i was surprised how much interest my previous fermenting post got – and i am happy to say it seems to have inspired a few bits of fermenting out there. it may be that people loved the photos – which did look great i agree. but i have made a few schoolboy errors i'm afraid. the main one is not paying enough attention to the waterline and for whatever reason which have been multiple i have had a few jars go mouldy because i have had things poke above it. i thought i'd better confess in the public domain so took a photo of the latest one – which i think looks rather beautiful. but it did remind me that the flip side of creativity is failure. if you can't fail you won't try stuff and you don't learn. but i have pressed through and now successfully made the following ferments…

• ginger beer – just keeps giving
• lime pickle – i am addicted – seriously try it with this recipe
• sourdough – have been doing that for 5 years now and fortunately managed to keep sourcing flour in the mayhem created by lockdown and everyone starting to make bread
• radishes – got that one right first time – see here 
• kraut – second time lucky though not sure what i eat it with – any suggestions?
• basil beets – my sons have suggested this as a future DJ name for me! – recipe here btw
• mixed veg – probably my least favourite
• carraway carrots and turnips – turnips are surprsingly wonderful fermented (these and the other veg ones above are all from 
• farmer's cheese – this is not actually fermented but is in sandor's book which is my excuse both for trying it and including it here – particularly satisfying was turning it into paneer for my own palek paneer curry
• lemon pickle – also not fermented but is kind of close being a pickle?!
• and this weeks new one has been yoghurt – which is amazing – see below
• and the failure i have not repeated yet is peppers – need to retry

so this week's adventure has been yoghurt and i followed the sandor katz recipe in wild fermentation. it needed 8 hours to yog rather than 4 (is that a verb?!). and i used a dried culture from bulgaria which took a while to come in the post – i didn't realise you could simply use some yoghurt to kickstart it. i don't have such luxuries as a yoghurt maker so used a cooler/coolbox with hot water in and that did the trick.

having made it i then drained one through a cheesecloth for an hour to thicken it into greek yoghurt and that is incredible. so i think i'll do the same with my second jar. it tasted delicious with fruit and some homemade granola after cycling 26 miles this morning – i can never bring myself to buy granola as it sees so over priced for essentially some toasted oats with bits in!

the photo album fermenting has a few more photos in now though i have realised i must add some of the sourdough which i kind of take fro granted having made bread for several years now but it probably the best ferment i make actually…

so there you go – that's where it's got to in my lockdown fermenting adventures.