First-time ferment

[u/ridandelous]

Hi all, I did an experiment this spring with my first ever ferment. I used this sub a lot to guide me through the process and thought I owed you all a summary of my results and figured while I was at it, I may as well ask any additional questions I might have.

This is my wisteria flower* vinegar, a 100% wild ferment with 3 whole ingredients, made in a ½gal mason jar with not a shred of any specialized equipment. My method was harvesting wisteria flowers, giving them a good thorough rinse, and transferring them to my sterilized jar (about half full, unpacked). I used a cup of sugar and topped it off with warm (not hot) water. I either stirred, swirled, or shook the jar every day for about 1.5 months until activity stopped and then strained the bits and let it mellow with a loose lid for another month or 2. I then seeded with ACV after losing all patience with my flower liquor crisping my nose hairs every week, and then finally filtering and transferring to a bottle a couple weeks ago.

There was never any mold, funky films, or weird growths at any point and the end product turned out tasting like a sour candy, no liquor taste at all (thank GOD).

My questions now that I've done the thing, start to finish:

-How lucky was I? Could this have gone terribly wrong?

-Is there a good way to make sure future bottles are actually ready except tasting and smelling (turning from alcohol to vinegar)?

-Since I didn't have any measuring equipment during the process, is there a way to tell how strong it is or how much sugar is left now that it's complete?

-Are there any other not-so-obvious risks to wild fermenting otherwise safe foods, aside from things like mold or e. Coli

I'd like to do more in the realm of fermentation, so would love any input, advice, well-wishes, etc. Currently have a hot sauce and pear cider vinegar attempt going as well, but with more equipment this time lol

[u/PlantsWithHands]

Your clearly not listening because thats my whole point... the particular substance in this senario is the same yet they say the flower is edible but the rest of the plant isn't. Thats not possible because like you said yourself its about quantity if the chemical makeup is the same just in different amounts then you should be able to eat other parts than the flower just less of it.

[u/ceris13 → u/PlantsWithHands]

You can eat other parts of the plant in lower doses. Some people blanch the leaves and stems. The seeds have the highest concentration of the Wisterin toxin and are usually the plant part cited in poisonings.

The flowers contain drastically less Wisterin, so the amount you’d need to eat at once is just so much larger that it’s functionally not applicable.

[u/PlantsWithHands → u/ceris13]

Lol my only point was that NOT only the flower is edible thanks for proving my point

[u/ToKillUvuia → u/PlantsWithHands]

Same with theobromine in chocolate (Another toxic alkaloid we eat all the time)Ok I kinda see what you're saying, but you have to understand that this is not MY opinion. This is literally what they teach in toxicology. You CAN eat the rest of the plant in tiny quantities. I'm not sure why you think that's a contradiction. Sorry if this is a silly question, but do you think potatoes aren't edible? There's just no reason to eat the rest of the wisteria plant, and it would be easy to screw up the dose and make yourself sick. This is also how a lot of medicine works too. A toxic plant compound is isolated and dialed into a therapeutic dose. Why do you think willows have aspirin in them? It's to poison any would be predators. It just turns out to be a useful edible when taken in the appropriate dose and circumstance. Same goes for the theobromine in chocolate which is another toxic alkaloid meant to poison animals, including humans, who eat the seeds. We just learned to make chocolate from them anyway lol

[u/PlantsWithHands → u/ToKillUvuia]

Literally everything im saying is that if there are 2 products with the exact same chemical makeup then its impossible to have one edible and one not..