I love Ziedrich's book. Every recipe I've made so far has been a winner. I've learned a lot too. Hip Hip Hooray for a fellow Ory-gonian! (Ziedrich's from Corvallis.) OK, getting serious now. Deanna, I'd use dry sherry to substitute. Sake isn't the best for this recipe. Chinese rice wine is different. I actually have a bottle a friend brought back from China. It's a little pottery jug and the lid is tied with straw. Very cool. The one thing I wouldn't alter is the Sichuan peppercorns. They're very different from the "regular" kind. Carol

Hi Turk, Although there is always an acidic taste with lactic acid fermenting the original flavor of the vegetable always comes through. I've grown several paprika types from Spain and have started a very highly recommended hybrid (Paprika Supreme) this year, but have not fermented any yet. I chose nylon tule for my weight bags because I believe it to be stable and food safe. And that is also the reason I chose the glass beads. A much more convenient solution to weighting would be a plastic bag with water and some air in it. More and more I find myself not using any weight whatsoever because the starters I use are so active. If your liquid kefir drink hasn't been pasteurized or treated with preservatives it should make an excellent starter. I would put a few ounces into a jar, add some whole milk and wait 3 or 4 days and see how it ferments. You should get a nice sweet, acidic smelling result. The grains (curd) will be very small for some weeks, but will gradually grow in size. They do not need to be large for the mixture to work as a starter. Both the curds and the more liquid whey work well as starters. I always use a mixture of both. For my sourdough starters I use 2 parts pure water to 1 part flour. There are some excellent sourdough threads on this forum. If you do decide to try fermenting, please let us know your results. Regards, jt

Updated pictures & information on the link below. Soon to come: Plants received from the MTPS (Middle Tennessee Plant Swap) & my Hyponex experiment. Steve's Garden Update

You don't have to use whey or any other starter (I don't care for them either) it just takes a bit more salt and a longer fermenting time. You can do the squash like fermented pickles just subbing squash for the cukes. If you use small hard ones they can be done whole or sliced in lengthwise halves. If you go for quarters they tend to mush more. I have never done any sweet fermenting except adding a smidge of sugar to my krauts and Linda Lou's Sweet Pickle Chunks (recipe here) as it is much more complex and while I like those pickles I don't care for any other sweet ferments I have tried. But pull up that recipe and take a look at using it. For the garlic/dills the standard NCHFP Fermented Dills instructions works great. There is also and Alton Brown recipe here for fermented dill pickles you can use. Let me know if you can't find it. Now if you find you really want to get deep into fermenting pick up a copy of Joy of Pickling for all the info you'll need. Hope this helps. Dave http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_06/dill_pickles.html