How to Make a Fermentation Starter Revisted!

in #food7 years ago


The very first fermentation starter I had made was the ginger bug. I started this for the sake of making homemade soda and mead and it worked great. I had found the idea of the ginger bug on a blog page several years back and had never heard of it before that. It worked wonderfully for my homemade honey wine and for a long time, that is mostly all I used it for.

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Then I quit alcohol and decided it was time to find new uses for my ginger bug and gave it a try in speeding up the process for my kimchi and other fermented vegetables and fruits and it worked amazingly well. Never again a failed batch of kimchi that ended up having to be tossed!

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Along the way I have tried to grow my own ginger a few different times but it just will not grow in our area and I got to thinking about other ways to make a starter and I came up with the fruit idea after coming across an idea for using fruit to make a bread yeast. So I started experimenting. This photo shows the first three I tried, peach, strawberry, and raisin. They were all successful but I did find that the raisin was the most bubbly.

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When starting three new batches this year, I went with blueberry, raspberry, and raisin and the raspberry got to the fizzy point the fastest though the raisin is still excellent. The blueberry seems fine but just not near as lively as the other two.

Now for the step by step on how to make your own:

Starting with a pint sized jar, fill the bottom with about a quarter cup of your choice of fruit. I recommend working with at least two or three different ones to compare side by side like I do.

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Add just enough filtered water (NOT city tap water as the chemicals can kill the bacteria needed to get this going) to cover the fruit. I use rain water filtered with a Berkey filter.

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Add about a tablespoon of organic evaporated cane sugar (NOT white sugar!) to the jar. You can either stir it in with a small wooden spoon or chopstick (I try to avoid metal when working with ferments) or you can simply put on a tight fitting lid and swirl it around.

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Keeping the lid on, put your starter in a warm place. I usually just leave mine on the counter so I see it and remember to feed it. Several hours later you will want to add a bit more fruit, water, and sugar and mix well. For the next couple of days, repeat this process and usually by day three it should be ready to use. It can take up to five days or more in a cold house so do not get discouraged if you do not see anything happen by day three.

Once it is ready, you can store in the fridge until you need it, making sure to get it out a few hours ahead so it can get to room temperature and get lively again. When storing in the fridge, feed it once a week with about a tsp of sugar. Though I have gone a month or so without feeding it and had no problems getting it active again. If you think you will use it daily, then just leave it out in a warm spot but you must feed it every day if you choose to do this.

blackberry fermentation starter I have been using for a year
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When you go to use it, you simply add 1/4 cup of the liquid to one quart of whatever it is you would like to ferment. Any fruit you strained out to get the liquid, add back to the jar, add more sugar and top off with water again. Let it sit for a few hours before putting back into the fridge.

There are so many things you can make with your starter from natural soda to breads, kimchi to wine. I have been working on my bread recipe that only has 4 ingredients and will be sharing that in the near future!

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Hope you enjoyed this and learned something new. Again I apologize for being a bit MIA lately, my days just keep getting more busy and I am starting to look forward to the slower time of the year so I can have more time to STEEMIT!

Have a great weekend everyone! ~Heidi

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Im actually doing this today as per your recipe!
Happy Sunday!

Great post! I love fermented foods. KIMCHI... yummmm

Oh, this was really interesting! I made my own kimchi already but this is new to me! Thank you for the information and instructions! (Waiting for your bread recipe... ...

Thanks for posting this. Now following

Thanks for the additional information on fermenting. I find that I misunderstood the process, so the peach fermentation starter I began last week has not come to life, and probably will not. I will start again this coming week, with a different fruit. (probably raisins)

You know, I did not think to explain that with peaches and such, it is best to keep the skin on as that is where much of the yeast is

Interesting post, thanks for sharing!

I tried this with blackberries and blueberries. The blackberries worked good, but something happened with the bluberries. I thought it best to throw them out. Looking forward to trying this again.

My blueberry one did get fizzy but not near as much as the raisin and raspberry. I am thinking I should have cut or mashed them first

very nice information! I love experimenting with fermentation

I have been trying to figure out how I want to preserve my fruits. Thanks for the post!

Wow, you have been busy! Thanks for the starter recipes-- looks wonderful! Fermented foods are so good for us :)

So, I first saw this video on your YouTube channel and I asked myself, why in the world would I even need that?! But then...... I saw your Kimchi video made with the fermentation starter and I WAS SOLD! I love Kimchi! I am finding so much of the information you're putting out VERY useful ! Keep up the great work!! Also, I strayed my grape fermentation starter yesterday! I can't wait to make healthy sodas and Kimchi

Hey guys! New follower here. Upvote, and resteemed from me!

Love these ideas. It's great to learn stuff like this. Very helpful. Thanks!
Resteeming @saved4newlife #thl

I made a raisin and raw honey starter, and it's going great! Nice and fizzy. I have it in the fridge when I'm not using it, and I highly recommend taking it out and feeding it well before using it. I can tell it's ready because when I take it out of the fridge the raisins are on the bottom, but once it's fed and allowed to come to room temp, the raisins float to the top.

I made a couple of gluten free loaves of bread with my raisin and raw honey starter. I left a comment with more details on your other post: https://steemit.com/food/@raincountry/how-to-make-bread-from-a-fermentation-starter