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Thursday, September 8, 2011

This is on My Mind

Joining Rhonda over at Down To Earth....

I recently borrowed "Wild Fermentation" from the local public library and since I had a surplus of kale I started a recipe from the book.  I can't remember what it is called exactly but it is Tibetan (gundruk?) and is made of nothing but smashed kale greens.  I followed the recipe but my kale wasn't as juicy as it should be apparently and I had to top it off with water.

This is after about 10 days.


As you can see it has some white stuff forming.  The first few days it oozed out of the bottle and I just tightened it.  The recipe called for it to be packed tightly in a glass jar and capped.  Nothing more in the way of instruction.


The odor was strong but not unpleasant.  I haven't taken to top off yet and I'm starting to wonder if it isn't ruined because of the air pockets.

Has anyone any thoughts or better yet, has anyone made this?  Or possibly something similiar? 

7 comments:

Brenda The Bregle Rebel Bag Lady said...

Ive got that great little book, Im in the middle of doing sourdough breads, great flavour but im still experiementing with getting it right. Ive done vine leaves for making dolmas. i just poached them in a pan of water then rolled and packed them in a jar tightly and covered in a brine. just checked the book for you "gundru" is indeed just the vegetable no salt. It says at least 2 -3 weeks maybe more

Becky said...

I've never done this myself but it sounds interesting. I hope this is a success for you.

rhonda jean said...

Mary, I haven't done kale but I'd just keep going with it. I have some apples in a jar, they've been there for about six months, and it's made a good apple vinegar but also MOTHER. Fermenting is very forgiving, let it do it's own thing, give it time, then test taste.

Kim said...

This looks fascinating,I will have to pop back and see how it goes. Just visiting from Rhonda's down to earth blog
kim http://thelittleblackcowblog.blogspot.com

Mary said...

Thanks everyone!
Brendie ~ I'm going to have to buy this book. Have you checked out the google group?
Rhonda ~ I will TRY to be patient!
Kim ~ Welcome!

Buttons Thoughts said...

Well Mary since I have an abundance of kale in my garden I will be watching this closely. I may look it up I never heard of this before.
Mary about my dam post. It is The Moira River in Belleville. It is for used for preventing ice jams because this river runs through the middle of this town.I am not exactly sure how this works it is worth looking more into. My Hero is telling me this as I type this I never knew any of this but it makes sense. We do get a lot of ice jams up here in Canada. The flooding from this does a lot of damage. He is a smart man.
Hope that helped Mary maybe we can google it and come up with more info. B

Unknown said...

Mary, I vaguely remember my mother mashing the Kale very fine. Sorry I can't help more but we're going back a long way. That might get rid of the air pockets you speak about. Maa