Preserving Produce

With summer in full flow the freezer can soon fill up with produce from the allotment, so it makes sense to use a variety of different methods of preserving such as making jam, chutney and pickles.

Increasingly, I'm using lacto-fermentation as a quick solution to a glut. The vegetables are immersed in a salt brine rather than vinegar. The salt prevents the food from spoiling while the natural lactic acid in the veggies preserves them. The fermentation process is quite quick - a week or two - depending on what you're making. The result is a tangy, tasty, nutritious probiotic - great for gut health and much more!

Last week, I made a quick and easy sauerkraut to use up a couple of small cabbages and also had a go at fermenting cucumbers for the first time. The first batch was simply in a salt-water solution, with the sliced cukes kept beneath the brine with a couple of folded cabbage leaves I'd kept back. The next batch featured some added ingredients - dill, peppercorns and honey. We're looking forward to eating these!

Submitted by Jane, plot 9