Cultured Veggies

Cultures and Ferments go back to the earliest civilizations.  Every "culture" has their own cultured foods. Wine, sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, relish, mead, kefir, beers, kvass and the list goes on.

Originally a mode of preservation, the process of fermenting your food cultivates an irreplaceable ingredient of a healthy diet, probiotics.

Probiotics are the good bacteria, supporting and protecting our body from disease and illness.  According to Donna Gates in "The Body Ecology Diet", probiotics "are essential to a wide range of bodily functions.  They help white blood cells fight disease, control putrefactive bacteria in the intestines, provide important nutrients for building the blood, assist digestion, protect the intestinal mucosa, prevent diarrhea and constipation, and contribute to bowel elimination. They also manufacture important B vitamins and are the most abundant source of vitamin B-12."

Taking care to include a source of cultured food in your diet on a daily basis will arm your immune system against the everyday bombardment of bacteria and viruses that we are exposed to.  I personally, feel stronger and have superior digestion when I am consistent with consuming fermented foods.  There is such wide variety of ferments that something can be found for everyone's tastes. You can find fermented foods at your local health food store, or you can make them yourself.  If you do decide to purchase your ferments, be sure that they are in the refridgerated section of the store, and state that they are not pasteurized and that they contain live cultured enzymes.  A few of my favorite brands are "Real Pickles", which carry an assortment of cultured vegetables, "InnerEco" brand coconut kefir, and "GT" Kombucha.  There are many resources for doing it yourself. My teachers have been Sandor Katz, Donna Gates and Sally Fallon, all authors of wonderful books.

There are two main schools of thought when it comes to fermenting foods.  Wild fermentation, as is taught by Sandor Katz, and culturing, described by Donna Gates.  Essentially, wild fermentation collects wild bacteria from the air as each type of bacteria is attracted to a certain food.  Whether you are fermenting cabbage, sugar or honey, they have their own bacteria and yeast that are attracted to them.  Keep your equipment clean and sterilized, and there is no need to worry about harmful bacteria being introduced.  Donna Gates brings a closed culture style to the table, adding the preferred probiotics to the food and sealing it in a closed container to allow the cultures to proliferate in a controlled environment.

Whichever is best for you is your own choosing, I will show you both methods.  I recommend trying out both and going with whichever compliments your body.  Our four fermented staples are cultured veggies, coconut kefir, coconut yogurt and kombucha.  This will be a three part series starting with...

Cultured Vegetables

One of the most popular forms of cultured veggies is sauerkraut. In our home we keep a large batch in the fridge at all times.  The whole family enjoys homemade cultured veggies mixed with fresh ground tahini, a little salad dressing, as a side dish to help digest a protein such as eggs, or straight up, in a bowl, with a pair of chopsticks.  This week we harvested a delicious garlic kraut.  Every  month we pick a new variety of veggies to ferment.  This week we plan to bottle up a big bowl of radishes from the garden.

As I mentioned before, there are two basic routes with fermenting.  The first, traditional, ferment is wild fermenting.  Our friend, Franky Giglio, from Three Lily Farm has a few recipes on his family farm blog.  Instead of making my own video, I asked Franky if it was ok to share.  He does a wonderful job explaining the process.

Click Here for Franky's Video Blog 

Next is a Video with Donna Gates, herself explaining her technique of a closed system culture.  Visit this link for the Renegade Health Show Fermentation Blog.

Both Franky G and Renegade Health have published books on the subject, that I recommend checking out.

Next week we will visit making coconut kefir!

Happy Culturing!

Frosty Orange-Mango-Kefir Soda

After the family spent some serious time on a hot and humid Fourth of July weeding the garden, we needed a serious reward, and I was happy to oblige.

Frosty Electrolyte Mango Soda
2 oranges, juiced
The meat of one mango
1/4-1/2 C coconut water kefir
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp MSM powder (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tray ice

Blend together and Enjoy!

