Sauerkraut, Lacto-Fermentation and the Pickl-It

I just finished putting up two 2-liter Pickl-It jars of Sauerkraut. This will be the best sauerkraut you will ever eat. I promise.

The main reason for this short post is to quickly go through the process and a couple of quick notes.

First the process:

Core and chop a 2.5 to 3 lb. head of cabbage (after chop) for each jar. It's just a normal head of cabbage, and place in large mixing bowl.

Add salt and mix, mash, or punish the cabbage until the juice is coming out. Place in jar and put on airlock. Keep an eye on the water in the airlocks.

Store in a cool, dark place for 28 days.

Now the Note: For the brine, you should use 4.4 grams good quality sea salt per pound of chopped cabbage. I use Himalayan Pink sea salt.

More Tomatoes and Tomato Basil Sauce.

This is such a great recipe!

I can't keep up with the tomatoes coming out of the garden this year! This is only a small portion I got picked today before the rain came.

I am lacto-fermenting as much as I can to keep our food as healthy as possible. You've got to keep those critters in your belly happy and lacto-fermenting is the way to do it.

I made some tomato gravy using the Tomato Basil sauce last night to go with our oven baked portabello fries, roasted potatoes and brussel sprouts and my family loved it. Of course I did too.

It's really more of a salsa (which means sauce in spanish!) but I know most Americans think of the Mexican kind so I'm going with sauce.


I'm assuming that you are familiar with and know how to lacto-ferment so I'm just going straight to the ingredients list. I'm pretty loosey goosey with measurements but I'll do my best to give you an idea of how much to go with.

Tomato Basil Sauce (Salsa) in a 2 litre Pickl-it

Enough tomatoes to fill about 3/4 of your jar (about 4 cups)
A bunch of basil (to taste but I put a lot since I grow it and need to preserve it)
4 cloves of garlic
5 grams of quality sea salt ( I use Himalayan Pink sea salt but I'm trying others)

This is about 1 1/2 Tbls. Weighing is the most accurate way to measure salt since there are different densities of salt. The accuracy of the amount of salt in lacto-fermenting is important but I'm kind of loosey goosey with that too.

Process the tomatoes and garlic and empty into a large bowl. Chop the basil and add to bowl then add the salt. Mix thoroughly and ladel it into your fermenter.

If you need more tomatoes, hand chop enough and add to the jar. This gives a great texture.

NOTE: Fill to just below the shoulder of the jar because this stuff goes crazy! It's really dense so the co2 pushes the solids up and through the air lock.

Dried Tomatoes packed in Olive Oil

My original plan was to make tomato powder out of all the dehydrated tomatoes today but I remembered how I like to use sun dried tomatoes on pizzas and in most Italian recipes. I decided to try my hand at packing some of them in oil.

There has been a lot written about botulism in oil packed tomatoes but I have yet to find a story about someone really getting sick from them so I'm trying it. I'll let my in-laws test them first!

After the tomatoes got dry enough to bend but not crumble I went through these steps:


1) Sterilize pint jars and lids in boiling water.
2) Peel 4 to 6 cloves of garlic (hint: put the cloves in a container with a top and lots of extra room and shake the snot out of it for about 30 seconds. This will get most of the paper off.) and pick 4 to 6 basil leaves.
3) After the jars cool to room temperature drop in a clove of garlic and a basil leaf.
4) Pack jar half full with dried tomatoes and pack down with a wooden spoon handle or something along those lines.
5) Add garlic and basil then fill to within about an inch and a half to the top of the jar with tomatoes.
6) Pack down really well the a wooden spoon handle and add last garlic and basil to top.
7) Fill the jar with good olive oil to within an inch of the top of the jar and pack again to release all the air bubbles.
8) Store in the fridge for up to a month. (This is what I've read but I'm still checking to see why the shelf life isn't longer.

It's that easy. Aside from the dehydrating for close to 36 hours the process probably took 10 minutes. 

                                  



Now I'm ready for some vegan Mexican Stew and Margherita Pizza! Yum!

 

 

Our Hummies are so Happy

I filled the hummingbird feeder yesterday after a week of being out of town and the hummies are so happy. I just use a 4:1 water sugar mix. Picking feeders now I get the easiest ones to clean, that really makes a difference.

The one I am using now is from tractor supply with a big wide opening to fill the jar and the bottom comes apart for easier cleaning.

I am learning so much!!

Hey guys.

