Can I Ferment Dried Lentils?

[MROO]

I have a bag of human-food-grade dried lentils. There is no way I will consume all of them before their expiration, but I don't want to waste them. I know that my chickens can't have them straight from the bag or even cracked. Should I just cook the dried lentils and feed them straight to my birds or can I ferment them, as is? I've been wanting to try fermented feed for a long time, but I don't want to start out with a potentially toxic mix.

 

[azygous]

I recommend sprouting them and then adding them to your fermented feed. Fermenting feed is very easy. Just add enough warm water to cover your dry feed and add a little splash of ACV to kick start the ferment. Stir once a day, and feed when it becomes light and fluffy, giving off a pleasant yeasty odor. You can stir the sprouted lentils in at the beginning or add later.

For the following batches of fermented feed, just add a spoonful of the previous ferment.

I add dried organo to my fermented feed that I grow myself. My fermented feed is the consistency of cookie dough, very dry, not wet and sloppy. I've found that, not only to chickens like the dryer consistency, but it doesn't end up caked like cement on their beaks and facial feathers.

 

[MROO]

I recommend sprouting them and then adding them to your fermented feed. Fermenting feed is very easy. Just add enough warm water to cover your dry feed and add a little splash of ACV to kick start the ferment. Stir once a day, and feed when it becomes light and fluffy, giving off a pleasant yeasty odor. You can stir the sprouted lentils in at the beginning or add later.

For the following batches of fermented feed, just add a spoonful of the previous ferment.

I add dried organo to my fermented feed that I grow myself. My fermented feed is the consistency of cookie dough, very dry, not wet and sloppy. I've found that, not only to chickens like the dryer consistency, but it doesn't end up caked like cement on their beaks and facial feathers.

I can sprout grocery store dried lentils? It never occurred to me that they would sprout! Do I just spread them out between wet paper towels, like I would regular seed-beans or is there a better method?

 

[azygous]

They should sprout the way you sprout any legume as long as they are still viable, which they should be. If some fail to sprout due to age, soaking will have made them digestible. None will need to go to waste.

 

[Perris]

I have a bag of human-food-grade dried lentils. There is no way I will consume all of them before their expiration, but I don't want to waste them. I know that my chickens can't have them straight from the bag or even cracked. Should I just cook the dried lentils and feed them straight to my birds or can I ferment them, as is? I've been wanting to try fermented feed for a long time, but I don't want to start out with a potentially toxic mix.

I have added them to a ferment mix in years past, inclusion rate of not more than about 10%, and they're not toxic, but there's something in them that is not great and I do not normally include them now. Cooked I'm sure they're fine, and a good source of protein. I'll try to find what I read that put me off them. As Azygous adds oregano, I sometimes add some fennel seeds, since I have a huge bag of them, more than we'll consume before their date's up, and the chooks certainly love them. Smell nice in the ferment too.

 

[Sally PB]

I have a bag of human-food-grade dried lentils. There is no way I will consume all of them before their expiration,

I wouldn't take the "use by" date as a hard and fast rule with dried beans/rice/legumes. As long as they haven't gotten wet, moldy, and no critters have found them, they will be good for a looooong time.

But thank you, @azygous and @Perris , for the information!

 

[MROO]

Thanks, All! I'll start them this afternoon.

 

[azygous]

I hate to have to admit it, but I have bags of several varieties of dried beans and lentils that have hibernated in my pantry since the American Revolution.

 

[Perris]

further to my last, I think it was the tannins. Good info here
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0570178311000169

 

[MROO]

further to my last, I think it was the tannins. Good info here
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0570178311000169

Isn't that interesting? And FUNNY! After all the uproar and hoohah about how microwaves are so "bad" for us - killing the nutrients in our food and making it useless - microwaving lentils and other dried beans is actually BETTER for us! i love IT!
Thanks for the education!