foods at home CAN be easy and safe, when you understand how to ferment safely and effectively. That’s where I come in because I teach a 4-day Sourdough and Fermenting course - take a squiz at it here
But so often people follow dodgy recipes/blogs and end up with a manky and ‘off’ fermented veggie or fruit, that they get turned off fermented foods for life.
Here’s the deal - YOU don’t ferment foods; the microbes do. When you set up the right environment for your microbes to grow and ferment, the end result will be delicious fermented foods (not soggy fermented carrots, ‘flat sourdough or mouldy sauerkraut!)
What exactly is fermenting and why should we do it?
Your plant matter like veggies and fruits naturally contain a number of microbes and when you give them the right environment (like you learn to do in the Sourdough and Fermenting course) they break down the sugars and excrete lactic acid - this preserves the food and gives it that nice tangy flavour.
This is one of the reasons fermenting is so good for your gut health - think of these microbes that live on our veggies as breaking down the starches and sugars and pre-digested our food so to speak, so when we eat fermented foods, we're consuming microbes that already live in our bodies.
This is why fermented foods you make at home are live probiotic foods rather than some of the store-bought fermented foods, which are ‘dead’!
Fermenting also increases the bioavailability of nutrients, for example fermented cabbage can be up to 30 X higher in vitamin C than raw cabbage!
So trust me, there’s a reason you need to learn to ferment safely and effectively, because incorporating fermented foods into your everyday is an easy, simple way of enhancing your nutrient intake, and improving digestion, moods, immunity and wellness!
And don’t forget fermenting is also cost effective - say goodbye to the days of spending $10 on a loaf of sourdough or jar of sauerkraut! You can make both of these for less than $2 at home!