Wild fermentation is the opposite of homogenization and uniformity –Sandor Ellix Katz
On the preservation front
Now that I got some beautiful cabbage heads (thanks to a local Freedom Farmer) I made a batch of sauerkraut – using Sally Fallon’s recipe. I did just plan cabbage for one batch and for the other I mixed a bit of beautiful turnips we had growing in the garden. The turnips were sooooo sweet and incredibly delicious as was the cabbage. I couldn’t help but eat handfuls raw.
Fermenting is one of the easiest and oldest ways of preserving – not to mention it’s fun.
Recently in the news, sauerkraut and pickled vegetables fermented the natural way with lactic acid fermentation are being credited with correcting bodily imbalances of intestinal flora, leading to problems including acid reflux for which doctors often prescribe harsh antibiotics.
Natural lactic acid fermentation is one of the oldest and healthiest means of food preservation. It allows natural, beneficial bacteria to perform a fermentation process in which vegetables develop a pleasantly sour taste and remain rich in vitamins and minerals. Lactic acid fermentation is the only method of preservation that retains all the natural plant ingredients while improving the quality, taste and aroma.
The preservation season has just begun! Soon, apples, apricots, peaches, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes and peppers will be (God willing) pouring in and we’ll be busy in the kitchen. But the June gloom has delayed the harvest a bit so I have a feeling we are going get slammed in July & August.
Preservation is definitely food security at its best.
What new preservation methods will you be trying this year? Care to share?
References
mmmmmmmm…makes me want to be there helping! Thanks for sharing!
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I make sauerkraut in jars. I have crocks but it just takes up a lot of room that way plus you can end up with spoilage as well as spills.
Here’s the recipe I use which is from an old (40’s. 50’s or 60’s — not sure without looking at the date)
http://laurawilliamsmusings.bl.....-jars.html
Quick and Easy and oh so delicious!
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Our brand new crock should be arriving today, so we’ll be making sauerkraut this weekend with cabbages from our CSA and also the local farmers’ market. Making sauerkraut isn’t new to us. We used to make it with my parents and then divide up the finished batch. But being hundreds of miles away from them, we’re needing to make our own now… so in that sense this will be a new adventure for us.
Water-bath canning isn’t new to us, but rather we are getting back to doing it as we have in years past.
Also we purchased a pressure canner and so far have canned french cut green beans and plan on doing more. We also plan to make can soups, etc.
It’s such a blessing to know where our food is coming from again and how it’s being preserved.
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I would like to try sauerkraut, kimchi, and fruit leather. Maybe for the first time try to dry foods as well. All I have done in the past is can, and freeze. I would like to be independent of elec. for preservation methods. Also, I did read an article many moons ago, about kimchi feed to sick chickens, made them recover. Fermented foods are something worth looking into, in my humble opinion. Love you guys, C
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I fell in love with Sauerkraut last year after making my own for the first time with natural wild fermantation. I use our locally harvested Great Salt Lake salt, the same kind I gave some of to you when I was out there earlier this year, and it works so well! I never liked kraut before that, but now I know why it has been loved for centuries.
I also made some Kimchi for the first time this summer as well. Korean wife of a friend of mine shared her recipe. Mmmm so good!
All the best to you all, everything looks great? Oh, by the way? do you pressure can the jars after filling them, or just store as is? I want to put up some for the winter this year and I’m curious of your methods. Thanks.
Paul~
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I’m a newbie at preserving, so this will be my first year of trying to hold on to what comes out of our new garden and seeing what I can stretch into the winter. One problem I have is that I dislike fermented and pickled foods. Just doesn’t appeal to my taste buds. So I’ll be doing a lot of freezing (I’m currently blanching and freezing our copious amount of greens like crazy), and I’ll try my hand at canning tomatoes and maybe some farmer’s market fruits for the first time.
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Since I’ve canned, frozen and dried for years, those aren’t anything new. I’ve also done the brined/fermented type dill pickles too. But I would like to try some kraut and kimchee this year. But mostly I am trying to get things to where I don’t have to do a whole lot of those things but can just eat right from the garden all year round……
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I’m planning to try my hand at canning baked beans using my pressure cooker – and more soups. We eat a lot of soup up here in the northeast, and it’s so much easier to pull a jar off the shelf and pop off the lid, than pulling it from the freezer – although that works pretty well, too. It’s just more time-consuming.
I’m actually hoping to use the rocket stove my husband is constructing outside with the pressure cooker in my canning process this year.
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I did a search on the internet and found your kimcui recipe. I followed it the first time but I forgot the redpepper flakes. I made a batch today. This time a larger patch. Napa cabbage, some red cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower as well as the other regular ingredients. I punched it up a bit with a couple hot peppers. My oh my did my house smell good. It tastes good now. Couldn’t wait for the whole process to take place. One jar is gone.
Thank you for the new food.
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I googled and found the kimchi recipe too.
I didn’t have Napa cabbage so just used the regular heads and worked with the recipe with what I had on hand. … no Korean red pepper flakes so I used homemade. No fresh ginger so I used ground.
We all LOVE it!
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