February Newsletter

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Lacto-Fermenting in warm weather

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My good friend, Peggy Matthews, is guest posting today about lacto-fermented salsa. Read on!

I finally harvested my heirloom garden tomatoes (grown from seed!) which I planted very late in the season. They grew to be large, heavy, and funnily-shaped which I was glad about since hybrid varieties tend to be smooth, perfectly round, and tasteless. These babies had FLAVOR!

I don’t know why I grew tomatoes as I am not very fond of them. But I do like tomato salsa. So I decided to mince them up and make a large, half gallon jarful, of it.
After assembling all of the ingredients I realized that I had a dilemma: I needed to keep it at a steady 70 degrees Fahrenheit but we were having a bit of a late September heat wave and even the coal cellar in the basement was a balmy 75 degrees.
What to do?

After exercising my grey matter for a while on this problem, I came up with the idea of placing the jar in a large, flat-bottomed glass bowl that was first lined with refreezable ice packs on the bottom and then layered with a folded dish towel to diffuse the chill. I put the jar of salsa on top of that cold layer and wrapped another dishcloth around it all to keep out the ambient warm air.

It’s still early days yet (just 3 days into the fermentation) but I have a good feeling about this. I periodically feel the outside of the jar to be sure it’s not too cold and I let the ice packs warm up overnight before replacing them with new ones. Luckily the weather is now turning cooler so I may not need to babysit the jar this way, but I will definitely keep this method in mind for next year when I am in the mood to lacto ferment in the middle of summer!

Peggy’s Lacto Fermented Salsa
3 Cups filtered tap water, boiled and then cooled (to evaporate off the chlorine, which can kill the microbes I want to grow!)
¾ Tablespoon Pickling Salt added to the water and stirred until dissolved.

Into a clean, glass, half-gallon, wide-necked jar I added:
• 3-4 large diced Garden Tomatoes
• ½ large diced Vidalia Onion
• 6 medium Garlic Cloves, peeled (3 whole, and 3 smashed once with the flat of my chopping knife)
• Fresh rosemary from my garden, unchopped leaves
• Fresh parsley from my garden, unchopped leaves
• 3 garden-fresh Hot Red Peppers*, whole, with the top chopped off to expose the seed core
• 1 Tablespoon dried Basil
• 1 teaspoon dried Oregano

To the salt water brine above, I added one packet of Caldwell’s Starter Culture for Fresh Vegetables, available at Cultures for Health.
After the starter culture was thoroughly dissolved, I poured this brine-culture mixture over the vegetables in the jar (I had leftovers because the tomatoes took up so much room in the jar!)
I didn’t weigh the vegetables down; I just secured the screw-on plastic lid containing a water trap air vent so that gasses can escape but air can’t get in.

The instructions for using the starter culture say to keep the ferment at a steady 70 degrees for ten days, and to then cure it in the fridge, preferably for a few months. Actually, that was for their cabbage sauerkraut recipe so I think my salsa will be ready much sooner as the tomatoes have more readily available sugars for the microbes to feast on (and ferment) and they are much softer than cabbage leaves.

Fingers crossed that my salsa comes out yummy and perfectly fermented!

(*gift from Sharon’s garden)

New Potatoes from Old Potatoes

I just harvested my little potato patch this morning. These potatoes were from store-bought potatoes that were rotting in the cellar in the Spring. I cut off the rotten parts and put the remaining pieces in 2 short rows in my lemon balm garden. I basically ignored them except for watering them a few times when it was dry. After a few weeks I realized I hadn't planted them deeply enough so I weeded around them and used the weeds as a mulch to keep the tubers cool. (potatoes need to be planted deeply because they won't grow properly when the tubers are close to sun-warmed soil)

We won't cure them, just eat them over the next few weeks. I'll use the potato cooking water for gluten-free sourdough pancakes.

Now I'm having dreams of fingerlings and creamers for next year.

