Fermented Pickles

I have made refrigerator pickles before, but this time, I wanted to try my hand at fermented pickles. 

 Fermentation does not =alcohol, Sourdough bread is fermented. Fermentation produces those healthy bacteria we refer to as probiotics. Fermented foods have a plethora of health benefits.

Fermentation also helps stave off spoilage. Before people knew about probiotics, they knew that fermented foods last a long time. Before refrigeration, this was critical to survival. Now, in the age of global produce trade, it's still convenient and cost effective. I bought a half case of pickling cucumbers for $20. That's about 20-30 pounds of cucumbers. We ate about a third fresh, I pickled 15 quarts, and I lost a few to spoilage :( The salt and vinegar I used are negligible. That's a lot of food for $20. 

I used the instructions in Every Step in Canning: The Cold Pack Method, a free e-book available from Amazon and the Gutenberg Project. Originally published in 1920 as a pamphlet for housewives, I had to make a few adjustments. For instance, I used canning jars instead of a crock or wooden tub. I screwed my lids on instead of sealing my jars with paraffin, and I moved my jars to the refrigerator after they finished fermenting. I suppose, in theory, refrigeration is technically unnecessary, but I found that 2 additional days on top of the fridge made my pickles slightly more sour than I would prefer. I have room in the fridge, so in they went. They should be able to hang out in there indefinitely. I'm hoping to hold onto these until next spring. 

First, lets talk about cucumbers. 

Pickling cucumbers are smaller and firmer than garden cukes. The pickling process softens them a bit. While these raw pickles are much crisper than ones you find in the store or homemade heat-canned pickles, they do still need to be quite firm to hold up to the process. Garden cucumbers are better suited to a refrigerator pickle. 

Other veggies besides cucumbers will work well in this preparation. Watermelon rind, radishes, green tomatoes, green beans, turnips, carrots, and anything of a similar texture will work. I have only used cucumbers, but I do plan to do this with watermelon rind this summer. 

Alrighty, let's get started. 

First, wash your cucumbers well. If they come from a grocery store, they may have a wax coating. Scrub that off. Yuck.

Next, slice them, quarter them, or whatever. If you have a LARGE container, such as a glass gallon jar, you may leave them whole. Smaller jars won't hold whole pickles.

A word about containers. You want something stable. There is vinegar involved here. Metal and plastic are no-nos. Glass, crockery, even "non-pitchy wood", whatever that means, are fine. When in doubt, go with glass. 

Wash your containers. There is no need to sterilize as in canning. Just soap and water. 

These pickles are sliced the long way, and a sprig of dill rests at the bottom.

Next, pack your jars. If you wish, put a sprig or two of fresh dill in the bottom of your jar, or whatever spices you wish. You don't need dill or pickling spice. Most "dill pickles" in the grocery store have no dill. They are just plain pickles. My first batch was plain. They are quite flavorful all on their own. 

Then lay the jar on its side. Pack the cucumbers firmly into the jar. When the brine goes in, everything will loosen up and shift around a bit. You want them to stay in place.

                                               

Leave a bit of room at the top. The pickles must be completely submerged. If one piece sticks out, the whole jar will spoil. 

Brining solution

Now it's time to mix the brine. 

To one gallon of clean, filtered drinking water, add 1 cup vinegar and 3/4 cup salt. You can use whatever kind of vinegar and salt you like. This is a very mild brine. It's NOT a pickling solution. This solution alone will not preserve your pickles. The vinegar in this brine will only protect your cucumbers until the fermentation can kick in. It's just a booster. 

I chose raw, organic apple cider vinegar, mainly for the antifungal benefits. It's the only vinegar approved for Gem's Candida Diet. Because these pickles have no sugar, and no additives or preservatives-or dyes, did you know most pickles have yellow dye? Why?!!?-they are safe for Gem, and anyone else on a variety of special diets.

Choose your salt wisely. The salt will concentrate in the pickles. My kids reported that the pickles I made were very salty. (They still downed a quart for lunch, so they weren't bad, just saltier than expected.) Pickling salt is a low-quality salt. It has a strong flavor. I would recommend using a good-tasting salt with a flavor you prefer. I used an inexpensive sea salt. 

You will need half as much solution as the volume of your pickle containers. One gallon of brine will fill 2 gallon jars, or 8 quart jars. 

Fill the jars with brining solution to the tops. Make sure that the pickles are completely covered. If jars aren't packed tightly enough, the cucumbers may float to the top and spoil. 

Place the lids loosely. Don't screw them tight yet. Label them with the date. 

Place the jars in a safe, warm place. Heat speeds fermentation. I put mine on top of the fridge. This is my usual fermenting area :)  You can see my kombucha and my oil infusions up there as well.

In a day or two, you should see a few bubbles if you gently shake the jars. There's no sugar in here, so it won't get fizzy. Leave them up there for about a week. 

After they are sufficiently fermented, check the tops for scum. If any has formed, skim it off. Screw the lids on tightly. Move the jars to the refrigerator, a root cellar (if you don't live in Louisiana and you have one), or eat them up right away. 

Sprouting seeds tutorial

Sprouting seeds is an easy and affordable way to add nutrients to your diet and multiply your food dollars. 

Sprouts are packed with nutrition. A sprout is an entire plant, in a tiny little package.

 Any seed or bean that can be eaten, can be sprouted. Each sprout has it's own unique flavor. You can purchase special sprouting seed mixtures, buy individual varieties of sprouting seeds, or sprout regular dried beans, raw seeds, and whole grains you have in your pantry or find in the grocery store. 

Seed mixtures can be purchased locally for about $5 a pound. Dried beans and lentils run a little over a dollar a pound. A tablespoon of seeds will produce a bowlful of sprouts. It's hard to find a better value. 

