What are you fermenting today?

[Farmfresh]

Another batch of pickles!

 

[Dace]

I made the ginger carrots...of course Miss Impatient here had to have a little nibble.....YUMMY! Even before anything happened to them

Although I have to point out that my 4 cups of carrots did not even come close to filling that quart jar. To read the recipe I thought I was gonna have to wrestle all those dang carrots in, but lo and behold I was left looking around like...Huh? did I miss something? Only have half a jar....but I know they will be delish!

On to kimchi tomorrow.

BBH congrats on the mother...I better run a search on CL.

 

[Dace]

Just did a quick search and found 2...one is 45 minutes away for $10 and the other is closer but she wants $20 for a large jar of kombucha with the scooby.

Not going to do either right now (no cash!) BUT I now have renewed hope!!

 

[big brown horse]

Dace, for future reference, my scoby only cost $5. Twenty is way too much in my opinion, I wouldn't have done it either. (I really shouldn't even be spending that either, but I figured it was a one time fee.)

 

[big brown horse]

Here is what I would like to know, before there was kombucha tea, how did the very first mother scoby form??? I would love to make if from scratch!

 

[Dace]

Maybe it is like sourdough...in just the right setting it occurs naturally?

I have recipes on how to make it using a bottle of commercial stuff, but I am convinced that the mixture is not right. If I try it again I ma using two stinkin' bottles.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I juiced a large bag of apples, that I picked up at a riend's house. These had already dropped from the tree. I had been reading about making acv and all of it said you had to make cider first. I don't have a juicer. So I decided to use my trusty old Oster blender. I found, if I put in 1 cup of water, I could keep adding apple quarters and whizzing them in the blender until it was nearly full. I only removed the apple pips, because I planned on feeding the pommace to the chickens. I didn't worry about the brown spots on the apples, tossed them in as well. I removed the two spots of mold that I found. The couple of worms I found were promptly fed to the lizzard.
Once the bleder was full, I poured the content into a conalder which fit perfectly on the 5 gal food grade bucket. I stirred the apple mash to get out as much juice as possible and put the pomace in a bowl.
Once I finished with all the apples, I put the remaining dry pomace in a jelly bag and suspended it over the bucket, then I covered the whole thing with a towel to keep things clean. I think I may have gotten 2 gal of juice. I will strain the juice through a cloth again in the next few days. Then I will have to read up on it again to figure out what I should do next.

I also made 2 quarts of fermented pickles from Nurishing Traditions. It was so easy. I picked a bunch of tiny baby cukes from both the green cukes and the lemon cukes for 1 jar and sliced green and lemon cukes for the other jar. They sure look pretty. I labeled them right away with the date, so I'll know how soon I can eat them.

I also started a sour dough for my bread. I am the only one who likes whole grain bread and I don't care for the usual white bread. I am experimenting with making my own whole grain breads lately. I saved some of the bits of yeast dough from this mornings bread making, I had saved potato water from a couple of days ago. I cooked three different grains (wheat, oat groat and amaranth seed)in the potato water. When it cooled a little I added it to the jar that contained the bits of dough. I stirred it up and plan on leaving it for a day or so. I might add some flour or honey to it tomorrow. Depends on what it looks like.

We have a lot of plain white flour, that was given to us. I cannot afford to waste it, since we have just about no income. So I'll use it in whatever fashion I can. I feel that by making our own bread, even if it uses white flour, it is still better than store bought white bread. Maybe I can wean my guys off of the store bought stuff this way.

 

[freemotion]

I used up the last of the sourdough/MEN artisan bread dough today....it is over two weeks old, and seemed a little....funky....but no mold, and smelled quite fermented/sourdough-ish, so I used it. I made two little loaves on a cookie sheet, since my stone broke. They were delicious! We used them for lunch with the cheese-tasting, using four kinds of raw cheese....plain chevre, chevre with herbes de provence (all from my garden), my last cheese that failed but I hung it in a bag and aged it for two weeks in the fridge....yummy mystery cheese, tasted like a cross between swiss and mozzarella.....and a 3.5 month-old cheddar that was just lovely, and the hands-down favorite. Those two loaves dissappeared at a remarkable speed, only crumbs left, literally. We also served apples that were given to my husband when he guest-spoke on Sunday at a town a fair distance away....someone brought him a bag of fresh apples from their trees. What a lovely meal!

For supper, the last of the fermented dough became a couple of pizza's with more homemade cheese and sauce and yes, store-bought pepperoni, and green peppers picked mere minutes before the pizza went into the oven. It doesn't get any better than this!

 

[Farmfresh]

I made two little loaves on a cookie sheet, since my stone broke. They were delicious!

Alton Brown the chef uses uncolored terracotta fire BRICKS as baking stones. It would be cheaper that a new stone.

 

[freemotion]

But tiles and such are made with lead and other things that I don't want to bake on......I think Pampered Chef warrantees their stuff for life, so I need to look into it. Thanks for the tip, though.

BTW, the bread was still wonderful baked on a cookie sheet. So fear not, those without a stone.