Blog #10 Post a recipe for something made with fermentation Explain how fermentation helps make the food.

this fermented foods pickle recipe, you will need:

• 2-one gallon crocks or glass jars
• 4 lbs. of cucumbers
• 3⁄4 cup kosher salt
• 1 bunch dill weed
• 1 head of garlic, peeled
• 1 onion, sliced
• pinch of black peppercorns (optional)
• 10 grape leaves
• 1 gallon boiling water

First, wash your cucumbers and remove any remaining blossoms. Poke them with a bamboo skewer, inserting it a few inches into one end, but not going all the way through.

Slice the onions, peel the garlic and rinse the grape leaves.

Boil the water and dissolve the salt in it and set aside to use later.

Place 2 or 3 grape leaves in the bottom of the jar(s). Place as many cucumbers as will fit in a single layer on the grape leaves. Add 5-6 cloves of garlic, a handful of onion slices, a handful of dill weed, and a pinch of black peppercorns. Put another layer of grape leaves on top.

Continue layering in this way until the jar is full. Finish with grape leaves.

Pour the hot brine into the jar(s) until full. Use a chopstick or knife to poke down into the jar (around the sides) to remove air bubbles.

Find a plastic lid (called a follower) that you can fit into the jar by bending it, and that will expand to mostly cover the grape leaves on top.

Place a weight on top of the follower (We use a mason jar filled with rocks and water) to keep the pickles under the brine. They should be covered by at least one inch of brine once the weight is in place.

Let sit at room temperature for 3-7 days, checking daily for desired taste.

When they taste right to you, cut them into slices and store them in jars covered with brine and with lids on top, in your refrigerator. You've made fermented foods!

The process of fermentation not only helps to preserve food, it breaks food nutrients down into more digestible forms, improves the bioavailability of minerals, and creates new nutrients including B vitamins (folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, and biotin). Fermented foods are also live foods, full of beneficial bacteria.

http://www.learningherbs.com/fermented_foods.html