Ferments are good on a whim as well!! I also find it very therapeutic mashing the material up with the sugar 
Another thing to get obsessed about I guess, I look at everything now in terms of ferment value. I want a plethora of inputs
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Anyone ever tried a spinach ferment?? We always have organic baby spinach in the fridge
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I have not but Iād say give it a go.
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I was told not to ferment plants of the brassica species because they can be harmful to mycorrhizae.
Iāll post a couple quotes from some studies but itās mostly due to glucosinolates that the roots contain so it might be alright to ferment everything but the roots? In which case baby spinach should be fine but Iām not entirely sure.
āThese results show that degradation of the mycorrhizal symbiosis by black mustard is of general significance, and may be highly problematic considering the large range that it has occupied in open fields across North America. This also points to the possibility of an overall strategy by members of the Family Brassicaceae, although clearly we need to study additional species before making any broader conclusions.ā
āVesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi colonise the roots of most crop and pasture plants.
Brassicas, however, are non-hosts and their roots contain glucosinolates (GSLs) that are potentially
hydrolysed in soil to release isothiocyanates (ITCs), which are toxic to some soil fungiā
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Well that seems reason enough not to try it, haha. Just into the compost with the spinach and broccoli then I guess
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This is interesting for sure. Never thought about this. Worth some more looking into.
I found this in a search, spinach was just one of the ingredients however as far as I can tellā¦
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Yesterday was a BIG KNF day!
I went to the local Asian market and bought beef bones, jaggery, pumpkin seeds, ginger, a couple whole mackerel, and a bunch of garlic, spending a grand total of $20.
I spent the afternoon crumbling jaggery, burning bones and seeds into charcoal, chopping fish, etc, etc.
The outcome? I now have every necessary component to complete an entire grow cycle using KNF inputs (well, after the fermentation is complete), with the exception of the indigenous micro organism culture. Itās been cold for AZ, so my rice isnāt fully colonized yet, but Iāll have that ready in another week or so. Iāll make another post when I start my journal!
Edit: not pictured, because they were made a couple weeks ago- water soluble calcium, water soluble potassium, LABS, fermented plant juice, and fermented fruit juice.
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Very cool! Iāve been following this thread and trying to understand it for a while, but I havenāt taken the time to do a deep diveā¦ I have the general idea that fermenting is involved, but otherwise Iām thoroughly confused as to how you know what to actually ferment and when to use it. 
All the info seems to be badly translated, for one, and assumes you make a hobby of wandering the wildernessā¦ meanwhile, I think the closest patch of real wilderness is probably out of state. Asian groceries, though, weāve got! You should write an idiotās guide. 
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Fresh batch of LABS. Curds went in the compost since the wife made it clear she is NOT interested in eating any cheese I try making with em 
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The idea is to use natural ingredients to feed and make your plants healthy, the soil tooā¦
How it works? Well you use base ingredients rich in whatever nutrients you are afterā¦
For example, in the vegetative state you want nitrogen and growth hormones, nettles are a good exampleā¦ you get a fresh batch of nettles you then break down the original plant matter by adding lactobacilli culture and sugar and let them break down the original matter by fermentation and end up after a while with a natural fertilizer that is cheap, safe and healthy. With this technique you can make your own foliar amendments. Natural fertilizers etcā¦
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Did you explain in great detail the health benefits for your gut flora? Whenever I get going a certain glazed look comes over most peopleās faces. Ha!
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I could probably do that; bear in mind (get it, BEAR?) that this is my first run utilizing these methods, but I can totally do a write up regarding how to put together the inputs, and how the KNF method recommends using them!
Then weāll see how I did, based on how a few fem autos respond.
Does that sound useful?
I gotta be honest, the fresh ācheeseā is pretty weird.
I ate some with a little salt, on some crackers and ā¦ Oh boy, itāsā¦ Tangy? I guess? Not a culinary delight on its own. If one could age it at the appropriate temperature and humidity it might improve considerably, but as fresh cheese, my palate says āno thanksā.
Mixing with heavy cream and stirring would give you cottage cheese, which might be a little sweeter, or blending with herbs, pesto, olives or sun-dried tomato, also might make a passable ācream cheeseā for bagels. An experiment for another day, I suppose.
