Fermenting Foods with Fermentools

Jenny/ May 6, 2020/ Family Life, Homeschool Reviews

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor compensated in any other way.

So a few years ago I made a huge leap of faith and started fermenting my own sauerkraut (this was giant for me I’ll explain why later) and I love it! But its sometimes a tricky business and occasionally I would have a batch fail (super discouraging) so when I was able to review Fermentools and their Starter Kit let’s just say I was SO excited! The kit includes 1 lb. super fine Himalayan Salt, an airlock, 2 corks, metal lid, glass weight and rubber seal. You need a large mouth jar and canning ring and vegetables of course.

Why try fermenting?

Ok first, why the heck would you want to ferment your food? Honestly my only exposure to fermented foods before trying my own was a colossal sauerkraut disaster of my mom’s when I was young. I still have horrible images and smells from that. I mean it was seriously GROSS! We had to give it to our hogs and guess who got to help dump 10 gallons of spoiled sauerkraut to them? Yep, it was me! Scarred me for life, lol.😂 Anyway, I was super leary of fermentation myself butttt my husband was always bragging about his mom’s homemade sauerkraut and I had to give it a whirl. Imagine my complete surprise to make it and try it and oh my gosh…fall in love with it! It was NOTHING like that slimy, stinky mess from a can and the rest is history. Well, sorta…

Fermenting foods is fantastic for you. Why? Because they are full of Probiotics and prebiotics. If you don’t know what those are, they are the helpful bacteria that lives mostly in your gut and helps you properly digest your foods. They also make up a HUGE percentage of your immune system and help keep you healthy all around. You can buy them but the quality ones are extremely expensive and you have to be careful how you store them. Guess what though? You can make your own for literally pennies!

Why use Fermentools?

Ok so the raw, naked truth is you don’t have to use Fermentools for fermentation. But I gotta be completely honest and upfront here, I will probably never ferment without them again! Why? Because they make it so darn EASY! And I’ve got 4 young kids, we homeschool and I run this blog, I do NOT have time to waste on spoiled garments because a wild yeast gets in there and messes up the whole batch and that’s exactly what this kit prevents. The basic steps to fermentation are:

1. Shred your veggies (I use my food processor).
2. Mix with salt.
3. Fill jars, tamping down tightly.
4. Make sure your liquid is ABOVE the veggies and add your glass weight to the top of them.
5. Fill your airlock to the mark with water and put it in the cork with a hole.
6. Put that in the metal lid securely.
7. Put your rubber seal on clean jar rim and screw your lid on with a canning ring.
8. Let it sit in the dark for 3-5 days and taste it. You’re done! Store in a jar in the fridge or cool storage.

Ok that being said there are a few rules I think you should follow:

1. DON’T use spoiled scraps or anything with mold or softness to it.
2. DO fill your jars almost to the top. Allow a little room for expansion but no more than an inch or two.
3. DO make sure you gave enough salt and brine (liquid). Some veggies make more brine than others. If it doesn’t cover it make a salt water solution to cover it. Your veggies WILL spoil if they aren’t covered completely!

One reason I love this new system is I can literally pack the jars, put on the lids and just let them sit! Its so simple and works AMAZING! I have made something like 4 gallons of fermented foods in the past month using these with a total work time of maybe an hour!!

So what kinds of ferments can you make?

Of course there is the ever popular sauerkraut made from cabbage! I personally am a huge fan of this simple dish. I eat it on pretty much everything from soups to sandwiches, Mexican and Italian or biscuits and sausage. Its incredible! I made several batches of this. We ate at least 1 gallon a week!

Then I added onions to it and Wowzers! Amazing!! Then i added onions AND peppers. Woah! We loved that one even more. It was very reminiscent of a delightful salsa!

We also began fermenting cauliflower and my husband loves that. I mixed onions in with it too. I think everything is probably better with onions (except maybe chocolate chip cookies) and I made a batch of just fermented onions. We loved them all!

If you ever start fermenting foods I think you will get seriously addicted! They’re really that good (and amazing for you!).

We were so impressed with my kit that we ordered a 6 pack so now I can do 7 different jars at once! I have half gallon, quart and pints in wide mouth jars and they all work equally well! Before when I used my crocks i had to do pretty massive amounts at once and when I had a failure it was SO disappointing! Not to mention expensive. I have had 0 fails with this system! I want to also mention that everything is made in the US and wonderful quality! This is small family run business too 🙂 I love supporting small businesses!

Ok I have made this post so HUGE because I’m crazy about this but you’ll have to try it for yourself and don’t forget to check out what our other reviewers think at the link below!