Fermented Fish Extract Update.

It’s been more than three months since the last batch of Fermented Fish Extract (FEE) ferment was put down. The first of December 2020, in fact.

So I thought it would be interesting to see if it’s ready. It usually takes about 4 months and others have said that it can take up to 6 months to finish.

I popped the lid of the bucket and was happy that there was no rotten smell or sign of mould. The odour is sweet with a touch of vinegar. It only vaguely smells like fish.

Some of the fish heads haven’t broken down much and the shellfish shells are pretty well intact, though the meat in them is gone. Poking below the surface released a thick, oily brown liquid – just what I was looking for! That’s where the concentrated goodness is in FEE fertilizer.

I’ll mix the unfinished stuff from the surface back in and make sure it’s well coated with the black stuff and pressed down to the bottom. It’s an anaerobic process so there may have been a little oxygen in the bucket (it wasn’t completely full) and this may have slowed the decomposition of the stuff on the surface.

I won’t be using FEE until the end of Winter anyway, so another month or two won’t hurt. I’ll check again at the end of May and update you then.