Sprouting is a deceptively simple process that requires very little equipment. I use a jar with a mesh lid, like the one pictured in the above link. The top cost less than $5 at a local health food store and fits on any size wide-mouthed mason jar. There are other methods, but this is the one I'll be detailing in this post.

What not to sprout:

Garden seeds.
Garden seeds are often treated with chemicals to enhance shelf life and improve viability. They are are not a food source, and should never be eaten. 

Cooked, roasted, or refined nuts, grains and seeds. 
Cooking and roasting kills the germ. The seed is no longer viable. The refining process removes the germ, because it will become rancid before the rest of the grain. Oats, pearled barley, split peas, and brown rice that you find in the grocery store will not sprout. Some grains, which are left completely whole, will sprout. If in doubt, look for a germ, or try it and see what happens. Either it will sprout, or it won't. 

Non-food seeds.
If it isn't edible as a plant, it won't be edible as a sprout. Don't eat things that are not food. You wouldn't eat an orange tree or a daisy flower. Don't eat their sprouts either. 

Now, let's get started. 

Put your seeds in the jar. Just use a little. They are going to need lots of room. Fill it with water. Place the mesh lid. Let the seeds soak overnight. Soaking is not necessary, but it does speed the process considerably. 

These guys are about 2-3 days old. Let's pretend that they aren't. They are considerably larger than when I started them already. A tablespoon or 2 is enough to begin with. This is a sample of a mixture I got from a friend. I dumped the whole bunch in there, but I should have split it in 2 batches. 

Good morning! Pour out the soaking water. You will notice your seeds are looking right plump. Rinse with fresh cold water. Hot water will damage the sprouts.

Please ignore my ugly sink and dishes. We live here and we are in the (painfully slow) process of redoing the kitchen. 

Swirl it around. 

Pour it out right through the mesh lid. There is no need to remove the lid at all until you are ready to eat your sprouts. 

Turn your jar on it's side and roll it around a bit to spread the seeds out. The more space and air they get, the bigger and more robust their sprouts will be. 

Wait. Repeat the rinsing process every morning and every evening until your sprouts are ready to eat. I like to let mine green a little bit. You can choose to stop the process sooner if you like. Depending on the type of seed, degree of desired growth, and ambient temperature, your sprouts will need a couple of days to a week to reach optimum sproutiness. 

You can see in this picture that some of the seeds are starting to sprout a tiny bit. In swirling and trying to take pictures at the same time, I broke some  of the sprouts :( They are extremely delicate. Be gentle with them. 

Once your seeds are adequately sprouted, place them (still in the jar if you like) in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them. The cold temp will slow or halt the growing process. Eat them promptly. If you wait too long you will have microgreens, and then plants. Even in the fridge, life stops for no man. Or woman. 

Now you have sprouts. Great! What do you do with them? You have some options.

1. Eat them! Sprouts make a yummy snack all by themselves. My kids will down a batch of sprouts in seconds. 

2. Put them in a sandwich or on a salad. They taste great raw, combined with other foods. Radish and mustard sprouts are spicy, dark greens sprouts are tangy, alfalfa and broccoli sprouts have a rich, almost grassy flavor, sunflower sprouts taste creamy. 

3. Stir fry them. Cooking does alter the enzymes in the sprouts, so go easy on the heat. But my absolute FAVORITE sprout dish is Pad Thai. They cook fast, so add them at the end, and don't over cook them. 

4. Cook the heck out of them. Obviously, this isn't ideal, but if you really want to  add them to heavily cooked dish, stew, soup, or whatever, go ahead. They will add nutrients and flavor to any dish.

Wasn't that easy? I was stunned how simple sprouting could be. Now I'm hooked. You will be, too. 

Nourishing Honey Hair Masque

When my wavy hair is dry, frizzy and unruly, a masque tames it in minutes. 

Combine 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup honey (Raw is best). 

Apply to hair scalp. Begin massaging scalp, and then work through to roots. 

Pile hair on top of your head. Let the masque soak into hair for at least 10 minutes, while soaking in a lovely candlelit bath. (Bath is optional, but if you are going to beautify, go all out, right?) 

Rinse very thoroughly with warm water. Hair will be greasy. If you use shampoo, you might want to use a little. Follow with a vinegar rinse. 

Brown Sugar and Honey Lip Scrub

I have always struggled with chappy lips. No amount of lip balm application will prevent the occasional chapping. 

Fear not! When your lips are so dry and cracked that they hurt, and balming them does nothing to soothe them, you must exfoliate. 

This gentle scrub will patiently scrape off all that old ickiness and reveal the soft, fresh, lovely lips that you know are under there somewhere. 

Mix together :

1 TBS honey (Raw is best)
1 TBS olive or coconut oil

Add enough brown sugar to make a thick paste. Combine well. 

Using a fingertip's worth of scrub, rub tiny circles all over your lips. The scrub will melt as you rub it. Add a little more when needed, and keep the circles moving. Be careful not to over scrub in any one place. 
It will feel wonderful, but be careful not to overdo it. You don't want to rub holes in your lips. The new skin will be very delicate. 

Rinse with warm water. Apply a nourishing lip balm. 

Repeat no more than once a day, as needed. If lips are tender, skip a day or 2 to let the tender skin heal. 

Throat Syrup

This syrup is soothing to a sore throat, calms a cough, and help fight the germs that cause them. 

1/4 cup honey- raw local is best, but use store bought if that's what you have access to
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbs whiskey, bourbon or rum (optional)
1 tsp ginger
dash of cayenne

Give 1 tsp twice a day, as needed. I like to give one before bed and one upon waking in the morning. 

NOT SUITABLE for babies under one year.