I found some information on fermenting and a few recipes in a book I discovered at the library this weekend- Fresh Food From Small Spaces- The Square Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting by R.J. Ruppenthal. The directions for making Kimchi say to cover the jar loosely with the lid or a cloth for 2 days, or until you get that "fermenting" smell; then, cap it tightly and put in the refrigerator. Maybe that is what I've been doing wrong. I put the lid on at the beginning; perhaps it needs to "breathe" a bit first??? The author recommends Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz, which sounds like a very interesting book on the subject. I plan to look into reading this one, too; and am going to make another attempt at kimchi soon. Wildfermentation.com was created by the book's author, and if you click on the resources button, you can find his recipe for sourkraut and pickles, plus a troubleshooting area. Hope this info. helps some of you who are having the same struggles as I am in learning the art of fermenting food!
I think I must be doing something wrong with the Nourishing Traditions recipes for fermented foods. Mine just turn out salty, and don't seem to be "fermented". Anyone here make the recipes in that book with success? If so, would you please give me some tips? I think someone else here posted about having trouble with the fermenting process; I'm sure they would appreciate your help, too!
I attempted to make pickled cucumbers last week, but ended up with a jar of very salty sliced cucumbers. I had the same issue with Kimchi and Ginger Carrots. I've tried using whey and just adding additional salt. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks so much for any input!
What is your own favorite recipe in the Nourishing Traditions book ?
I've not made many things from it, yet. I would certainly love to get the fermenting thing down. I like Kefir and make that when I can get good quality milk. Yogurt is another family favorite, and I have varying results with that. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is....NOT!
My husband makes Kombucha with excellent results. I do not like it, even a little bit; but he does and doesn't mind all the work that goes with keeping it going. I honestly think apple cider vinegar tastes better, so I'll continue my own daily tonic of 1 tsp acv in a glass of water twice a day. I used to add 1 tsp honey to it, but now don't even bother, it tastes fine "straight" .
Or are you wasting your money and your family's health?
I used to buy extra virgin olive oil in tin cans at the grocery store and use it for everything. Baking, frying, salad dressings, you name it. Then my husband heard a news story on counterfeit olive oil on NPR. It turns out that most of the olive oil, organic or not, offered for sale in the U.S. and around the world is not extra virgin olive oil at all but a mix of lower quality olive oils and/or soy, corn, cottonseed, canola or other oils.
When we discovered this, we immediately began searching for the real thing and changed the way we use olive oil. I wrote about it in a blog post at SolarFamilyFarm last year.
Well, I found a simple test you can perform on your own extra virgin olive oil to find out if it is real. You can read about it here.
As I mentioned in a recent Front Porch post, don't suboptimize your budget or your health. This is one of those areas where you should not skimp but rather, change your habits. It is not easy but is well worth your health.
There are many other counterfeit foods out there too. But knowing your sources for these products, finding healthy alternatives, or making your own can not only save you money, it can keep your body healthy.
Kristin Hoffman homesteads with her family in the hills of East Tennessee and blogs about alternative energy, family farming, and home schooling with her husband at www.solarfamilyfarm.com. The Hoffmans also run Knot4Fun, a family business dedicated to teaching kids the practical skill of knot tying and adventurous outdoor play. Kristin can be found using her bottle of Bariani Olive Oil very sparingly!
Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.
HFCS has replaced sugar as the sweetener in many beverages and foods such as breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS, but teens and other high consumers can take in 80% more HFCS than average.
"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.
In the first study, published in current issue of Environmental Health, researchers found detectable levels of mercury in nine of 20 samples of commercial HFCS.
And in the second study, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a non-profit watchdog group, found that nearly one in three of 55 brand-name foods contained mercury. The chemical was found most commonly in HFCS-containing dairy products, dressings and condiments.
When I was an engineer for General Electric (back when it was still a real company that actually made something), we were taught about suboptimizing. Here’s the definition:
suboptimizing - Striving for optimum performance in one element of an organization (for example: reducing your food budget) while disregarding the effects this may cause to the performance of the other organizational elements (for example: your health & well being).
Times are tough, trust me, I know. And we’re all doing what we can to cut our expenses. There’s a great deal of talk at the Front Porch on just how to go about this. My advice when it comes to food: don’t suboptimize.
DON’T buy boxed cereals. Figure out the price per serving. And the nutrition is seriously compromised by the manufacturing process.
DO buy plain old oatmeal. Even organic rolled oats are likely cheaper per serving than boxed cereals. Learn to soak oatmeal overnight with some buttermilk to further enhance the nutrition. You can also buy whole corn and learn to soak it in lime water or wood ash and make your own hominy grits and tortillas. No grain grinder is needed.
DON’T buy sugary or salty snack items, cookies, and desserts. This is one of those things we can all do without and the price per serving is very high.
