Fermenting Addiction and Best Ginger Beer Ever!



 

 

 

 

Our latest fermenting class, Crazy About Kraut, was a success.  And now I am hearing from students who are addicted to kraut, beet kvass and fermenting in general.  It really is so easy and rewarding to make your own homemade ferments.  Our favorite sauerkraut recipe includes green cabbage, fresh burdock root, ginger root, fresh turmeric root, and daikon radish- yum and super good for you!

In our home we have recently been making loads of ginger beer which is a wild fermentation.  Our most current batch is turmeric root beer (an idea I borrowed from a student- thanks Amy!). The end product turns out a hundred times better than any store bought ginger beer and you can experiment with any roots or herbs you might want to add.  Tweaking the recipe each time is the fun part.  I am interested in trying elderberry/ginger beer- for immunity, hawthorn/ginger beer- as a heart tonic, astragalus/schizandra/ginger beer- for adaptogen benefits...the possibilities are as broad as your imagination. 

Basic Ginger Beer

Ingredients:
Fresh organic ginger root
Organic sugar
Raw honey
Filtered h2o
(we also add a bit of sarsaparilla root for that root beer taste)

-Per liter: 1/3c organic cane sugar and 1/3c raw local honey.
-Boil grated ginger (2-3" root per liter) with the water and sugar for about 15 minutes or until it has reached desired spiciness.
-Let cool, add the honey and strain into bottles or mason jars and add about 1/4-1/2c of the previous batch as a starter.  If this is your first batch, go here to learn how to make your own ginger bug. 
-Leave them at room temp for 2-3 days until they are very carbonated (check after 24 hours) and then put into smaller bottles and refrigerate.  Enjoy!

*Make sure to check the bottles or jars each day, you may need to open the lids to let out a bit of pressure or you can use an airlock lid.  If you are worried about the bottles exploding (which should not happen if you are checking them!) you can put them aside in a Rubbermaid bin with a lid.

Happy fermenting!

Wildcrafting Nettles

Yesterday I escaped with a friend for a much needed excursion to our favorite spot to pick stinging nettles.  A nice gentle hike meandering along the creek was healing and long overdue.  The nettles were not very high but flourishing and plentiful with their leaves unfolding in the sunshine.  The thing I love most about nettles is how they sing.  If you are present, you can feel their vibration as you sit with them, they sing all around you.  Before we began filling our bags we hiked further down the trail to the ocean...what a magnificent day!

When we harvest nettles we try to take only the leafy tops, especially this early in the season.  The plants will continue to grow and if we like, we can go back every few weeks for more throughout the spring. For better or worse, my hands have become so tough from all the farm chores, the nettles barely stung me.  The plants at this time of year are particularly potent as the energy is concentrated in the newly emerging leaves.  Nettles has a variety of uses you can read more about here.  

Once back home the nettles were rinsed and dried in the dehydrator for later use as tea.  I did have plans to add some fresh nettles to my sauerkraut today.  So after clipping all the leaves from the stems and giving them a good wash, I used the mortar and pestle to smash the leaves just enough so they would release their juice and not sting while I mixed the kraut by hand.  

My experiments resulted in two different versions...purple cabbage kraut with fresh nettles and some organic nettle leaf powder for an extra kick...

...and sea kraut with green cabbage, fresh nettle, grated ginger, kombu, and dulse flakes.  I still have a big bag left which may end up as either an invigorating green pesto or a nice stimulating nettle, red clover glycerite.  Spring is almost here, it's all about cleansing, blood building, nourishing, and rejuvenating.  Out with the old and in with the new!

Blackberries and Beets

After a very busy weekend, I had a rare Sunday afternoon of down time.  Instead of taking a much needed nap I decided to dive into making some more of the fermented recipes I have been itching to experiment with.  I can't get enough of making these lacto-fermented foods.  They are just so yummy and easy!  Not to mention beneficial for our digestion.  So after a stroll around the orchard, some deep inhales-exhales, and a visit to the garden, I came back to the house with a big bowl of warm juicy blackberries, a whole bunch of mint (several kinds) and one gigantic red beet.  Did I say gigantic?
And yes, I usually do have better things to do than take pictures of over sized vegetables but I needed proof.  I've never seen a beet this big before. 

So in to the kitchen I go to begin my experimentation...

...which resulted in five pint jars of raw beet kraut (click here for basic kraut recipe) and two gallons of fermented soda, one blackberry and one green tea/mint.  Yummmm!  You really do have to try these...

