Fermenting Foods and Beverages
I have recently caught a new bug, the old style fermented foods and beverages bug. It all started back in June or July while I was sitting with my Mother in her sun-room watching birds and bees in her back yard (it is wooded and drops down to a deep ravine so it is a wonderful place to be). Mom was reminiscing about her grandmother who was an excellent cook and owned several restaurants. Mom learned to cook as a child from her grandmother. In those days, the 1930s through the 1940s, most people had a garden or knew farmers from which to purchase produce and protein foods, i.e. dairy, meats. People put up or put bye (canned) much of the food they grew for the winter. As a child, I remember my mother's parents basement pantry area lined with jars of stuff to eat like pickles.Mom told me how much she loved to sneak down to the basement as a young child and sample the foods in the large crocks, her favorite being sauerkraut and mangoes (stuffed bell peppers). Her grandmother fermented the pickles in huge crocks and there was nothing wrong with sampling the foods except that it spoiled her appetite somewhat for meals.
Sadly, I never got to meet my grandmother as she passed away before I was born. But her legacy of wonderful cooking passed down to my mother and hopefully to me. When I was a tween, my mother made pickles and relish on year, what an interesting undertaking that was. We ate the pickles and relish for 2 or 3 years, and really enjoyed it. Mom made jelly once in a while also, but never put food up like her grandmother did or my mother-in-law did because the day of the commissary and grocery store had overtaken our culture. Additionally, she and dad were not gardeners so would have to purchase the fresh produce to preserve, and what was the point of that when you could easily and inexpensively purchase what you desired without the hassle of making it yourself.
When I was a teen, I spent all my time riding my horse with other teen girls doing the same. We knew where a huge old fig tree was that we gorged ourselves on every summer. I wish I'd taken some home to make into fig preserves but I never thought of it. One of my horseback girlfriends dad was a deputy sheriff and her mom always had 2 glass gallon jugs on the kitchen counter in there home connect by clear tubing stuck in a stopper in each bottle and some muscadine wine fermenting in one and condensing in the other. I tasted it once and it was a really sweet grape flavor, really too sweet for my tastes so I never asked Mrs. Audry what she was doing or how or why. I didn't realize that sweetness could be adjusted. Now that information is lost to me 40 years later. All the lost opportunities to learn and do. Sadly, this is the way it is for most urban dwellers in the USA today. However, there is a movement by some people to learn the old skills called by some, urban homesteading.
I live on a steep hill that drops down to a ravine with a tiny stream in the bottom, close to the center of our little town. The back yard faces NNE and gets only middle of the day sunlight, so it is not conducive to gardening unfortunately. The front yard faces SSW and is small, has kids run through it, dogs too (and they leave droppings for me to clean up) so it receives full sun, but is not a hospital spot to garden either. I would dearly love for our town to create a community garden area someday, so then I could grow some produce. I would love to keep a handful of chickens for eggs and their funny antics but there are raccoons who come up on the deck to raid my bird feeders every night, and I fear the chickens would be raccoon dinner all to soon. I have thought of rabbits for meat and fur, and that is something I may eventually do--after much researching.
I hope all of you wistful farmers have better conditions in your own piece of gardening paradise, but hopefully, we can all manage to grow at least a little of our produce.
I found this interesting beverage recipe while researching how to ferment foods, the name caught my eye. This is a drink made from fermenting sweet potatoes and is ready in 3-5 days. This is supposed to be similar to old fashioned root beer, ginger ale, cream sodas, etc. The recipe is not difficult to make.
2 scrubbed and shredded sweet potatoes, rinse the starch in strainer till water runs clear then place in 1 gallon jar. Add 2 cups sugar (or you can add some honey as part of the 2 cups), 1/2 a lemon, a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg,ginger, allspice, 1 egg shell, then cover with water. Cover with cloth to keep out fruit flies. Later when bubbly, strain, chill juice, save the pulp to bake muffins.
I made my first batch today, but I forgot to rinse the shredded potatoes, so I'll soon see what happens, I may need to repeat this recipe at the end of the week, correctly, to see what the difference is. More news later on this beverage. This was fun and could possibly be delicious. I enjoyed the process and the connection to my great-grandmother and my mother's memories of the cooking methods she remembers.
http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums/3156_0/cooking-and-food-preservation/fermented-but-nonalcoholic-drinks
