Gearing up for a couple craft fairs and community events… And hopefully some classes and workshops too! These bags and take-out boxes will be going home with purchasers of my fermentation lids and kits. I love how this stamp turned out!
Now THAT is some kahm yeast! And a lesson learned: Do not open and stir a ferment that is otherwise quite happy…
It is pretty, though. Love the 3D outlines of those bubbles.
(These are dill pickle slices; I had removed the airlock lid from this jar last week to taste the pickles and photograph them, giving it all a good stir in the process. After I took this photo today, above, I skimmed off the yeast and removed the yeastiest of the slices, then re-packaged the rest of the pickles into small clean sealed jars and tucked them into the cold cellar. The yeastiest of slices I rinsed off and ate with dinner; they tasted great! And yes, yeastiest is a word.)
I’m usually pretty minimalist when it comes to my food preserving tools… My favourites are multipurpose. That’s why I ferment in canning jars instead of crocks or Fidos: I already have many (many, many, many) canning jars, and would prefer to diversify their utility rather than add more stuff to my small home.
Having said that… Sometimes, something comes along that’s useful, and while it may not be totally necessary, it sure is cute!
What I’m talking about are these chalkboard label stickers: I love the way they look on my jars of active ferments.
Now, I’m big on labeling all my preserves… I like to put the date, the type of food, and perhaps even the name of the recipe or batch #, on every jar (or bag) of jam, jelly, sauce, chutney, pickle, dried/frozen fruit or vegetable, fruit leather, soup, etc. that fills my cold storage and freezer. This is important for maintaining quality and ensuring I eat the oldest things first, and also for keeping track of the odd product that really didn’t quite work out (I’m looking at you, inexplicably moldy pickled beets!).
It used to be I’d take a sharpie (permanent marker) to each jar or bag, and just write on the glass or plastic. Then I found a self-inking custom text printing kit at a thrift store, and began using that to stamp out all my labels (and, incidentally, my wedding invitations). For fermentation experiments, however, I was still just writing on the jars with a marker. Until! Until I saw these stickers, and was smitten. They’re large enough to scrawl on the name of the ferment and the date, easy to wipe off when the fermenting is done, and so far seem to fair well in being carefully peeled off and re-applied to a new jar when necessary.
And… They really are cute, aren’t they?
I noticed that one of my jars of miso in the cold storage has been leaking goo onto its shelf… I tasted the goo, and it’s a perfect, complex, fermenting, tamari-ish flavour! I’m very excited.
How much longer shall I wait before opening the jars themselves?
My coworker at the farm pressed these cucumbers on me, saying how perfect they’d be for pickling. Not wanting to let her down, I took them home, though I didn’t feel like I had the time to make anything with them. This recipe from Well Preserved saved me, and is excellent in its simplicity & ease. Even my less-than-perfectly-fresh cucumbers transformed into delicious dill pickles with minimal effort.
I finally strained the rice wine I started many many months ago.
First through a sieve, then a cloth. It is still cloudy.
The taste is… Interesting. Strong. Alcoholic. I’m going to let it sit in the fridge for a while, and check in with again later.
One of the farmers had a surplus of napa cabbage that was unsellable: The leaves were too loose, their tips were sun-burnt, and the earwigs had been voracious. I took home a dozen or so heads, for myself as well as a couple fermenting friends. Unfortunately, by the time I finally sat down to make kimchi 2 days later, the cabbage was a right mess. From 4 heads, I barely eked out 2 pounds of useable veg!
I honestly thought of tossing the whole lot into the compost, but with the gift of green onions from a neighbour, and the other ingredients on hand, I pressed forward.
4 days on the counter, then into the fridge. Yum.
There are so many bitter greens at the farm, and I don’t like any of them! But as so many flavours are improved with the addition of salt, garlic, and a little time, I am happy to present this experiment with dandelion greens.
275 g dandelion greens (1 cm dice)
60 g garlic (minced)
12 g pickling salt
Finding koji was easier than I thought it would be: Someone in my local fermenters’ forum told me that the Japanese grocery store near the university sells it from their freezer section.
Yes! And rather cheap, too.
I have spores from GEM Cultures stored in my fridge for the eventual day when I inoculate grains & grow my own, but for now, this is good.
Clockwise from top left: Nettle & red cabbage kraut by Christina, kimchi by Kyla, kimchi by me, nettle kraut by me (with nettles from Jay).