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Asked by neo_463 ·January 14, 2021 ·22k readers

Freezing fruits/plant matter

Hi I’m thinking about trying out KNF at home but I don’t want to freeze all my bananas so I can harvest their peels. Could I freeze their peels to save them until I have enough to ferment them?

Top answer

dagoofman · Jan 17, 2021
u really shouldn't be using anything frozen plant matter wise by freezing u will kill off microbes that u trying to gather freezing also breaks open the cell walls of the plant matter exposing things u r trying to avoid through the osmotic process any plant matter u ferment should be picked early in the morn wile the growth hormones r still active in the tips of the new growth along with all the microbes that r there from  over night b4 the sun comes up n runs em all off then the sugar draws out the water and hormones through the cell wall with osmotic pressure.....the best thing to do with your kitchen scraps is composting IMO the best style of composting kitchen scraps is a inoculated substrate compost or a "bokashi" compost great way to break down kitchen scraps of all kinds including meats cheeses n fats i keep a 5gal bucket in my kitchen screw on top fill it as i go it dont stink and i make my own substrate almost free of cost using KNF methods and it works amazing in FMC

From the KNF library

From the KNF library Drafted by Claude from Office Hours and the books · Sep 2026 · 2 sources

Drake's method leaves the microbes on the plant. Growers shake off the dirt and do not wash the material. (Pure KNF Manual, p. 38) Those microbes digest and ferment it. (Pure KNF Manual, p. 38)

Sugar draws the juice out through the cell wall by osmotic pressure. (Pure KNF Manual, p. 38) Ripe fruit gets equal parts brown sugar. Growing tips, flowers, and unripe fruit get 1/3 to 1/2 as much. (Pure KNF Manual, p. 37)

Drake says sunrise is the best time to gather. He also says it is often not practical, so know which shortcuts you take. (Pure KNF Manual, p. 38)

The library does not cover freezing. It does not say whether freezing harms those microbes, and it says nothing about storing peels until you have enough.

Sources

  • p. 38 Pure KNF Manual · “we did not wash or clean the plant material besides shaking of the dirt, so the microbes are still there”
  • p. 37 Pure KNF Manual · “where the ripe fruits get mixed with equal parts of brown sugar, where the growing tips, flowers, and unripe fruits will only be mixed with 1/3 - 1/2 of sugar”

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