Hot Summer Tips for Fermenting

 

Zucchini Ferment

Just a few quick tips for fermenting in the heat of summer:

Avoid fermenting during a heat wave:
Fermenting during a heat wave is difficult at best unless you have an area that consistently stays below 70 degrees for that first 3 day fermentation period. The last time I tried it, my kitchen was in the 80's, way too hot for the first fermentation period. I moved everything to the basement, which was significantly cooler but apparently I was too late or it wasn't cool enough. The cukes became moldy and slimy.

Usually the cukes are coming fast during a heat wave and it seems the best time to be processing them. We often have to harvest twice a day during that wonderful high summer heat. Now, I store the cukes in the fridge until the heat wave breaks and then I ferment.

Avoid using the cukes that form during heavy summer rains:
These cukes are full of water and won't ferment well. My experience is that extra water seems to upset the salt/water balance.

Use onions with your cukes and summer squash ferments:
To avoid mushy cukes and summer squash ferments, add a little onion to each jar.

Make your own medicine! Fermented Escarole

When I ferment vegetables I always feel that I am making medicine because the fermentation process fosters the same bacteria and yeasts that keep our digestive systems strong. This in turn keeps our immune systems strong.

Fermented Escarole has the added benefit of being a bitter green that supports and detoxifies the liver. Escarole has a naturally bitter flavor, mild when young, stronger when older.

It is easy to start from seed in the garden, doesn't need much attention, can sit in the bed a long while till you need it and stores well in the fridge. The young leaves are good in salad, older leaves are great in a stir fry, especially with garlic.

After fermenting I find that it is still a bit tough to completely chew so I scoop out the leaves, run them through the blender while adding enough brine to bring it to the consistency I like. I add it to salad, beans and have it with meat or fish.



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Freshly washed and ready to chop for fermenting



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In the jar, ready for fermenting for 3 days at room temp and 2-3 weeks in fridge

Green Garlic, Fermented!

Green Garlic is garlic grown for the young plant parts rather than just the bulb. Just plant some cloves in the fall and eat them in the following spring/early summer. They don't need optimal conditions yet they give a lot of food.

They are great sauteed and I also love them fermented. Imagine all the benefits of garlic combined with all the benefits of lactofermentation. This is power food!



Recently harvested Green Garlic plants

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Green Garlic Scapes or Flower Stalks




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Green Garlic stalks, cut and ready for fermentation jar



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The jar ready for fermentation period



The white layer is from chopped green garlic bulbs, the light green layer is from the chopped stalks and the dark green layer is from green garlic scapes. I used a horseradish leaf for the leaf layer.



I'll let it ferment for 3 days on the counter and then 2-3 weeks in the fridge.

Late Spring Lentil Stew using what grows in Late Spring!

I like to make lentil stew in the late spring and summer because it's a light but nutritionally potent meal. I often serve it marinated and room temperature. This week I was able to use vegetables entirely from the garden for the stew.

I soaked 4 cups of green lentils for 24 hours. They were beginning to sprout by then. I used a pile of radish greens from the radish crop, some hefty Walking Onions and a clump of Green Garlic which is garlic grown for it's stalks, flower stalks and flowers rather than the bulb. Some parts of the Walking Onions and Green Garlic were too tough or unsuitable to use for the stew so they went in to the freezer for the first fall soupstocks.

When the stew was finished I froze some of it for future summer meals. I marinated the rest of it with lemon juice and Kombucha vinegar which is kombucha tea that has matured into the vinegar stage. The kombucha tea was made with lemon balm from my garden.

Green Lentils soaked for 24 hours, starting to sprout

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Radish Greens

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Green Garlic & Walking Onions

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Walking Onions leaves and bulbs chopped

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Green Garlic bulbs chopped

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Finished Cooking - Ready to eat, freeze or marinate in Kombucha Vinegar

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Tough Green Garlic leaves to be frozen for soupstock in the Fall

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Green Garlic & Walking Onion roots and necks to be frozen for soupstock in Fall