In 1986, I developed reactive arthritis, a condition similar to rheumatoid arthritis. For 5 years the joints in my body were so painful that I could not walk more than a few feet or stand for more than a few minutes at a time. I often couldn't even do such simple, everyday things as turn door knobs due to arthritis pain in my hands. My doctors tried everything they knew, but they could not help me.
Because ginger won’t give off as much liquid as cucumbers or cabbage, it ferments better in brine. When making brine, the recommended ratio is three tablespoons of sea salt per four cups of water.
Ingredients:
about 3 lbs fresh ginger root
1 scant tablespoon sea salt
1 cup filtered water
Equipment:
1 quart-size wide-mouthed mason jar
1 pint-size mason jar
1 regular size lid
Instructions:
- Peel ginger and slice thinly.
- Place in a quart-size wide-mouth mason jar. Press down on the ginger with a spoon or mallet.
- Mix water and salt to make brine and add to the jar.
- If liquid does not completely cover ginger, add more water. If more than a half-cup of water is added, you’ll need to add more salt to maintain the salinity of the brine.
- Once the ginger is packed, place the regular size lid inside the jar, on top of the ginger.
- Fill the pint-size jars with water and seal them. Use these as weights to push gas bubbles out of the fermenting ginger (Insert the smaller jars of water in the open jars of ginger, on top of the regular canning lid. Push down on the weights once a day and watch the trapped gas bubble to the surface).
- Depending on the time of year and the climate, the ginger will take between one and four weeks to ferment (The colder the climate, the longer the fermentation will take to finish).
- When bubbles stop forming, the fermentation process is complete.
- After fermentation at room temperature, store in refrigerator.
Notes:
If you are fermenting in warm weather, simply slicing the ginger thinly will be enough to create a good ferment. If you are fermenting in colder weather, pounding the ginger with a mallet will help it ferment better and more quickly.
For more at-home fermenting ideas and recipes, check out my list of non dairy probiotics.
I want to thank you very much for the very precious knowledge you have shared, i’m gonna try your recipes especially for my special needs toddlers
Dear Sarah,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Please let me know how you and your toddlers like my recipes!
Thank you for the detailed information. Just set up my ginger on the counter. Can’t wait to eat fresh fermented ginger with our sushi without the preservatives and food coloring!!
sushi ginger is made from young ginger wich has natural pink color. there is no food coloring in authentic sushi ginger.
Thank you for your comment Mick. Of course, in this world of deceptive food marketing and food colorings added to mimic higher value products, I recommend reading food labels to make sure that if you are purchasing something marketed as sushi ginger, to see if it has any food dye added.
I buy fresh organic ginger and I clean it by scrubbing it very thoroughly but I don’t peel it. Then I cut it into 1” pieces and freeze it, I make a half gallon batch of golden milk with it about twice per week and I process it in the frozen state in my Ninja single serve cup. I have a couple questions. The first one is would there be any reason I couldn’t pulverize it in my ninja before I ferment it? The second question is if you freeze it after fermentation do you lose the benefits of the fermentation process?
Hi Ken, as far as I know it should work fine to pulverize ginger root before fermenting it. If you try it, please let me know how well that works for you. I don’t know how well the various lactofermentation probiotic organisms survive freezing. It would be a much more sure bet to keep your ferment in the fridge, not the freezer.