Little Homeschool on the Prairie: Fermentools Review

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 was I compensated in any other way.

A while back I received a book on fermentation. I’ve always wanted to try fermenting my own food but was intimidated by the process. When the opportunity came available for the Homeschool Review Crew to review a kit from Fermentools I knew this was my no excuse opportunity to try fermenting. I received a Starter Kit to get started.

The Starter Kit comes with everything you need to get started except for a wide mouth canning jar. The kit comes with: Himalayan Powdered Salt, 1 Stainless Steel Lid, 1 Glass Fermentation Weight, 1 Air Lock, 2 Rubber Stoppers, 1 Rubber Canning Gasket, and Instruction Guide and Basic Sauerkraut recipe.

All the products according to Fermentools are made and sourced in the USA. The Starter Kit comes in a handy canvas drawstring bag to store all your tools together other than your salt.

Himalayan Powdered Salt: 1 lb of Ancient Himalayan Salt. This salt has been formulated to dissolve in cold water. When I compared to my Himalayan salt which I use regularly it was grounded up finer than what I have. Himalayan salt has 80 trace minerals for maximum health benefits. Salt is an essential part of fermentation. The package is a vacuum sealed bag that has your conversion measurements on it. One side has your percentage for your brine solution in 2%, 3.5%, and 10%. It has the percentage for pint, quart, and gallon. The other side of the bag you can convert it to TBS or tsp. The measurements are only for this salt as the weight of different salts can vary.

Stainless Steel Lid: the lid is made from 304-surgical stainless steel, corrosion resistant lid. This steel is an excellent corrosion resistance and is used in hospitals as it can easily be cleaned and kept sterile. It should last a life time with proper cleaning and care.

Glass Fermentation Weight: This weight is made for large mouth canning jars. According to the company the weight is made to not have any reaction with your food. The edges are smooth and you don’t have to worry about cutting your hands as long as you don’t chip it. I dropped it several times and it has held up.

Air Lock: is basically a one way valve to allow gases to escape but will not let air in. The Air Lock is 3 pieces. The plastic seems pretty durable. It’s easy to disassemble if you do have issue of the fermentation backing up in the airlock or even an explosion. You can easily take it apart and clean with soap and water and a good straw cleaning brush will work well with it.

2 Rubber Stoppers: one stopper has a hole to use with your Air Lock and the other one is solid without a hole. I am not sure what type of material the stoppers are. They appear to be rubber or possibly latex. They fit tightly into your lid and the Air Lock fits snug into the stopper.

Rubber Canning Gasket: This gasket will fit on top of your jar to help insult your canning lid to keep your food sealed. It’s a high quality canning jar gasket.

Instruction Guide and Basic Sauerkraut recipe: The guides will you a basic overview of the material and information on how to use the product with helpful tips, an overview about the fermentation process, and a basic sauerkraut recipe.

What did I make with my Starter Kit?

I have to say that during the recent pandemic I found that getting certain products was difficult. I wanted to find some large mouth canning qt size jars and they couldn’t be found anywhere. Not to mention I couldn’t find those in any size! The sad thing is that I have cases of canning jars for my daughter’s honey business but they aren’t large mouth jars! After digging through all our honey jars I found 1 lone pint size large mouth canning jar. I have ½ gallon ones that I store food in so I put one of those aside too. The next problem in my area was finding vegetables to ferment. Finally we found foods to get started with after awhile.

I washed everything first from the Starter Kit and even my canning jars.

My first food I was made is a staple around my house- Israeli salad. This uses tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, purple onion, and some lemon. The only difference with fermenting it is that I didn’t need to use olive oil.

My daughter is learning life skills and learning about healthy eating and using kitchen tools like a knife and scale!

My daughter and I cut up all the vegetables and combined them in a large bowl. I added the lemon juice and mixed it up good.

In a clean jar we added our salt and then some distilled water. My daughter put the cap on tightly shook the jar to dissolve the salt until we couldn’t see any more salt. While she was doing that I packed the vegetables into the jar tightly by pressing down to get rid of air pockets. I poured the brine solution over the veggies.

I assembled the lid together using the Rubber Stopper with the hole in it and put it Stainless Steel Lid. It fit into the hole perfect.

You can see how the glass weight keeps the food from floating to the top. Any food that does float up-you just remove it.

I put the Glass Fermentation Weight on top of the veggies. Then we put the Rubber Canning Gasket on the jar first and then added Stainless Steel Lid then put the canning jar rim tightly on the jar. We put the Air Lock into the Rubber Stopper. I stored my pint size jar in a cabinet for 2 days. This recipe doesn’t go beyond 2 days to ferment.

I checked the jar the first day and everything looked and smelled good. I removed a few lose veggies that floated to the top. You want the food to be completely submerged in the brine solution. If not it will get moldy.

You can see the thin white film on top and this is a good sign & normal. It has good bacteria growing.

After 2 days I popped open the lid. I smelled it first to make sure it didn’t have any funky smell to it. It tasted great. The only difference then when I usually make this is that the veggies aren’t as crisp but regardless it tasted good. The flavor was enhanced and not only that but the fermenting process I created this already healthy salad into rich probiotic bacteria that is good for your gut and health.

This was my favorite! It was AMAZING!

Our next fermenting adventure was asparagus. I could only find one bushel, I added carrots, onions, and garlic in the jar. Because I couldn’t stuff the jar with asparagus I found out that you can put baggies of water in a jar. This kept the asparagus from moving and the Glass Fermentation Weight to stay on top. After 2 weeks and checking on it daily it was ready to try. Oh My! This was wonderful and something I plan on doing often. It was delicious and so much flavor!

So far this is tasting pretty good. I want it a bit more sour.

We also are making the Basic Sauerkraut recipe currently from the Instruction Guide. I have it wrapped in a kitchen towel on my counter. I check it daily and taste test it. So far it looks good and it a week we will have homemade fermented sauerkraut.

Fermenting in our Homeschool?

Every moment we have with homeschooling our kids is a learning opportunity so I decided to give a science/history lesson with my daughter. We learned that fermenting foods is an ancient process used to make bread, cheese, wine, beer, and other foods. Then we researched different regions of the world and learned what was a common fermented. In the US we often think of Sourdough breads. Germany sauerkraut is common. Korea is Kimchi. We learned that in Russia it is Kvass a fermented beverage made of wild fermented beets and bread yeast. Syria/Lebanon/Egypt is Shanklish which is a type of cheese made from cow & sheep milk rolled into balls and covered with spices. We learned about other fermented foods around the world.

The science part in a nut shell we learned that fermenting is a natural chemical change that the texture changes as enzymes produce microbes which breaks down the cell structures and makes vegetables softer. The taste gets transformed as the enzymes breaks down large chains of molecules into amino acids and simple sugars. It takes already healthy vegetables and transforms them into super foods! We learned how healthy it is for your gut, immune system, and every part of our body!

Fermentools blessed 64 of us with a Starter Kit. The company owner Cassie is also a member of the Homeschool Review Crew. This would make a great gift. You have Mother’s Day coming up. I know I needed a physical product in front of me to take that leap into fermenting and I’m so glad I did. Right now you can get 15% off any purchase until June 30^th using the code: CREW2020 They have other kits available too.