Corn relish - lactofermented and "normal"

We bought 8 corn cobs for $2 at the farmers market and knew we couldn't eat all of it and I really really wanted to try making relish (was hoping to grow corn, but that didn't work out), so it was a perfect opportunity to try a fermented relish and a vinegar relish based on these recipes:

Fermented corn relish recipe and general fermenting advice
Vinegar based corn relish recipe

They both started the same way, cut the corn from the cob, chop some capsicum, cucumber, tomato and blend.

For the vinegar relish I then cooked about half the corn/vege mixture with salt, sugar, vinegar, tumeric, cumin, mustard and pepper.

The other half of the mixture was mixed cold with whey, salt and coriander (by the way, I freeze the whey, so it hasn't been sitting the fridge since January!)

These are the finished products, lactofermented relish on the left, vinegar relish on the right.

Comparison:

I like the taste of both relishes, the lactofermented relish is "fresher" tasting, especially with the coriander.
The lactofermented relish is quicker to make, has less ingredients, and doesn't have to be cooked. It will also last longer as I don't have a pressure canner to preserve the vinegar pickle for longer (and that's a bit pointless for one jar anyway!).
Lactofermenting results can be variable (in my experience so far) and don't always get eaten before they go off, but then neither does the vinegar pickle.

Just in case you think I'm a fermenting genius, below are two fermenting fails. There are still some pickles that are ok, but this jar went mouldy and we never finished the sauerkraut, I think we just don't like it that much. It has been fun to experiment though and to try new foods and preserving methods.

Do you ferment anything?

Cooking and eating beans

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Guest post: Is there a place for power tools in the garden?

One of my regular readers and commenters offered to write a guest post about a horticulture course, its quite a funny read, with some serious insights into our technology obsession. If you'd like to submit a guest post, email me at eight.acres.liz {at} gmail.com. While I am always happy to share links back to your blog or website, this contributor preferred to remain anonymous. I hope you enjoy their story.... -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- Just a few days ago our daily horticulture classes were interrupted by an invitation to review some new gardening gadgets. The idea was to open half a dozen of electric hand trimmers , test them and fill in some review about their goods and bads. As nothing is more dear to a student – even a “hort “ one - to escape routine and mess around till lunchtime, we opened the boxes and got down to business. What did we...

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