Fermented Wild Berries & Fruits

Fermented Wild Berries & Fruits

Fermenting wild berries and fruits reduces the tartness while packing in the flavor. It’s so very and delicious to preserve foraged foods. Yeast-based cultures are perfect for sweet ferments. Some options include raw apple cider vinegar, kombucha, fresh bug, milk kefir whey, and raw whey.

Safety: If the fruit is safe to eat, you can ferment it. If the fruit needs to be safe to eat, you can ferment it raw. Fermenting doesn’t deal with toxins or indigestible properties in the same way that cooking does.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of fruit and berries
• 1/2 cup of yeast-based culture, see notes

For tart and less juicy fruits:

• 2 tablespoons of sugar, to feed the culture
• 1/2 cup of water, as needed to cover

Preparation

• Please see the sections above for additional notes about fermenting wild berries. Only ferment fruit that you can eat raw or at rare temperature. Fermentation is a substitution for cooking.

• Wash and prepare the fruit for eating. This may include removing stems, pits, and peeling. Pack the fruit down into the jar and add water and sugar to feed the yeast. Pack the fruit down into the jar and add salt, if needed, to ensure that all the fruit is completely submerged in the brine.

• Like fermenting wild fruits for several months (summer picking for winter eating). However, if mold growing on top is in the freezer to slow the fermentation. Since this is a sweet ferment, mold means the entire jar is contaminated.