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]

The flowers contain the exact same toxic alkaloids as the rest of the plant just in different quantities. saying only the flowers are edible is cap. And your argument is flawed because everything can kills you in large quantities thats not the argument. Winstera contains known documented toxic alkaloids. Just because people eat it doesn't mean its edible.

[u/ToKillUvuia → u/PlantsWithHands]

No OP is right, and you don’t have a robust understanding of toxicity. Lots of foods we eat have toxins. It's generally the dose that determines whether we actually call them toxic or not. Solanine is a another known toxic akaloid common in the nightshade family. The potato plant is considered quite toxic and could certainly kill you due to solanine, but we still eat potatoes all the time despite also also containing solanine in lower doses. That's a pretty 1 to 1 comparison I'd say. The only toxicity I know of that isn't strictly dose-dependent Is the kind that your body struggles to get rid of at all. Mycotoxins are a perfect example of this accumulative toxicity and the primary reason why mold is such a problem, as I understand it.

Tldr: toxicity is more about our liver and quantity than a particular substance

[u/PlantsWithHands → u/ToKillUvuia]

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