fermenting My First Ferment

[jblo]

Inspired by the pinned thread and some of the amazing looking sauces people around here seem to make, I've started my first ferment.
 
I've read the full pinned fermenting thread at least twice before I started, but here's what I did:
 
SFRB of peppers (thanks Romy6!)
1 medium white onion
1/2 large purple onion
6 or so cloves of garlic
1 carrot
4% sea salt by weight
bottled filtered water
1 1/2T whey from yogurt
 
Here's what the mash looked like in my Mason jar:

 
Storing this for the ferment in a dark bedroom closet.  No AC.  Temp varies between 80 and 85 as far as I've been monitoring it.
 
2 weeks in I've got some good bubbling action.  I relieve pressure on the lid twice daily by just pulling up on the ring.  Not much happened the first week.  I took a 2 week picture because it's 1/3 through it's 45 day ferment:

 
And one more pic 3 weeks in (half way!).  Still looks edible!  Still bubbling away:

 
I assume since there's no gray color or crazy fuzzy stuff I'm doing OK.  Will update at 4 weeks (2/3 thru ferment) and as I process at the end - assuming I get something usable.

 

[romy6]

 Look very nice . Keep us posted. My first ferment went bad so I will be following closely. 

 

[jedisushi06]

looks good so far.

 

[hoibot]

looks like it's doing quite well! looking forward to udpates.

 

[RocketMan]

Looks good But,
 
yeah there's almost always a but huh
 
you might want to get something like a plate under there so that when the pressure builds up and the juices start to overflow, they'll be caught and not make a big mess.

 

[jblo]

Looks good But,
 
yeah there's almost always a but huh
 
you might want to get something like a plate under there so that when the pressure builds up and the juices start to overflow, they'll be caught and not make a big mess.

 
Thanks!  I do have it in an old cool whip container. 
 
It was oozing a bit earlier but hasn't lately.  I didn't give it very much head room in the mason jar - I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but I'm sure that's why it was overflowing.

 

[jblo]

It's time.  Jar hasn't pressurized in quite a few days now.  I don't want it to go bad without the CO2 barrier on top of the mash.  Will process tonight and post pics later.

 

[jblo]

Here's the mash after ferment as I was begining to cook it off.

 
Interestingly, the fermented mash had a distinct smell - kind of like sweaty gym socks...but it had that smell at 2 weeks as it began to ferment.  I think it's just the smell of the veggies fermenting.  When you got your nose right over the mash, it smelled really good though.
 
After cooking with 50% water/white vinegar for about 45min, I blended:

 
And finally, threw it back in the pot to simmer to even out the consistency:

 
The result is VERY good!  No sweaty gym sock flavor at all!  It tastes amazing!  The consistency is a little different than a regular cooked sauce - the body seems thinner.  In any case, I'll be doing this again!