Fermented Blackberry Soda
about 6 cups of blackberries (freshly picked or frozen)
1 gallon filtered water
2 cups whey
1 cup agave or sugar (haven't had very good results with honey)

Wash berries if fresh and add to pot with 1/2 gallon of water.  Add sweetener and simmer until sweet and berries are pretty much broken down, about 15 minutes.  Taste for sweetness.
(If not sweet enough either simmer longer or add more sweetener.)
Pour berry syrup into gallon glass jar and let cool.  Add whey and rest of water until jar is full.  Stir well, cap and let sit in a warm place for a couple of days.  Taste after a day and a half to monitor the fermentation process.  The soda should become bubbly.  I have found that 2 days tends to be plenty in warm weather, I monitor mine closely because I don't want my soda to turn alcoholic. 
Once the bubbles form, strain the soda, put into bottles and refrigerate.  Enjoy chilled on hot days.

Moroccan Mint and Green Tea Soda (adapted from suddenly sauer)
A huge handful of fresh mint (about 1/2 lb)
1 gallon filtered water
2 tbls. green tea (preferably gunpowder but I have used sencha too)
1 cup agave
2 cups whey

Wash mint.  Bring water to a boil, add sweetener, then add fresh mint and green tea.  Remove from heat, stir, cover, and let steep for 20 minutes.  Pour into a gallon glass jar (leaving room for the whey) and let cool.  Cap and let sit for a couple of days to a week in a warm place until bubbles start to form.  Strain and bottle then refrigerate.

Krauts and Pickles

Making lacto-fermented mixtures or pickling is an easy and extremely healthy way to use your extra vegis.  You can really use any vegetable mixture but it is important to use the best quality organic vegis, pure sea salt, and filtered water.  My favorite traditional sauerkraut is made with green or purple cabbage.  I also recently tried this sea kraut variation for my seaweed loving children.  Begin by rinsing your cabbage.  Remove the outer leaves and set aside, then slice the cabbage thinly.

Use any type of edible sea vegetable,  I happened to have this huge bag of wild Japanese wakame

(I purchased pre-nuclear meltdown) in my pantry that needs to get used up.  If you can harvest your own even better!

Add to your chopped cabbage one tbls. sea salt and as much sea weed as you like, I added about one cup.  (Remember the dried sea weed will rehydrate and become much larger.)

Now mix and smash with your hands, a pestle, or a potato masher.  Whatever method, you just want to pulverize the cabbage mixture until it is wilted and the juices are released.  The volume of the mixture will decrease significantly. 

Fill a clean glass jar with the kraut leaving about an inch space at the top, the vegetables and their juices will expand slightly during fermentation.  You can pack it in but not too tightly.  If there is not enough liquid to cover the kraut then make a brine with one quart filtered water and one tbls. salt.  I usually boil a cup of water and dissolve the salt in that then add the other 3 cups of room temperature water so I don't have to wait for the whole thing to cool.  (Do not add hot liquid to the jar.)  Pour the brine into the jar until it is covering the kraut.  

 Now you can take the extra cabbage leaf and carefully push the sides down into the jar to cover the kraut and keep it submerged under the brine.  You may have to push gently to get it to all fit in there.  Everything should be submerged under the brine to prevent molding. 

Seal your jars tightly and leave in room temperature place of about 72 degrees for a few days to a week.  More time is needed if it is colder and less if it is warm.  After 2-4 days at room temperature it needs to be stored in a cool dark place-about 40 degrees. 

Next I tried some fermented greens.  There really is no end to what combinations you can make.  I had a lot of dinosaur kale in the garden.  It looked like the aphids were beginning to move in so I decided to harvest. 

After washing thoroughly I chopped them finely, adding some sliced leeks.

Then using the same process as above, I salted and pressed them.  Put them in the jars and added the brine.  I'm excited to see how they turn out.  Use these krauts as condiments on your dinner table, add to salads, or just eat plain in small amounts. 

One more recipe we tried recently that turned out well was a zucchini pickle from Recipes For Living In Big Sur, by The Big Sur Historical Society (a really great book, by the way, if you are interested in California history).  I made mention in an earlier post of a certain excess of zucchini these days.  This recipe can be made with any surplus garden vegi. 

2 lb zucchini sliced

2 medium onions, sliced

1/4 cup salt

1 pint white vinegar

1 cup sugar

1 tsp celery salt

1 tsp turmeric

1.4 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp mustard seed

Slice zucchini lengthwise.  Cut slices in quarters if zucchini is large.  Cover zucchini, onions, and salt with water.  Let stand 1 hour, then drain.  Mix remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Pour over zucchini and onions.  Let stand 1 hour.  Then boil 3 minutes.  Pour into hot jars and seal.  (Makes about 3 pints).

Note:  I changed the recipe a bit and added ginger and curry pwd as my spices instead of celery, turmeric, and mustard.  It turned out really yummy but I will definitely use way less sugar next time.  (I like sour pickles better than sweet.)  Enjoy!