Don't throw away the Brine!

When you ferment a lot, you'll get a lot of  what can look like "left overs", like the liquid in bottles after you've eaten the veggies. Don't throw that liquid away! Use it!

You can use it in "million" ways. In smoothies. Add some juce, honey and carbonated water to it for a soft drink. The brine-leftover is packed with the healthy bacteria as well, so it can be used as a starter to new fermentations. ...or just drink it up straight out of the jar 😄

Here's a favorite of mine, chinese (or napa-) cabbage. I usually mix different veggies with it, but this time I made a quick jar with just the chinese cabbage and left it in the cupboard for 7 days. And this newly opened bottle has a lot of brine, and is still nicely bubbly. I got inspiration from how this charming lady prepare her napa cabbage. I make it in much less steps though. I just salt the leaves like she do, let it sit ( sometimes turn them over) until it is softened enough. I sometimes store the cabbage under a plate in the bowl, in the fridge over night. When placed it a jar, I pour the liquid in the bowl and add salt brine to fill up the jar (make shure to not have too much salt if you don't rinse the cabbage).

This time I have an idea to pour out the brine to a bottle and add some raisins cut in pieces to the cabbage, and let the soak with the cabbage. It's best to add sweets like this after the fermentation is finished. The sugars can turn into alcohol and can ruin a good taste. But it's ok to add, for example, raisins or dates, or spices, to refrigerated jars.

I warmly recommend that you see the whole interview below, but I did cut out a nice piece of the talk between these two fantastic people that is so dedicated to their research, to understand and spred the knowledge about Microbiome, Fermented foods and what they mean to our health! They're driving their own "little race of disclosure", aren't they 😘😎: https://youtu.be/pl-i2aBw-ew?si=bnOaQs2QT4iJ0LYd&t=3272

If you watch the whole interview, you'll among many other cool stuff, hear about how Lactobacillus planatarum consume glyphosate and how fermented veggies reduce chemicals with 90% and lower blogsugars etc. etc. 😁 don't miss it: