Lacto Fermented Sugar Pumpkin
Lacto Fermented pumpkin is soooo good! The process is super easy, it just takes a little bit of time. The hardest part of fermenting anything is waiting for your fermentation to be ready to eat! This can be around 1-2 weeks, but it is well worth the wait. The materials you need is simple. You just need 2 mason jars, I use the quart size, a sugar pumpkin, fine sea salt, filtered water and some additional spices if desired. Below I show the process. The time frame for your fermentation is around 5 days to 2 weeks for a beautiful lacto fermented pumpkin that will be ready to eat! This pumpkin is great in a salad, on a sandwich or by itself.
Ingredients:
1 sugar pumpkin
Small piece of pumpkin rind
Fine sea salt calculated by weight. (I’ll explain that below)
Filtered water or bottled spring water
1 cinnamon stick
1 -2 drops fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 whole nutmeg
2 clove
1 small pinky size piece of ginger, fresh
1 tbsp liquid from another ferment
You’ll also need a digital scale that weighs in grams
Procedure:
Rinse the outside of pumpkin thoroughly with hot water, let air dry. Your jars, hands, cutting board, knife and all other pieces of equipment need to be sanitary. Mold will grow as a result of anything having unwanted bacteria getting into the jar and will ruin your fermentation project! Cut rind off pumpkin and cut into sections. Slice each section into rough chopped pieces or slices. Any shape you’d like in a salad or on a sandwich. Keep a small piece of the rind also. This helps cap off the ingredients in the jar and helps start the fermentation process.
Place empty Mason jar onto the scale and zero out. Make sure you weigh in grams. Add pumpkin and spices into the jar. Fill jar with filtered, room temperature water. Add a drop or 3 of lemon juice. This will help get rid of any chloramine that may be present in your filtered water. Fill up to the neck and with enough water to cover ingredients by at least half an inch. Leave some head room too, about 1 inch just in case you have to put a weigh in the jar on top of the ingredients. The ingredients must be kept under water creating an anaerobic environment. If anything gets exposed to air, mold will form and you will have to start all over!
Record weigh on the scale. Mine was 863 grams, yours will most likely differ.
Pour water into another empty Mason jar leaving pumpkin and spices behind and place the jar with the water on the scale. Zero out the scale and calculate how much salt you need in grams. 863 (my weight) grams multiplied by 2.5 percent. I got 21.575 for mine. I round down as I can’t weigh in decimal on my scale and it is close enough. Much more accurate than doing this by cups and table spoons.
Put a lid on your jar and shake vigorously to dissolve the salt. Pour your water solution back into the jar that has the pumpkin and spices. Add 1 tbsp liquid of another ferment to help the process get started if needed. Make sure all ingredients are covered by water.
Place your fermentation project on your counter or in your pantry. Ideally, ferments like to be in a 70-80 degree environment. Hotter than that and it will ferment quicker, cooler will take longer if it ferments at all. My kitchen is cooler in the winter months, when I typically ferment sugar pumpkin. I use a starter liquid from another ferment to get the fermentation going. I let it go from 5 days up to 2 weeks on the counter top. I taste it after 3 days and check on it daily. By day 3 you should see things start to happen. You’ll probably get kahm yeast forming on the surface of the water and should see signs of small bubbles either collecting on the sides of your pumpkin pieces and or bubbles floating up to the top. They can be quite small and hard to see at first. Don’t worry if you don't see them after the first day or so. I’ve had one project not bubble much at all and let it sit for 5 days and still ended up woth an amazing fermentation. The longer it ferments for, the stronger the flavor!
After 1 week or 2 taste it to see where it’s at. Pumpkin generally won’t go longer than 1 and a half weeks to ferment and I have been completely satisfied with one after about 5 days. It’s all taste and preference. The flavors develop together from the pumpkin and spices creating an intense flavor. Really, it is like nothing else! Put a lid on your jar and place in refrigerator. This will keep for 3 months if you don't eat it sooner than that. Enjoy!
Day 1 of the Fermentation Process
Cut top and bottom off of the pumpkin. Slice rind off of the pumpkin using a VERY sharp knife. Keep as much of the flesh as possible.
Cut sections off the pumpkin getting as close to the seeds as possible conserving as much of the pumpkin flesh as you can. This part takes some practice!
You can dice, rough chop or slice the pumpkin. Keep pieces larger as the pumpkin softens some during fermentation. Cutting it too small makes it mushy.
Other ingredients I put in the jar. That is 1 cinnamon stick, 2 clove, 3 small pinky size pieces of ginger and 1 whole nutmeg. Pumpkin pie spices!
Use room temperature filtered water or buy bottled water. Tap water has too many chemicals and will interfere with the fermentation. All ingredients get weighted out with the water. Fill the jar up to cover the ingredients by a minimum of half an inch and leave enough head room for when the fermentation starts to happen as it will bubble. I leave at least 1 inch from the top of the jar. My weight was 863 g multiplied by 2.5 % to get the amount of sea salt you need. I needed 21 g.
Weigh out the salt as calculated 2.5%. Fine sea salt it highly recommended as it dissolves the best. Stay away from any salt that is iodized, it will not ferment properly or at all. Put a lid on the jar and shake vigorously to dissolve the salt. Pour the water/salt solution back into the jar with the pumpkin and spices. You may need to weigh it down with a small jar or ramekin. I found out that a baby food jar works great! I use a part of the rind to cap off the pumpkin that will help anything from floating to the top. All ingredients MUST remain underneath water level or mold will happen.
The white film on top is kahm yeast, which is a great sign that things are working the way they should. Mold will be white and or green and look much differently. If it molds, I never risk it and the ferment gets tossed out.
The start of fermentation bubbles. Tiny bubbles may collect and get trapped. I move things around a little bit to let them rise to the top at the end of the day if some do get trapped.
Side by side comparison. The left jar is the pumpkin after about a month in the refrigerator. I’ve been enjoying it as you can see by the limited amount of the fermented pumpkin! The jar on the right is a fresh batch I took a photo of that day.
Finished Fermented pumpkin after 2 weeks and ready to eat!