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@CrunchBerries yea, my wife gets that look pretty much as soon as I start talking
@HeadyBearAdventures chris trump has a video of him making what I think amounts to like a mozzarella with the curds, but yea the smell and look makes it a tough proposition to heat up and try for that
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That definitely sounds useful, especially if you venture into idiotic methods of sourcing (like going to the grocery store ) because thatās probably all Iām gonna realistically use. Maybe after getting comfortable with the idea, Iāll feel more comfortable wandering the forest picking plants based on a chart, but Iād like to get hands on and just get a batch done without having to do a ton of research. The first posts of this thread start with 15 PDFsā¦ and, though Iād like to use cheaper and more natural fertilizers, Iām kinda leery about the idea of putting in a hundred hours of research and legwork just to start and then end up FIMing the whole thing. I have a fertilizer that halfway works for me already, and itās at least supposedly natural - just more expensive than it has to be, Iām sure.
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Alright, Iām gonna make a separate thread this week, and Iāll do a detailed write up of my experience with each input.
Itās gonna come out in sections, so I can get detailed, so itāll probably take a couple weeks to complete.
Iāll tag you in the initial post.
In the meantime, @BeagleZ has a thread heās already started, where people can follow along in real time. He also has more pictures than Iāll be able to post, because I didnāt capture each step as I synthesized the inputs.
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I made a fpj with a buncha goodies in it like 4 years ago. It still tastes amazing. I put it on some pancakes this morning. Sooooooo good. Cant feed our plants better than ourselves!
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My banana FPJ tastes amazing. Almost like a banana foster without the cream part.
I want to officially thank you @lotus710 for starting this thread and providing me/us with so much info and inspiration. You opened up a door to a huge warehouse of knowledge that I thought was only a closet
@HeadyBearAdventures please tag me along as well, Iād love to share the in the experience!
I think we are pretty much at the same point in this so will be good to bounce ideas!
@Cormoran , you donāt need to go into the wilderness, dandelion makes one of the best inputs and itās everywhere, even in the city. Although you donāt want it polluted so from a wooded area in a park would be best prob.
If you have to go to the grocery just make sure itās organic.
@CrunchBerries , I still get that look when you start talking (photosynthesis+,cough)
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Dandelions I can probably manage, yeah. My own lawn has them, and I donāt have it sprayed or treated with any pesticides or anything. Bananas Iād obviously be going to the store for, but theyāre pretty cheap. That would be for flowering, I guess? I know bananas are very high in potassium. Iāve thought about top-dressing with spinach since thatās loaded with micros, maybe that would work as well for flower since itās also loaded with K. Would I just ferment some of those and start using them at 1:1000 for waterings rather than making compost tea and then top-dressing with the bagged fertilizer?
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Simple template first you need to collect the lactobacilli and that is done by collecting water from washing uncooked rice. You end up with a milky water. This water is left outside in a sheltered place and covered with a muslin cloth. Once you have collected some bacteria you then transfer this rice water packed with bacteria to fresh milk
. Let that ferment and that is what everyone calls Labs this will be your foundation for the rest of the stuff you can make. You then add plant matter and sugar in the same proportion and add the labs. This will ferment and once done will render
Fermented nettles for vegetative stage
Fermented buds for bloom
Fermented flowers for the flowering
Fermented garlic and ginger for general plant health
Fermented seaweed for growth boom!!
And so on.
In essence you are using lactobacillus acidophilus and lactobacillus in general to break down food, fruit, vegetable matter into what you need to provide your plants with . Some of these preparations can be very stinky at some point so be preparedā¦ nettles for example smell funky, then beerish 
then start to stink then reek and then it gets better and milderā¦ but bewareā¦
This is the simplest I could break it down. Hope it helps understand 
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Yeah banana is good for flower.
As @curiouscat said, flower material for flower input, vigorous fast growing plants for veg.
Whatever that plant is or is doing will translate to the ferment if that makes sense.
On the spinach, not 100% on that as an input quite yet. @taiga and I were discussing this above 
when Legs mentioned it.
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