Monday, July 23, 2012
Today...
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Fermented What?
I have a lot of fun culturing food; I prefer "culture" to "ferment". Ferment conjures bad smells and bubbles. One of my new summer books that I mentioned in an earlier blog "Real Food Fermentation" is a slick glossy lots of photos how to on culturing all sorts of food.
Today I'm interested in beverages. Cultured beverages. They are by far the most important drinks in the world. And, what's not to like with all those bacteria and yeasty beasties working so hard to turn drinks into a nutritional healthy soul satisfying beverages. You may drink fermented liquid without even being aware: wine & beer (ok so you knew those), coffee, black tea, cider, mead, hard liquor, kombucha, various fruit drinks.
It is so dang triple-digit hot outside that I am drinking all sorts of liquid trying to quench a full body thirst; iced herbal infusions and teas, fruit & ice drinks, home made electrolytes, water.
Here are a few recipes--go for it! From Real Food Fermentation: Ginger Ale 4 inches ginger root 1 gallon NON CHLORINATED water 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/2 to 1 cup yogurt whey Peel and grate ginger ( a spoon does this beautifully) Put ginger & water in pot bring to boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, add sugar, stir til dissolved. Cool. Add whey. A canning jar is ideal to store the ginger ale. Let it sit for a day or two.
From "Nourishing Traditions" here's a little different recipe: 3/4 cup ginger root, 1/2 cup lime juice, 1/4-1/2 cup Rapadura (sweetner) 2 teas sea salt, 1/4 cup whey, 2 quarts filtered water. Place all ingredients in jar, stir, well, cover tightly and leave at room temp for 2-3 days, transfer to frig.
As you can see, there are differences in these recipes which tells me: DO IT THE WAY YOU WANT and it will turn out ok! Ginger Ale is wonderful on hot days and is best when sipped. It's a great pick me up after being in the sun.
Here's one made with oranges ("Nourishing Traditions") Juice of 12 oranges, 2 teas sea salt, 1/4 cup whey, 1/2 teas orange extract, 1 1/4 quarts filtered water. Leave at room temp 2 days, refrigerate. Stir before pouring.
Here's a most interesting one; I haven't tried this yet as I don't have raspberries growing. In essence crush some raspberry leaves so they are nice and juicy; stick them in the oven overnight at 50 degrees C (which my FarmBoy Chef Gary says is about 122 degrees F!) They will be brown--just like tea leaves! So, use them just like tea leaves for making tea. This recipe is from Henriette at http://www.henriettesherbal.com/blog/fermented-raspberry-leaf.html
Gotta go...have to divide my Kombucha baby.... have a monumental day. Oh, and it's the New Moon...perfect time to start projects! :) e
Monday, July 16, 2012
Summer On The Farm...
Summer on the farm. In my mind: warm breezes, glorious garden produce, relaxing with a glass of iced herb tea. In the real world: triple digit temps, bugs ,weeds and a failure to thrive, chasing the dog who is chasing the chickens. Don't misunderstand me--I love, no I adore my farm. But the idyllic notion of a working farm is better served in Hallmark channel specials. This summer I have sweated out all my electrolytes, suffered through poison ivy, battled toe to nose chiggers, hospitalized with anaphylactic shock, shed tears over the loss of favorite chickens (drat that fox-Bigg Hoss is gone and I'm down to one little Mable--I've gone from 75 chickens to 36) and despaired over Rocky's persistence in "playing" with the chickens. In spite of it all, I wouldn't trade my farm life now for my old corporate life. I love watching the sunrise from my bucket seat on a huge boulder. The goat's bells tinkling softly as they forage in the trees, the chickens clucking and scratching waiting to be let out of their pen, the gardens laying quietly waiting to be weeded and harvested. I love the beginning of each new day; it's so full of promise. I am so thankful for what I have, who I am and where I live.
BOOK REVIEWS: Now, on to more practical matters. You know I love to culture food and I just ran across a new book by Caleb Warnock: "The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast". Check out his blog: calebwarnock.blogspot.com Caleb is generous enough to share his natural yeast starter. THANKS CALEB! For culturing other food "Real Food Fermentation" by Alex Lewin is a wonderful resource and "how to". I also just got "Quick Fix Healthy Mix" by Casey Keller and Nicole-Keller-Munoz and it has fabulous time saver mixes. All of them are not as healthy as I would like so am having to tweak them some, but it's a great little book to get you started on making your own "package mixes" from scratch. Finally, "Dinner Is In The Jar" by Kathy Clark has recipes for making premix dinners. This is a great thing to do with all that food storage sitting in your closet or under your bed! You can check out any of these books by clicking on the Amazon button in the right column. We have loved the way our chickens kept the bug population down but now they have discovered TOMATOES! Cassie, our little Australian Shepherd does her best to keep them at bay, but she just can't seem to manage it. Besides, we are hoping she's "with puppy" --several puppies--so she will have her hands full of other chores.
I am loving our CSA family. Putting all that just harvested produce in those lovely red bags is so satisfying. Last week one of our families came out to help and their twin 6 year old boys harvested the remainder of my garlic. What great workers! Well, better go check on Rocky...he cannot quite be trusted with the chickens....