Challenges You May Encounter when Culturing Your Foods – Part 2: How to Make Your Best Batch Every Time

Want to learn some top tips for making your best batch of cultured vegetables every time? Read on for advice from one of our Certified Body Ecologists.

[NOTE: Also see Part 1, Challenges You May Encounter when Culturing Your Foods – Including the Surprising Emotional Ones ]
Fermented foods and drinks are key superfoods in the Body Ecology program.

We love them because they are loaded with vitamins and minerals, are great for your digestion, control cravings, help your body detoxify and boost your immunity. Find out how they also keep you looking your best on the outside by reading: Want to Look Younger & Better? 8 Reasons Why Probiotics are an Essential Tool.

Since the early years of Body Ecology, Donna Gates has been teaching people to make their own fermented foods and drinks at home as a way to improve their health through re-establishing a healthy inner ecosystem.

Cultured vegetables, in particular, are one of the first fermented foods our customers experiment with at home…and for first-timers, there can be challenges.

In last week’s article, Caroline Barringer, a Certified Body Ecologist (CBE) shared how negative emotions can make your best efforts at culturing vegetables go wrong.

This week, Caroline shares tips for how to make a perfect batch of cultured vegetables every time…and she should know, she has it down to a science!

Caroline’s Tips for Making A Perfect Batch of Cultured Vegetables

Get Ready: Ingredients & Equipment – Make sure you have all your ingredients and equipment ready to go ahead of time.

NOTE: For more on helpful kitchen appliances, read: The Top 8 Recommended Appliances for Your Healthy Kitchen.

• Food processor – If you are using a home version food processor, make sure it doesn’t get overheated. If you make a lot of cultured vegetables, consider a professional food processor.
• A large stainless steel bowl and Mason jars with lids are two must-haves, according to Caroline.
• Your cultured vegetable recipe – Try our cultured vegetables recipes if you don’t have one of your own!
• Blender or juicer – to make the brine. The brine is critical to a great batch of cultured vegetables.
• A marker or labels – to put the date you made your cultured vegetables on the jars. This allows you to make sure you can track how long you want to let them ferment.

Get Set: Brine & Dine – According to Caroline, the real secret to making a great batch of cultured vegetables (in addition to a great recipe!) has to do with the brine.
• Brine – You want the microflora to thrive so that you get a great batch of cultured vegetables.
  • Microflora are anaerobic (don’t like oxygen). Cultured vegetables mold when exposed to oxygen, so use your fist or a potato masher to mash them down under the brine. If there is space between the top of the brine and your Mason jar lid, bathe a cabbage leaf in the brine and roll it up at the top of the jar. In this way, the cabbage leaf protects your precious veggies from molding (your brine-bathed cabbage leaf won’t mold, even if it’s not under the brine).
  • To make the best brine, Caroline recommends using Culture Starter so that each batch is consistently thriving with healthy microflora. It is the microflora that ferment your vegetables and multiply their nutrients.


Adding Culture Starter to your brine helps ensure that your cultured vegetables are teeming with healthy microflora. The Lactobacillus Plantarum in cultured vegetables is great for supporting weight loss goals, regulating bowels and preserving good bacteria while taking antibiotics. Read More and Order Culture Starter Now.

• Dine – Healthy microflora need food (prebiotics) to thrive. Adding honey or Ecobloom are great options to wake them up so they can get to work softening your vegetables. For more on prebiotics, read: How to Make Your Gut Most Inviting to Healthy Probiotics.
• Go: Date, Wait & Eat – Put the date on your jars and wait for 3 days – 1 week for your vegetables to ferment. Refrigerate and enjoy for up to 8 months!

Cultured Vegetables – Months of Enjoyment in One Batch!

Try Culture Starter today to create your own batch of delicious, probiotic-rich cultured vegetables! You can also use Culture Starter to make sour cream and cultured butter.