Perfect Pickler

Now ya'll know ( I can say this-my mom is Southern) that I am into all things fermented, so when I spied a gadget on TV on a show that rated kitchen thingys, I said "Hmmm. I'll check out their website and see what's up." Well I did, and was enamored.

I adore lacto-fermented vegetables and preserved meats, and oh heck I'm a cheese maker for goodness sake! Each and every day I deal with what someone once coined the 'controlled rotting of milk'. Haha! So when I saw a new rig for making pickles without a canning setup or a cold basement, I decided to go for it. Every culture in the world has a propensity for consuming some kind of fermented foods, be they vegetable, meat, dairy (i.e, cheese, yogurt, kefir) or fruit. Done properly, raw fermented foods are a huge benefit to the digestive system, which begins to change for the worse as we age.....

This item called the Perfect Pickler is a large bucket with a lid, spacer and primary fermenter (like I use in home brewing). All you add are the vegetables, some celtic sea salt and water. In 96 hours you have fantastic raw fermented pickles that are crunchy, a bit spicy (if that's what you want) and oh-so healthy. My first batch with this thing I used River Berry Farm cauliflower, carrots, garlic, ginger, green beans, fennel and red pepper I had on hand. If you look closely you can see the 'spacer' which is merely a ramekin set inside the brine. So if you have never had your own raw fermented pickles some good books to get you going are: Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. This thing is fun!