I have been using essential oils on and off for about 20 years I think. Y'all know I'm a science nerd, so using medicine in its natural form is really cool to me. Everything we have, everything we make, everything we see comes from nature. I mean, think about it. If you get aspirin for a headache, it is made from willow bark. Plastics are a petroleum based product.

I try to make, or learn how to make, as much stuff as I can around the house. Soap, lotion, wine, beer, alcohol for fuel, furniture, you get the idea, so the essential oils play a big part in our lives. I am just trying to keep us in touch with Mother Earth.

So, I stop by a chiropractors office who has a big sign out front saying "Clinical Herbalist". I'm thinking maybe I can make some oil things for them or learn something about herbs. She turns out to be a very smart young woman. She has a degree in biology and studied with 2 different clinical herbalist before opening her practice. We talked for a long while. One thing she said which I thought was interesting was "Using essential oil for prevention is like cracking a pecan with a sledge hammer." She's right too.

People are overusing essential oils today, what with all the MLM companies sending people out with the goal to sell as much oil as they can, and buy as much as they can. It can cause liver damage and more, it's that plain and simple. Essential oils are incredibly concentrated. An example is peppermint oil. There is as much peppermint essential oil in 1 drop as you would get out of 28 cups of peppermint tea.

The other thing she said was she needed someone that used energy healing. I never have gotten into that kind of thing so I was clueless as to what she was talking about. She mentioned tuning forks, crystals and a few other things but said Reiki would be the easiest to use here in the south. Basically because of the bible belt and people thinking the other things were devil worship or something. With Reiki a person can include Christianity because of the laying on of hands and something Paul said about "learn to heal thyself" or something to that effect.

So I get on the internet and start the google. Yeah, I do the google. I spent days on end learning about different forms of energy healing, modalities they call them. Who is "they"? All the experts on Youtube is "they". Some are not so expert.

Well now I am currently a level 1 practitioner of Reiki and an ordained minister. The minster thing is basically due to my belief in the freedom of religion and believing what I believe and not what someone tells me to believe. There are so many people that think the only right religion is theirs, only because that is what they have been told since they were born.

NOTE TO SELF - go into the science behind energy medicine and the frequency of essential oils and so on.


UPDATE TO POST - I am now a certified USUI SHIKI RYOHO Master/Teacher. I hope I can show more people how to use Reiki on a daily basis to help make their life better. It has definitely changed mine for the better! Thank you Jacqueline J Garner for the training and guidance.

Preserving Tomatoes

Wow! What a load of tomatoes I grew this year! I have been trying to lacto-ferment most of them because I love the taste but too many came in at once. I decided to dehydrate them and make tomato powder. That will be more useful and take up a lot less space, right?

I have an Excelsior Dehydrator and love the thing. I cut the tomatoes into wedges and used every other rack because the tomatoes are skin side down. They are going as I write this.

I still had a load of tomatoes so I filled up one of my 2 liter Pickl-It lacto fermenter jars with salsa and a smaller one with just tomato wedges. Lacto fermenting food is the easiest way to keep your probiotics in line. Well, maybe a pill is easier but it doesn't taste great.

The salsa is super easy to make. I use a food processor for most of the tomatoes and such.

Here's the recipe:

Lacto-Fermented Salsa

• Tomatoes (about 1.5 liters)

I wing the amount. I process what I think will be a little than I need then after it is in the fermenter I add wedges to fill to the shoulder of the jar. You may want to keep it about a half inch under the shoulder because the first day is really active!

• 1 Purple Onion
• 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
• 1 or 2 Jalapeno peppers
• 4 cloves of Garlic
• 1 bunch Cilantro
• zest and juice of 1/2 lemon or lime (I prefer lime).
• Optional ingredients are 1/2 tsp cumin and1/2 tsp oregano. I don't use these.
• 5 grams (1 tbls) good quality sea salt. I have been using pink himalayan salt but am currently trying plain old sea salt from the grocery.

Chop and mix the ingredients in a bowl then transfer to your fermenter. Place in a dark corner or cover with a towel and allow to sit at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Shorter if it is warm, a little longer in colder climes. Stir it daily and taste it to see when it is ready. When you like the taste transfer the fermenter to the fridge for a few days to slow the ferment. Transfer salsa to clean jars and keep the in the fridge.

This is the best salsa I have ever eaten and I have eaten tons of it. I'm pretty sure this is how the original salsa was made.

I hope you enjoy and feel free to ask any questions. I'm pretty loosey goosey with recipes.