Freemotion's food journal: Expanding the gardens, pics p 53

ohiofarmgirl

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Holy Hog, it was good! droolin
holy hog is right! but it was Java who started it! she was telling me about carbanara... oh golly it sounded good.

yay bacon pasta!
 

freemotion

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Gotta make some more.....maybe it will be a side dish for company on Tuesday....

Here is what happens when you neglect your Kombucha for nine and a half months.....no mold, but how will I get that mother out of the jar without breaking my precious gallon jar???

4-1-2011wildturkeysgoatsandchickens006.jpg


Got a new batch going. Two, actually. I need to get organized, my body misses the kombucha. My family is bugging me for it, too. I feel like I could use a liver cleanse, too. It really impacts my digestion.
 

freemotion

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Had an epic canning failure today.....I put 32 pint jars of spaghetti sauce into the two canners, and it looks like only 22 sealed. One exploded in one canner, coating all the jars, and in the other canner, one lid AND RING blew off, coating all the jars in that canner. So 2 jars ruined, and 8 not sealed.

Interestingly, all were widemouth pints. These are the jars I have the most trouble with. Is it only me? I did a hundred jars of catfood a couple weeks ago and 98 sealed, none broke, all were regular mouth pints. Harrumph! It will be lasagna this week, I guess.
 

TanksHill

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Are you pressure canning your sauce due to the ingredients?? or was it a water bath?

Can you use a knife to reach in and cut the mother in half and then scoop it out?

How could you forget about it for so long?? Don't you drink that stuff pretty regularly?

g
 

dragonlaurel

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freemotion said:
Gotta make some more.....maybe it will be a side dish for company on Tuesday....

Here is what happens when you neglect your Kombucha for nine and a half months.....no mold, but how will I get that mother out of the jar without breaking my precious gallon jar???

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/...on/4-1-2011wildturkeysgoatsandchickens006.jpg

Got a new batch going. Two, actually. I need to get organized, my body misses the kombucha. My family is bugging me for it, too. I feel like I could use a liver cleanse, too. It really impacts my digestion.
I used to get got really thick layers, cause my old place was warm. Sometimes it's easier to flip them to get the looser "babies" off for friends. Once they are thinner the monster sized one will come out. The really thick layers are great for your compost pile. If you have a plastic lettuce knife, they can trim a big one to size.

I miss doing kombucha. I was gonna start it from the unflavored Synergy tea, but the store near here stopped carrying it.
 

freemotion

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Good tips, dragonlaurel. I'm gonna try later, thanks to the idea of slicing it in layers.


TanksHill said:
Are you pressure canning your sauce due to the ingredients?? or was it a water bath?
I pressure canned it because that is what I am used to....and am not sure of the acidity of the ingredients. I didn't put meat in this batch, however.

Can you use a knife to reach in and cut the mother in half and then scoop it out?
Hopefully! Not much room to work....and it is tough stuff! The guys who slaughtered my hogs said you can dry the mothers and make shoe soles from them! Imagine that!
How could you forget about it for so long?? Don't you drink that stuff pretty regularly?

g
I had a busy, crazy winter with family responsibilities and such and kept putting it off....then it became one of those things I didn't want to look at because I couldn't bear it if it was completely ruined....you know the feeling. I don't crave it so much in the winter, and I had kefir most of the winter until I dried Mya off. Now I am really craving it again and trying to catch up on so many neglected things.....It really is easy, it got more neglected than other things because it is kept out of sight and it was a long, cold winter and I just didn't think about cold drinks. I'm starting to want them now, though.

I also have other ferments that I use regularly so if I skip one, I am still getting lots of other good ones. The two I really want to try to keep up with in the future, however, are the kombucha and the kefir, since they are so amazing. All winter I had things like fermented mustard, pickles, 'kraut, cucumber salsa, tomato salsa, minced peppers, herbs for salad dressing, garlic, etc. Ran out of the garlic a bit ago, too, though. It is one of my favorites....a big jar of minced fermented garlic to throw into any dish that calls for garlic.
 

Henrietta23

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Don't forget I have one of the babies of your mother. You could always meet me somewhere yummy for a grandchild exchange!
 

freemotion

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Thanks! That is one of the benefits of giving so many away! I'm good, though, as I keep a couple spares in jars in the fridge and I had a not-quite-as-neglected batches (four gallons total!) that yielded a couple of usable scoby's. I think because my house...at least my fermenting closet...is rather cool in the winter, the long neglect wasn't really quite as long, sorta.
 

freemotion

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The last 14 of 28 quarts of boiled peanuts are cooling in the canners now. I used the Tattler lids and only one didn't seal in the first 14. I'll know later when the next 14 cool. I ate the unsealed one for lunch. :drool

Gotta make chicken soup as soon as the stove is available. The folks are sick with colds so then need some natural remedies! Soup is wonderful for us, too, on this cold, miserable day. Good day for goat babies, however. I hope Ginger is listening. Even if the weather is bad, I am anxious to see what she has, and also what she can do on the milk stand.
 
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