It's the question we get asked most at the market. We make both, vinegar pickles and raw ferments, so here's how we answer it.
The short answer: pickling preserves vegetables in vinegar. Fermenting preserves them in salt, and lets lactic acid bacteria turn the vegetables' natural sugars into lactic acid, which does the souring. Vinegar pickles are shelf stable and have no live cultures. Raw ferments like kimchi and sauerkraut are full of live bacteria and need to stay cold.
| Pickled | Fermented | |
|---|---|---|
| What makes it sour | Vinegar | Lactic acid, made by bacteria |
| Live cultures (probiotics) | No | Yes, if raw and unpasteurised |
| Storage | Pantry until opened (heat-processed jars) | Fridge, always |
| ACIDE examples | Bread & butter zucchini, dill chips, giardiniera | Baechu kimchi, caraway kraut |
What is pickling?
Pickling means putting vegetables in vinegar. The vinegar does the souring from day one, and once the jar is heat processed it's shelf stable until you open it. That's most of the ACIDE range.
You keep the vegetables' nutrition and you get a lot of flavour. What you don't get is probiotics: the vinegar and the heat mean nothing in the jar is alive. Ours are made with apple cider vinegar, which plenty of people swear by too.
What is fermenting?
Fermenting is salt plus time. You salt the vegetables, keep them under the brine, and the bacteria that are already on them get to work, eating the sugars and making lactic acid. That acid is what makes sauerkraut and kimchi sour. The jar is alive.
And because people ask us every week: lactic is not dairy. Lactic acid bacteria have nothing to do with milk. Our kraut is vegan.
Which one has probiotics?
Only raw, unpasteurised ferments. If a ferment has been heat treated to sit on a supermarket shelf, the bacteria are gone. Ours are never heated. They're chilled from the day they're made.
We reckon kimchi has the widest variety of bacteria, because there's so much more going into it than cabbage and salt. In Korea there's a word for why everyone's kimchi tastes a little different: son-mat, or "hand taste". It turns out there may be something to it. A 2025 study in Microbiology Spectrum found links between the bacteria on kimchi makers' hands and the bacteria that start the ferment.
Why are our ferments Melbourne pickup only?
Because we tried posting them. Even sent express, boxes arrived late. By then the ice pack had melted, the ferment had warmed up and started fermenting again, and the jars had leaked over everything in the box. We did so many returns it wasn't worth it.
A live ferment needs to stay cold the whole way. So for now, you pick it up from us in Sunshine North.
Why only two ferments?
Room. We ferment in 200 litre barrels, and they take up a lot of space. When we move into a bigger facility we'll make more, and the ferment range will grow.
Fermenting at home: the three mistakes we see most
- Veg poking out of the brine. Anything above the liquid is exposed to air and will spoil. Weigh it down and keep it fully submerged.
- Not enough salt. Salt keeps the bad bacteria out while the good ones get going. Go light and you lose that head start.
- The wrong spot. Too hot and it ferments too fast and goes soft. Too cold and it barely gets going. Find somewhere steady.
How do you eat them?
Pickles go with almost everything. So does sauerkraut, to be honest: sandwiches, sausages, salads, a bowl of rice. Kimchi is pickier. We eat it with Asian-style dishes, or with eggs and cheese, where it's hard to beat.
Try both
The best way to understand the difference is to taste it. Grab a jar of bread & butter zucchini and a jar of caraway kraut and eat them side by side. The kimchi and kraut are pickup only from Sunshine North. The pickles ship Australia-wide.