We have fermented so many different foods around here, why not mustard greens too? You all know how much we love fermented foods. Last year Jeff fermented mustard greens for the first time and they were delicious, but the ribs/stalks were too stringy. This year he grew a different kind of mustard, with very succulent ribs, and the resulting ferment ended up being amazing. (B is crazy about it and keeps requesting Jeff’s homemade “kimchi” with every meal. We all call it that, even if it might not fit the technical definition.)

It wasn’t the first time we’ve fermented greens before, though. The fermented Chijimisai greens I wrote about before, were one of my all time favorite ferments. (To ferment the greens, we chopped them up and submerged them in a salt water brine. I wrote about Pickle Pipe lids and glass weights in this post, along with the book Fermented Vegetables as a good resource for fermentation and salt water brines. If you’re interested in learning more about fermenting foods, there’s also a lot of information in my post Making Sauerkraut.)

The new (to us) kind of mustard Jeff grew over the winter is called Vibrant Ultra Violet Mustard from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. The ones we grew outside were a beautiful, deep purple color like it shows on the seed packet, but the ones Jeff grew in the greenhouse didn’t get cold enough to turn purple and had white ribs instead. We thought that was so interesting. Have any of you been doing any winter gardening? Or getting ready for your spring gardens? I’d love to hear what you’re up to. We’re inspired to keep expanding our winter harvests. If you’d like some winter garden inspiration, here are some posts from before: Cold Frames for Winter Gardening, Winter Harvests, and Cold Snap.

P.S. From my Instagram post today: “Speaking of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds… did you see the fundraiser they did, donating all seed sales to the people of Ukraine? They were able to send 1.6 million for humanitarian aid for Ukrainians displaced by war. I have a friend from Ukraine, whose family still lives there, and hearing from her has made it all feel more real. My heart goes out to everyone. I dream of a world with no war.“