Last year I came into an abundance of pears from a dear friend with a few grand trees at the edge of her yard. Among our pear-related projects, I made a delightful pear cordial that you should check out! After preparing the pears for the cordial-making process, I ended up with a big bowl full of pear cores, stem ...
If you ever find yourself with a spare clove or two of garlic, consider trying a super-simple method of preserving it by fermenting it in a salt brine! Lacto-fermented garlic is awesome. The fermentation process makes the flavor and medicinal qualities of the garlic more available. Fermented garlic cloves dice up ...
Eric and I build a small bonfire outside at least once a week. We sit around it and talk, share stories, play our banjo and ukulele, respectively, and throw all of our stresses and negativity into the fire. Fire is a cleansing spirit, a powerful thing that can get out of control if not treated with respect. I use ...
A few weeks ago, I was the facilitator for a fermented foods workshop at a private festival in beautiful Eastern Tennessee! The Harvest Celebration focused on the aspects of the fall season leading up to the autumnal equinox - harvest, preservation, and storage of foods, as well as emotional and spiritual preparation ...
I went foraging in downtown Asheville, right smack dab in the middle of the city. Normally, urban foraging isn't my favorite way to gather edible weeds and fruit because of the traffic and residual pollution, but Asheville is lucky enough to have an edible garden, the George Washington Carver Edible Park. The park ...
Beer fermentation is magic! So, I've noticed that when people first start brewing beer on their own, they get concerned about whether they are doing it correctly. It can feel quite disconcerting to just follow the steps of a recipe, feeling like an inept mad scientist, and then watch it come to life when you don't ...
Mint, mint, mint. Once you get a good patch of mint planted, you should quickly have more mint than you can ever figure out how to use! (I cover medicinal properties of mint here) My peppermint patch does so well that I have more than I need for teas, tinctures, cordials, and even a few batches of mint chutney. ...
It is a beautiful spring, but I'm singing the blues. I'm down to my last bottle of dandelion wine from last year, and now I have to make more! It will be months before I can drink more of this delicious, nutritious nectar! Oh, well. I'll make the most out of it and get a new batch going. There's no sense in ...
MOST of them are labeled! I was just tidying my apothecary, and while doing so, I re-discovered an experiment that I'd completely forgotten about...and boy, am I glad I did! A month ago, I made a batch of blackberry mead from the last bit of the blackberries I picked and froze this past summer. After the ...
The fermenting bug got me again! It starts when I realize that I have a wide-mouthed jar that isn't being put to use, and the next thing I know I'm looking to see what I have in my pantry or fridge that I can try to ferment. Out comes the Fermentools and the magic begins! This time around, I came across a ...
Sauerkraut. The very word used to make my nose wrinkle and my jaw clamp shut, lips sealed, and my little curly head shake an adamant "No!" at the dinner table. I watched my Granddad spoon it over his hotdog while I wondered what in the world was wrong with adults to make them eat things that smelled like that stuff ...
A spicy carrot and cabbage blend Getting started with fermenting foods can be intimidating at first. I was nervous about making something dangerous to eat, and in the process of learning the best practices of lacto-fermentation I had a few not-so-successful experiments with bubbling jars of foods on my ...
Cranberries are delicious - their tart, sometimes bitter flavor can enhance most any meal, and they blend so well with both cinnamon and something sweet. I have a tradition of making a cranberry cordial every year, but this autumn I decided to try something a little different. Following my current trend of ...
Fermentation on Wheels Are they coming to your neighborhood? They'll be in mine, soon! What is Fermentation on Wheels? Fermentation on Wheels is a community of gastronomic nomads with a mission to eat thoughtfully, teach fermentation, and connect people with their local food source. We are traveling the ...
just a portion of the selection... I just don't know what happened, y'all... One minute, the booze cabinet was all happy and tidy - a whole mess o'bottles of varying shapes and sizes sitting side by side, full of delicious cordials, wines, meads, and experiments in progress...but the next minute? What a mess! ...