DO buy a small amount of high quality sweeteners (honey, sucanat, maple syrup) and perhaps cocoa powder and vanilla to use for a weekly (or monthly) treat. Learn to reduce what your body considers “sweet” by measuring these items carefully and slowly using less and less over time.
DON’T buy fruit juices or sodas. These are mostly sugar (natural or not) and just don’t provide much nutrition.
DO buy the best milk you can manage. You can “stretch” your milk by making yogurt, kefir, and simple cheeses with it rather than drinking it. By doing so, you enhance the nutritional value of the milk and add variety to your diet. This is one area that is critical for children. Growing children need the nutrition in whole milk products. If you must, buy powdered milk. As with commercial liquid milk, it can be turned into yogurt, kefir, and cheese to add variety and enhance nutrition. With fermentation, less milk goes a longer way.
DON’T buy cheaper fats like margarine, shortening, or vegetable oils. Despite what many “frugal” websites may say, it is a FACT these products do not provide the nutrition your body needs and actually cause many of our modern maladies. It is a “pay for good food now or higher medical costs later” situation.
DO buy real, natural, healthy fats including butter, lard, tallow, and real extra virgin olive oil. When under stress, it is even more critical that your body have good quality saturated fats to support mental function, provide energy, and boost the immune system. In fact, focus on the first three: butter, lard, and tallow, and work to eliminate the last, olive oil as most of what you buy in the store is not really extra virgin olive oil anyway. Buy the best quality butter you can afford. Real lard and beef tallow can usually be purchased from a local farmer and rendered at home. In some areas, you can get these animal fats for free from local custom butcher houses. In a pinch, you can use store-bought lard but it has many undesirable additives. Still, it is better than shortening.
DON’T buy a lot of ground meats (beef, turkey) or try and go all vegetarian. While ground meats may seem cheaper than other cuts, you are getting protein and some fat but not a great deal in the way of essential minerals. And during tough times, your body needs animal proteins, not just vegetable proteins, to keep up energy levels and stay warm.
DO buy beef soup bones and stewing hens from your local farmer. One bag of beef bones and one stewing hen can easily feed your family for a week. Use these items to make nutritious stocks that are rich in calcium & trace minerals as well a natural gelatin. Gelatin, while not a complete protein, has a protein sparing property that allows your body to get by on a lot less meat. Make soups and use some of the broth to cook rice or beans to enhance the nutrition of both. Be sure and pick all the meat off the bones and eat it with the broth.
DON’T skimp on real cheeses. Cut out other items like crackers or breads and make them at home instead.
DO buy the best real hard cheeses you can afford. Real cheese is a fermented, concentrated milk product. Used sparingly on vegetarian dishes that have been prepared with bone broths, your body will more fully utilize the nutrients available. Real hard cheeses are aged and can be purchased in larger quantities and stored in your fridge where they will continue to age. So stock up when they are on sale. Unopened, they should keep for many, many months.
DON’T buy cheap eggs or cut back on them because they have become more expensive.
DO buy the best eggs you can afford. If you don’t already have chickens, find someone locally who does and buy from them. Don’t expect to pay less than grocery store prices either. It isn’t fair to expect others to subsidize your food costs by selling eggs for less than Wal-Mart. You’ll know you have good eggs when your see dark, rich, orange yolks. The yolks provide significant nutrition and are critical for the growth of healthy children. Farm fresh eggs will last a long time so you can buy a month’s worth at a time.
DON’T buy apples, blueberries, or potatoes in March.
DO buy produce in season and stock up.
DON’T buy canned or frozen veggies to eat every day.
DO learn to make vegetable ferments like sauerkraut and pickled beets. A month of fermented sauerkraut can be made for a few dollars and provide high quality nutrition for the entire family. My family did not always eat this sort of thing but, after trying our own homemade kraut, we really love it.
These are stressful times and good nutrition is even more important when we are under stress. So go ahead and cut your budget but don’t suboptimize!
Kristin Hoffman homesteads with her family in the hills of East Tennessee and blogs about alternative energy, family farming, and home schooling with her husband at www.solarfamilyfarm.com. The Hoffmans also run Knot4Fun, a family business dedicated to teaching kids the practical skill of knot tying and adventurous outdoor play. Kristin can be found these days waddling around the kitchen trying to get butter made with only one cow in milk!
Hi All,
It's incredible to see how much I've learned since writing this blog about Traditional Nutrition! Since beginning more research on bacteria's role in our bodies I have been finding that I need more ways to introduce these incredible parts of life into my own diet and environment. And, after doing so, am seeing how much of a difference they make in the way I feel and the way my body looks and operates.
