Recipe: Simple, Simply Fabulous Fermented Blueberries

Crops & Gardening

Recipe: Simple, Simply Fabulous Fermented Blueberries

by Stephanie Thurow - August 4, 2023

Quick! Before fresh blueberries are no longer available, get a small batch of fermented blueberries going.

Fermented fruits and vegetables are some of the easiest preserves to make. Fermented fruits and veggies often only require the produce and salt or the produce and a saltwater brine (salt dissolved in water).

Unlike vegetable ferments, because of the high sugar content, fruits ferment more quickly than vegetables. This berry ferment can be used many of the ways you’d use fresh or cooked berries, but we prefer to use it as a condiment that we spoon over spicy, grilled, jerked chicken.

This recipe can be enjoyed any of the ways you’d enjoy blueberries—in yogurt, oatmeal, added to salads and so on.

Yield: 1 pint

Ingredients

2 cups fresh blueberries
1 tsp kosher salt

Instructions

Wash and strain blueberries. Discard any bruised or flawed berries.

Add blueberries to a clean pint jar and add salt. Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean towel and add the canning lid, then tightly screw on the ring. Shake the jar to mix the salt within the berries.

It is ideal to use a fermentation jar weight to push the berries down in the jar (without crushing them) so that, once the natural brine is created, it will keep the berries submerged.

Keep at room temperature and out of direct sunlight.

Once a day, unscrew the canning ring to “burp” the ferment so that the built-up gases created during fermentation can release. Push down the jar weight as needed so the berries are once again submerged.

Ferment for three days and taste test. If the fermented blueberries have reached your desired sour-tangy flavor, transfer the jar to the refrigerator. If they still taste too much like fresh berries, allow them to ferment another day and taste test again until they reach your liking.

For best texture and flavor, enjoy this fruity ferment within two weeks.

Stephanie is an author, certified master food preserver, food preservation instructor and freelance writer that lives in Minnesota. Her pastimes include: cooking-from-scratch, canning, fermenting, crafting, hand stamping metal jewelry, organic gardening, photography, chicken keeping, fishing, traveling and urban homesteading. She also enjoys laughing, dancing and visiting with family and friends. She has had a die-hard love of kimchi since she was a toddler, which ultimately lead to her interest in fermentation. She loves to garden and lives with her family, pets and flock of hens on her urban homestead near Minneapolis, MN.