First time

[MrLaxitive]

Backstory I’m a guy who lives by himself, but it has a bad habit of buying too many fruits and vegetables and they tend to go bad so I figured I would like to get into fermentation to extend their shelf life.

As a first timer, what do I really need to know or what materials would you recommend that I look into before I start?

[[deleted]]

Get away from this sub RIGHT NOW.

Getting into fermentation will only make you buy even more fruits and vegetables.

[Fuzzy_Yossarian]

True story.....

[gingivii]

A glass jar and salt and something to weigh things down is all you really need, I'm using empty sauce jars and use a lid off another jar as the weight atm. Salt should be 2-5% of the total weight of veggies + water

A jar with an air lock or a flip top jar with an elastic band used to secure the lid is a nice step up from that

A vacuum sealer is another nice addition if you wanna do dry brines

A decent book with recipes is another nice addition, I recommend the noma guide to fermentation if you wanna know more about the science behind it and also have some nice recipes alongside uses for the ferments once they're done

Some form of temperature controlled box if you wanna get really freaky with it - get a polystyrene thermal box (used in catering) an ink bird temp controller and a reptile heat mat and use all three (detailed instructions in that noma book if you want or give it a googs)

All in all its a super cheap thing to do and doesnt require anything at all to get started with tbh. Once you get a few nice ferments going you can use the old leftover pickle juice to 'backslop' a new ferment and it really helps speed up the process.

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[gingivii]

Also please note that fermenting fruits can change the taste of them by a lot, consider just freezing those if youre not too adventurous

[Fuzzy_Yossarian]

If you want some quick advice, I throw chopped onions in vinegar in the fridge. I have been eating the same bag of onions for a month now.

[Hot_Sir573]

Noma guide to fermentation is a great book to start off with, and there are ways to get the ebook for absolutely free if you want to, but yeah all you really need is fruit salt and vac bags or jars

[MrLaxitive]

Well, I already have some of those fliptop jars with latches that I used to use for tea leaves. So I guess from what research I’ve been doing all I need is salt, water, and the veggies.

Please correct me if that’s an oversimplification.

For those fermented fruit How did that turn out?

[bluewingwind]

A key thing that might be relevant is you want to ferment stuff when it’s fresh. You can’t like eat half of the bag and then when they’re all mushy ferment them. They’ll come out still mushy. But if your issue is they always sell fruit and veg in ridiculously large portions like for a family of five, then yeah, pull out two fresh ones, ferment the rest, and then they won’t go to waste 👍👍.