Every traditional culture that I have studied, meaning a culture that has lived in the same place and eaten the same traditional foods for many generations, has had many sources of bacteria in the diet. For example, a traditional meal would consist mainly of bacteria (lactobacillus) rich foods. Raw, prepared cheese, yogurt, or kefir, saurkraut or kimchee, fermented drinks such as kvass or kombucha or even beer(once a traditional herbal fermentation!). Finally, very different from our culture today, the meat portion of the meal would sometimes be fermented! This sounds distasteful to our trendy palates, however pickled herring is still popular in some places, and is a delicious treat that can be fermented with bacteria rather than pickling solution.
Yesterday I went to visit a friend in Lexington, KY. She works on a CSA during the summer, and cans her excess vegetables for the winter. I was admiring her beautiful shelves of stock, but asked if she ever considered fermenting rather than canning her abundance. She had never though of it, she said, because she didn't really know how. Her granny had always canned, and so she followed suit.
I understand that well. My grandmother also canned, and made incredible applebutter! However, even though our closest ancestors canned vegetables it doesn't mean that we can't change the tradition and begin fermenting...thus teaching our progeny the value of a smart way to keep food alive during the winter, enriching our bodies not only with the beneficial bacteria found in these foods, but also enhancing the vitamins (espcially C) already present in the cabbage, tomatoes, broccoli, etc. that can be put into kraut. It's a change that would literally change the way we think of health, and taste.
In this blog, I also wanted to encourage everyone reading to look into the Weston A. Price Foundation. Founded in 1999, this foundation encourages real milk, whole foods, and a balanced traditional way of life. They are easily found on the web, and have countless articles, all for free, to help lead us in a very holistic direction. In addition, they publish a Buying Guide. This guide lists all of the approved foods of the foundation, and is an easy way to begin eating a very whole foods based diet.
Hi, I'm Victoria LaFont. I live in Paducah, KY and own Kentucky Roots Market. I just finished training to become a DONA certified doula, and am excited to begin assisting in births!
I have recently been asked to do more work with children and families suffering from autism. While continuing my education on the subject of autism, and the results found through diet changes, I read an article entitled 'Gut and Psychology Syndrome: The GAPS in our Medical Knowledge' by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. I found this article in the Winter 2007 edition of Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, a publication of the Weston A. Price Foundation. I have always been blessed with the information I find in this publication, along with all readings that the WAPF recommends. However, this article taught me so much more about our bodies extreme need for beneficial bacteria. Dr. Campbell-McBride begins by citing the incredible increase in cases of autism, ADD, and ADHD in the past 15 to 20 years. She then goes on to state that she has never worked with a child who was suffering from one of these disorders that did not also suffer from a digestive problem. Allergies and malnutrition are also universally preset among her patients. She states, 'When we test ... patients, we always find that they do not have normal gut flora. The beneficial bacteria in these patients have been replaced by all sorts of pathogens." She goes on to state that many 'harmful' pathogens exist in every patient...however in those with a healthy balance of gut flora the pathogens are not a problem. It is when the balance is off that the pathogens are able to reap havoc on the body, such as in cases of autism, ADD, or ADHD. She goes on to recommend fermented foods, a very small amount of probiotic increased over time, and a bacteria friendly diet as ways to begin recovery. This article cements my belief that the health of our bodies are so amazingly linked to the balance of healthy flora present.
Victoria LaFont is the owner of Kentucky Roots Market. You can contact her at kentuckyrootsmarket@riseup.net.
Although I've focused more on food preparation with lactic acid fermentation in past blogs, I'd like to use this blog to speak to a current issue in my own health that deals with bacteria. For a few months I've had problems with my teeth and gums. I've noticed that my gums have been receeding, and for someone who follows a whole food, traditional diet, I've been puzzled. What could be causing this painful and unattractive problem? I did some research and found that our oral health is very related to the balance of bacteria in our bodies. The presence of cavities, receeding or bleeding gums, and oral tissue health all deals with the amount of beneficial bacteria present in our salivia, and consequently, our bodies. I knew from my diet the wonders that whole foods can create in the body, such as the healing of cavities, chronic tendon and ligament pain, and depression. However, I was not so educated in the importance of bacteria balance. After carefully monitoring my pH balance (through testing with biological pH strips on urine and salivia) and slowly incorporating more bacteria rich foods into my diet, I noticed a marked change in my gums! Ah ha! My research was correct. Approximately three weeks of fermented drinks such as strong kombucha, kvass, and yogurt improved my gums. As well as these foods I began taking a very high quality probiotic from Dr. Ron Schmidt's website. This small instance proves more than ever the importance of fermented foods in my diet. I am continuing to learn the incredible amount of work that bacteria does for our bodies.
Victoria LaFont is owner of Kentucky Roots Market, a nutritional and fertility consultation located in Paducah, Kentucky. She loves goats, gardening, and snowy weather.
