Hi, welcome to better done yourself.
today on better done yourself:
fermented green tomatoes!  I've got lots
of green tomatoes that are, well
depending on conditions, you know, you
find them out in the garden and
they blew off the vine or they snapped
or you had to pull plants out and you
have all these Tomatoes... a lot of people
like to fry them yeah I like to ferment
them you know me I ferment everything
these are super easy to do just a couple
of ingredients in these you've got your
Tomatoes obviously you've got look at
the garlic just to give it a little bit
of bite I've been using oak leaves in my
ferments this is awesome this is I
pulled this out of the forest next door
this is a red oak leaves yeah I'll
probably use two of these in my
fermenting vessel these contain a ton of
ten and a lot of people use tea bags I
don't really like that because it turns
the ferment water brown turns the brine
Brown not a nice aesthetic and you're in
your green pickles a couple of oak
leaves just down the bottom of the jar
what they do is they give off a ton of
cannon and that tannin preserves the the
pectin or the protein in the fruit that
causes that crunchiness and these are
obvious can be super crunchy he's that
green tomatoes they're starting to turn
a little bit I could probably put them
out in the Sun or put them in a paper
bag with a banana or something like that
and ripen them but you know once they
come off the vine they quit producing
sugar they quit producing fructose that
are making these into nice sweet
summertime Tomatoes so there's really
not much to do with the mother then well
ferment them so here let's get goin on
this like I said to two old leaves a
couple of garlic cloves and then just go
ahead and cut up the tomatoes these
obviously are a little big to ferment
and also I want to give some open
services the the brine and the bacteria
aren't going to be able to get into
these Tomatoes in order for man what you
want to do is try to just like when you
make sauerkraut you cut the cut the
cabbage up with you know really fine do
something like that with your tomatoes
you know grab a sharp knife and that
will just cut a couple of wedges think
about when you're making something think
about how you want to look when you're
done you know
he's out on a plate with you know my
with a meal and I want some you know
pretty pickles to put out so think about
how you wanted to look on the plate so
cut accordingly cut up a little bit of
the vine connector there the and load up
your jar basically you just want I don't
know what I cut that into six those
pieces are going to bake so again super
easy vegetable fridge just like
everything else we've made on this
channel cut up your veg put it into a
jar I put garlic and everything I took
with garlic and everything so the garlic
is great if you watch watch the last
video of the fermented garlic and honey
awesome awesome stuff there but just cut
up cut up your Tomatoes if these are
eight size wedges and I keep throwing
them in unsliced
shake it down a little bit trying to get
more to fit in my jar this one's turning
turning red but again like I said once
these come off the vine they're really
not producing any more sugar they're
really not getting any more delicious
getting any sweeter you know save your
save your hardest for the vine ripened
tomatoes are are really where it's at
when you when you get these tomatoes
that haven't have been cut too soon and
then ripened with ethylene and they're
just not as sweet as you want that's why
because they didn't remove from the vine
but I'm just going to ferment these
though so I think there's enough
fructose in these they'll beat our look
bacterial friends to get a good ferment
off but pack your jar up what do I got
in there I've got my got my garlic I've
got the oak leaves and my green tomatoes
well some what green tomatoes that's
okay they're pretty
next ingredient brine same Brian recipe
that I've been using on this channel
every time again with the you use the
brine in the ferment basically you want
to Harbor the good bacteria that's on
the surface of the vegetable so these
came from an organic farm and I know
that they're basically clean so I didn't
even wash them you know I picked the
pick the dead leaves off and it let the
bugs fly away but these are clean and
what happens is that those bacteria are
in the air and they stick to the outside
of the veg so I've got a nice culture of
bacteria for free but I want to go out
the tomatoes what we want to do though
is make sure that nothing else can grow
in that in this environment that we're
creating in this jar so what I'm going
to do is fill it with brine which will
as that that salt is a preservative the
good bacteria those lacto bacteria can
survive the the salty the salty brine
everything else that you know they're
nasty things that are not going to be
happy in this salt water so I'm going to
make a three-percent Brian basically
I've got a half gallon of water here six
tablespoons of salt much salt is this
substrate is Celtic sea salt that
existed the late great Celtic salt it's
a nice natural salt nice natural sea
salt that they produce and it's got a
lot of minerals in it there's got a lot
of because they literally just drive
seawater and they create a really nice
product Celtic sea salt hit the lace
below grab yourself a bag
and then just start the brine fill it
right up now one final thing we need to
do here here's a little piece of
trimming we need to make sure that these
tomatoes stay under water we're creating
an anaerobic environment for these
bacteria to grow and ferment our
deliciousness down here but I want to
make sure those tomatoes stay underneath
so you need to figure out some way to
wait down the vegetables under the
surface of the water we're using an
anaerobic or oxygen free bacteria and we
don't want any aerobic bacteria
basically anything that's going to grow
to to spoil these so we want to hold
down everything under the water this
looks great but as soon as this has been
sitting here for a couple days I'll bet
it on and a half that something's going
to float up so you can just use a little
jar and maybe put a little bit of water
in it and use that for a wink I really
like these I bought a pack of beans off
the Amazon pickle Devils hit the links
below and just you know literally drop
that in on top of the on top of the
vegetables and that will hold them down
that works great and then finally if you
don't have anything like that zip top
bag fill it with a little bit of your
brine here squeeze out the air and then
just lay this right on top here okay we
just want to make sure that the the
water levels coming up to overflowing
here
and that's it that's ready for the
pantry I'm going to let this go you know
probably about five days like they
usually do and taste one take a little
nibble and see how they're coming along
see how smoochie they are they should be
nice and crisp between the brian and the
oak leaves in there I think we're gonna
have a nice crisp crisp tickle but
basically with fermenting let it ferment
as long as you want you can eat those
tomatoes right now yes you can eat green
tomatoes yes you can eat Tomatoes
tomatoes are not poisonous that is an
old old actually an old American myth
when the Europeans first came over here
they saw these tomato plants growing
these big red fruits on them and they
were convinced that they were poisonous
they took a one look at the tomato Leafs
and they took one look at what they were
familiar with from back in England the
nightshade plant leaves that looks just
like some kind of mutant nightshade
plant and they're the same they're in
the same family of plant nightshade
tomatoes eggplant tobacco all of those
things are nightshade plants they all
are poisonous some with varying degrees
of poisonous but now you can eat green
tomatoes you can make a more delicious
that you ferment them so like I said let
this go for at least five days it's set
on 70 degrees in here you know if it's
if it's a little cooler in a house it's
probably take you a little longer let
them ferment as long as you want leave
them in the pantry and let them ferment
for a week for two weeks for three weeks
if you like them that fermented great
you know you're getting that much more
bacteria that much more probiotics in
your in your snacks so we may comment
down below and tell me how your
fermented tomatoes came out and any
other fermenting projects that you're
worried about if you have any questions
or anything you'd like to see on the
channel please feel free to comment I
love your comments and of course
subscribe subscribe subscribe thanks for
all the subscriptions the channels been
doing great lately and it's thanks to
you guys so have fun doing it better
yourself
