I made pickles the other day. I’m happy I did it.  

To make pickles, you can pour a pickling solution over cucumbers. Or, you can ferment the cucumbers in for 10+ days. I chose to ferment.

This is an exciting topic for a blog, isn’t it?

Well, this isn’t a foodie blog, and I’m not a foodie. But this is a blog about doing things. And the process of fermentation offers a few ideas for doing things better.

• Mold can grow if the food you’re trying to ferment comes into contact with oxygen.
• Your salt or sugar brine may not be enough to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria.  
• The combination of spices, aromatics, and veggies may not ferment well. Sauerkraut is best - in my humble opinion - with mustard seed, caraway seed, and garlic.  
• Your ferment might go too long - the longer the fermentation, the sour the taste. Pro tip: improve the bio availability of good gut bacteria and nutrients with longer ferments.

There are at least four different ways I can fail. What happens on day one matters, and you won’t see the results until later.  

Fermentation teaches me to focus on the process of production to achieve a tasty result. And that the result might be days, or months, off into the future.  

That may be why gardening is so satisfying to people.  

Do yourself a favor, make pickles.

Last modified on 2020-08-27