Lactic Acid Fermented Beets -- YUM!

My last batch of fermented beets was so good I had to run out and get some more beets to get another batch going. I watched the clock to see just how long it took to prepare them. 20 minutes! And that's counting about 5 minutes washing things, then deciding to top out the jar with whatever was in the fridge and preparing that as well, then washing up again. It's so quick and easy there is no reason not to add the many benefits of fermentation (notably increased taste and nutrition) to veggies. In case you don't know, here's the procedure:

Get some beets. That part isn't included in the 20 minutes. Just eyeball an amount that seems like it'll fill a wide mouth quart jar, or, if you're feeling ambitious, a 1/2 gallon jar. (If you don't have a case or 2 of these around, get some. They faciliate so many things!)

Get out your jar and plastic top. (One of my favorite almost-worth-the-oil things are these plastic tops that go on canning jars. I hope they figure out how to make these from kudzo.)

Get out a 2 or 4 cup measure, your Sea Salt, and a tablespoon measure.

Wash your beets, cut off tops and bottoms, cut into whatever size pieces you like, and throw the pieces right into your jar, to within 1" of the top. I don't bother with peeling, and cut them into the fairly small size I like on a salad. Your chickens will love you forever if you give them the cut off tops and bottoms.


Fill your jar with unchlorinated, unfluoridated water up to 1" from the top.

Pour that water back into your measuring cup. (Isn't that a GORGEOUS color?)

Into it, completely dissolve salt, a bit less than 1 T salt for every cup of water. (This is the hot weather amount. When the weather is cooler, you can loose less salt.)

If you happen to have it, add the seeds from 3 or 4 (or more) cardamom pods.

Put on your plastic top. You want to use the plastic kind because it will allow excess gas to escape, and it won't react with the brine.

Sit the jar in a bowl and let it sit for a while.

After a couple or 3 weeks, taste. Eat or wait longer, as you prefer.

If your beets didn't quite come up 1" from the top of the jar, you can add some other veggies. Carrots are great. I happened to have a couple tiny carrots, which I slice in, and some small pickling cukes, which I threw in whole. I'll pull out the cukes in a few days. I just wanted to flavor them a little, and I don't want them going mushy in there.