Fermentation can be applied to any food...even grains! Think sourdough bread and biscuits, the yummy slightly sour taste of these breads is also a digestive enhancement thanks to our little bacteria friends in the dough. While sourdough bread is sometimes a daunting thought to those of us in the rush and bustle of modern life, there are easy ways to incorporate the fermentation of grains into our diet. Simply soaking grains for a time before eating them in a warm, slightly acidic water (think adding a bit of fresh squeezed lemon juice) allows enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid to be broken down before they hit our stomachs. These anti-nutrients make it hard for the body to absorb the good stuff found in grains, such as phosphorous, calcium, iron, and B vitamins. Soaking grains, however, allows these nutrients to be assimilated into our bodies. A simple and fast recipe is soaking oats overnight. The night before I will eat them I simply add boiling water and a bit of lemon juice to my oatmeal. In the morning I can warm it if desired, or eat cold. And, I always add lots of fresh butter, coconut oil, and of course, maple syrup.
Victoria LaFont is owner of the new business Kentucky Roots Market, based in the beautiful bluegrass. She loves goats, container gardening, compost, and sourdough bread.
Hello all! I have been at the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group's conference this weekend in Louisville, KY. I have had such an incredible and exciting time that I can't wait to post my blog! My first blog, Easy Fermentation, explained a simple way to make traditionally fermented saurkraut. After a little practice with the recipe, most people find a combination of cabbage and other spices that they can ferment for a few days and enjoy as a small savory serving with meals. A small amount of fermented vegetables, or some other lacto-fermented food or drink along with meals, introduces digestive enhancing bacteria to our bodies. Another step in preparing lacto-fermented vegetables is the introduction of whey to your vegetable mixture. Whey is a highly nutritious and multi-functional by-product of milk after cheese is made. Whey can be bought from a local provider, such as a farmer who makes homemade cheese (preferably from raw whole grass fed milk) or ordered from a whole food farmer near your home. I will cover some simple ways to make cheese in another blog, but for now let's assume that you are able to obtain whey without undertaking the task of making your own cheese. By introducing just a few tablespoons of whey into your fermented vegetables you are inocculating the mix with the lactic acid already present in the whey. Using whey will allow you to obtain a more predictable food, rather than relying on the unknown bacterias present in your vegetables and fermenting container. One of my all time favorite foods is shredded and pounded carrots, ginger and sea salt with an innoculation of whey obtained from making goat cheese. The flavor obtained from adding the whey is fantastic!
For the past four years I have been enjoying incredible homemade saurkraut. As a child I would watch my grandmother make saurkraut with vinegar and salt, and then use high heat to can the pickled cabbage before storing it on her pantry shelf. Then I learned a new way to make kraut, as well as other fermented vegetables.
Fermented foods were a staple of all traditional diets. Cheese, sourdough bread, aged meats, and fermented drinks such as kvass and kombucha were tasty everyday dishes, a smart way to preserve an abundance of food, and finally a very beneficial part of the diet.
To begin learning the beautiful art of fermented foods, let's start with an easy recipe for fermented cabbage, or saurkraut. Start by shredding your cabbage into thin strips, no bigger than 1/2 in. wide. A food processor is a fast way to go, but I prefer the old wooden kraut shredders. After shredding, take the cabbage and pound it! In order to break down the cell walls of the cabbage you must pound the cabbage in a mortar and pestle. Breaking down the cell walls better allows beneficial bacteria to begin the process of fermentation.
After pounding, mix the cabbage with unrefined sea salt, ginger, onions, or any spice that you like to eat. I love dill in my kraut. Take this mixture and tightly pack in a clean glass or crock container. Then, fill to the top with pure water. Place a whole cabbage leaf on top of the mixture to keep it fresh. Finally, lightly seal the container, or use a rubberband and cloth on top, and put in a warm but shady spot with a plate underneath (on top of the refrigerator works great).
Check this mixture in three days. You will begin to smell the distinctive saurkraut smell. Continue to allow the mixture to ferment as long as you'd like! Sometimes I find that it takes more than three days to aquire the taste that I prefer, such as in the cold months of the year. To stop the fermentation process, simply place in the refrigerator or a cold spot.
Introducing fermented cabbage and/or other vegetables in our diet greatly inhances our digestion. The beneficial bacteria helps to break down the other food eaten at a meal and places many strains of body friendly bacteria into our digestive systems. I especially love kraut with liver and onions!
I am a born and bread Kentucky woman who currently lives in Paducah, KY. I am a life student of 'the old fashioned ways' through nutrition, birthing (I am studying to become a doula and midwife), animal husbandry, and sustainable living. I have just opened my own business called Kentucky Roots Market! I focus on helping incorporate whole food nutrition into my client's busy lives, helping those who are struggling with fertility issues, and consulting on sustainable living solutions. If you'd like to contact me, email me at kentuckyrootsmarket@riseup.net.
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