Opening A Young Coconut

There are loads of videos online on how to open a young coconut.  I figured I would put together a simple picture showing the tricks that I use every week while making my coconut kefir*.

If you are interested in a printable version, let me know and I'm happy to email you the pdf version.

ginamlaw@gmail.com

**click on the image to make it bigger.

Prickly Pear Kombucha!

Prickly Pear: A wide spread fruit bearing Cactus located in the Southwestern United States among many environments world wide.  

Kombucha: A fermented black tea drink with origins in China.

Over the last couple of years our family has been blessed with having a Mother other than myself to nourish our beings.  Most times there is more than just one other mother.  She’s a little different than most mother’s you meet, she’s kind of odd to look at,  she put me off a bit when we first met.  We keep her tucked in a closet or inside a cupboard.  I do have to say she makes the most terrific drinks.  Our Mother is a kombucha scoby, a “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast”.  

Most folks here in the states know to eat yogurt for acidophillus when they take antibiotics.  Some know there are other options, mostly in a pill form. These pills contain a mixture of probiotics, acidophillus being one strain of probiotic. 

Probiotics are a necessary part of our diets.  Whether you are raw vegan, macrobiotic, or  a straight carnivore, our bodies need the probiotics to stay healthy.  

Pro - to support 

Biotic - Life

Probiotics live in our intestines and fight off the bad bacteria and germs.  They keep our bacteria levels at a healthy balance.  They fight to keep us healthy.

Probiotics thrive and grow in fermentations, but are killed in pasteurization.

Most cultures in the world, culture their food (yes, pun intended!) 

Kimchi, sauerkraut, beer, wine, kombucha, mead, miso, pickles, aged cheese, and the list goes on.  Making these products yourselves is the best and cheapest way to consume them.  When purchasing for the health benefits intended, you need to keep your eyes peeled for the “un-pasteurized” seal of approval.  

One of the most simple and inexpensive forms of fermentation that I have found is our beloved kombucha.  Kombucha requires but three ingredients, tea, sugar and the mother or scoby.  Simply brew 3 quarts black tea, dissolve in 1 cup sugar, allow to cool to room temperature, add 2 cups kombucha from previous batch and top with your scoby.  We cover our one gallon glass jar with cheesecloth to avoid flies, and let it brew for 1-2 weeks.  Strain and repeat.  Super simple.  Of course there are always little tricks that you find out along the way, one for example being that you should never let your mother touch metal.  I strain mine with cheese cloth or a nutmilk bag.  I highly recommend finding yourself a good mother!

After many, MANY gallons brewed of kombucha, we moved to the desert and the prickly pears ripened!  I hopped right in, grabbed myself three big, beautiful fruit and went home with a skip in my step.

I poured off one gallon of my already brewed kombucha and started peeling those tricky pricklys.  It was quite obvious it was my first summer in the desert.  This New England girl found out exactly why they are called prickly pear, and spent the next few days pulling prickly hairs out of my finger tips!  After chopping the beautifully pealed fruit, I added it to a gallon glass jar and sealed it off with the lid for a two week anaerobic fermentation.  

Doing the original brew open to the air, we are allowing the ferment to collect all of the yeast and good bacteria from the air.  This is called aerobic fermentation.  We need this good bacteria and when you are brewing correctly, it only collects the bacteria that we want in our bodies, which is why it causes the mother to grow without growing mold.  When we follow the aerobic ferment with a tightly closed lid, it anaerobically ferments.  This is when all of those living organisms are reproducing, breaking down the sugars even more, and creating a bi-product of carbon dioxide, and leaving our brew all bubbly and extra yummy!  When we do the second ferement we need to add a bit more sugar, which can come in the form of fruit, in this case prickly pear.

Two weeks later, after a bit of yard work in the hot Arizona sun, I was delighted to share this magnificently colored, fabulous tasting brew with a great friend and a lovely conversation.