This short video gives a brief tutorial of how to ferment vegetables using the lacto fermentation method:

What is lacto fermentation, you may ask? Lacto fermentation is the old-world process of fermenting vegetables with the help of lactobacillus — useful bacteria that convert sugars into lactic acid. This lactic acid serves as a preservative, preventing bad bacteria that could potentially spoil the fermented veggies.

Before refrigeration and globalized food transport, lacto fermentation was a necessity for many cultures to preserve their supply to fresh vegetables through the winter (think sauerkraut in eastern europe, or kimchi in Korea). In fact the diet of nearly every traditional culture includes some kind of lacto fermented food. The lactobacillus bacteria present in these foods are also essential to maintaining healthy flora in our guts. At Vita Kitchen we believe fermented foods are one of the pillars of a nutritious diet, and we try to incorporate them into our meals on a daily basis.

You can ferment almost every vegetable but some of the most common, and easiest, include: carrots, cabbage, radishes, cucumber, turnips, green beans, broccoli stems, kohlrabi, and cauliflower. The beauty of it is that you can play around with different herbs, spices, as well as length of fermentation in order to achieve a product to your liking.

Hoping that this video helps to demystify the basic steps to ferment any kind of vegetable, but of course I don’t cover it all. To further nerd out on fermented things, check out Sandor Katz’ book, The Art of Fermentation. It’s basically the bible for this stuff: