Category Archives: food preservation

Pear paradise :)

food preservation

Today I started my day by sending a couple of kids to pick several sample pears from the trees we were given permission to pick from.  The owner told us that he didn’t think they would be good to eat, that years ago they had tried and found them stringy.  So I wanted to assess for myself what it was actually like. 

Turns out that they were good – they’re tiny pears, each big enough to fit into the palm of your hand.  They’re not yet ripe so it’s the perfect time to pick them.  Three of my shorter kids (6, 7, and 9) wanted to pick more pears after breakfast, so I agreed.  They came back after a while with a nice amount, though not as much as I expected. Because of their height, they had a hard time reaching them, but enjoyed the picking and still managed to pick 15 pounds or so (which is a lot of pears, when you consider that each pear is only 2 – 3 ounces!).

A little after they came back, I needed to go out, so I told a couple of my kids to walk with me in the direction I needed to go, and left early enough to have some time to pick pears together with them.  My 15 year old son and 7 year old daughter came with me.  We had so much fun!  First of all, my son and I could easily reach a lot more pears.  And then my son devised what turned out to be a very fun game for both him and my daughter – after picking all the pears that we could reach, he vigorously shook the branch, so that pears from higher up came falling down, and her job was to watch where they fell and gather them as fast as she could.  It was very cute.  And it was very effective.

Within probably 20 – 30 minutes of relaxed picking, we gathered 43 pounds of pears.  So I have about 60 pounds of free pears that are now ripening in my home (well, it’s less now, since all day long little hands have been reaching into the bushel basket that’s holding them all and taking them out to snack on).  I’ll let them ripen for a week or so before I do anything with them except use them for snacking. They’re tasty, but very, very hard. 

Have you ever noticed how after you come up with an idea, others will happily follow in your footsteps?   Someone saw my younger kids picking, and asked for several of the pears, so they could see if they would ripen in their home.  They said that if the pears ripened nicely, they would ask the people we got them from if they could also pick them.  And someone else I spoke to last night suggested we give her some of the fruit we pick.  Hmm.  Though all the people we spoke to were very receptive to us, can you imagine how receptive they would be if bunches of people were knocking on their door and asking? 

I definitely would like to go back in a few days and get more.  My mother in law has a food mill that she uses for applesauce, and I think it would be useful for pear sauce, too, and she agreed to let us borrow it.  Our family goes through huge amounts of food, so I can’t imagine that we could pick more than we could use.  Cooking and canning the pears will be next week’s project, assuming they’re ripe enough then.

Avivah

Free fruit!

food preservation, frugal strategies

We got our van back (with a $2600 repair bill) and enjoyed having it around for a couple of days before my husband had to take it back today (it’s making a squealing sound that it didn’t have before, the mechanic said it’s the leftover grease when they put the engine back together, but it’s really horrible sounding).  Anyway, something I enjoyed about not having a vehicle for a week and a half was walking more.

When you walk, you see things that you don’t see when you’re driving.  And something I noticed were several fruit trees in yards within a ten minute walk.  I decided to ask the owners if I could pick the fruit, thinking that if they didn’t use the fruit (I expected that most of them wouldn’t), they would otherwise have lots of rotten fruit on their yards, and it would be a win win situation for all of us.  Friday afternoon I was passing one home and spontaneously asked the first person, and his response was so positive and immediate that it took away any hesitation I was feeling about asking.  Today I asked the other two, they also readily agreed.  Yay!!

One has three pear trees, one has two apple trees, and one has three apple trees.  None of them are fruit like the store has, so I’ll have to see what the quality is like.  But free fruit is free fruit – the worse that can happen is the effort won’t be worth doing it again.  The apples aren’t ripe yet, but the pears look like they are, because some of them are dropping off the tree and pears are supposed to be picked before they’re ripe enough to fall on their own.  Tomorrow the kids and I will go pick the pears, and see what we can do with them.  I’m not sure how we’ll reach the high branches, but my 9 year old son thought of bringing our fishing net (looks like a butterfly net but the netting is wider).  I thought that was a fantastic idea.  🙂

My plan is to preserve them, not eat them raw.  I don’t think I’ll make much jam, if any, since we don’t use a lot of jam (because of the sugar content).  Maybe tonight I’ll cruise the web and see what kind of recipes for canned pears I can find – I just want to do something simple like compote or pear sauce, that has no sugar in it.  If whatever I end up making is tasty, then I’ll send a jar or two over to each of the people whose trees we pick. 

It’s amazing that food is literally available free for the taking, and everyone else is going by the same trees without even thinking about it.  I wouldn’t have thought about it, either, before learning to can.  After all, how much would I have been able to use before it spoiled if I picked it?  But now I can take advantage of the sudden abundance and enjoy it in the winter when it’s cold and the fruits are no longer in season.  Canning is a wonderful tool!

Avivah

Dehydrating bananas

dehydrating, food preservation

Today we successfully my latest experiment – dehydrated bananas!  I often see bananas at a significantly reduced price, but they are usually at the perfect stage to eat.  When I buy a large amount, it means that either I have to get busy baking or everyone gets busy eating!

I’ve often wondered if dehydrating bananas would be a feasible option to take advantage of the cheap prices when I find them, and yesterday decided to stop wondering. 🙂  I sliced them lengthwise instead of in little circles, because it was quicker for me, slicing each banana into four slices.  I put them (maybe 10 or 12 bananas, didn’t count) into the electric dehydrator and let it run until they were finished.

I was very pleasantly surprised today by the results – they were delicious!  Some were a little too crunchy, and we all agreed we like them slightly leathery best.  They make a great snack, and are very compact, so it would be easy to pack them away into glass jars to keep them fresh in the pantry (if I could keep my kids away from them!). 

My only problem with this is that it seems like a lot of electricity is used to dry fruits when using an electric dehydrator.  So today I did some research on how to build a solar dehydrator.  I’m quite interested in making one, but decided that first we should build a solar oven that’s suitable for cooking with.  I like the idea of having a cooking source that is free, dependable, and not dependent on supply and demand, as a backup to my gas stove and electric oven.  Several years ago we made one as a family project and it wasn’t successful. This time there are a couple of things I would do differently, and one is to make it out of wood instead of cardboard just for the sturdiness factor.

I got some wood from the work crew doing demolition down the block – the guy was happy to give it to me, saying that it saved him from having to take it to the dump,  and even offered to carry it home for me, but I told him I could manage it fine. They had lots of wood but I was only looking for something light and in good condition.  I don’t know if it’s enough wood for the entire oven, but it’s a start.  Then I happened to bump into the new owner of the home that is doing extensive renovations, who told me about all the work they’re doing.  She mentioned that they’re getting rid of two newish windows because they’re replacing all of them, and I asked if I could have one of the windows and both of the frames for our solar oven and dehydrator project (the glass for the oven lid and the screens for the dehydrator trays).  She said she’d be glad for us to use them since they wouldn’t need them.

Life is never boring, is it?  There’s always something more to learn about and do!

Avivah

Today’s canning accomplishments

canning, food preservation

I think I’m becoming a canning maniac!  Gosh, I had fun today.  I’m getting the hang of how to can foods efficiently.

Here’s what I did today:

– cherries, 7 quarts, 2 pints

– plum jam, 4- 1/2 pints

– cherry jelly, 7 pints, 2- 1/2 pints

– ground meat, 4 pints

– spaghetti meat sauce, 6 quarts

The cherries were on sale for $1.99 lb, and true to my motto, I buy a lot of something when it’s on sale.  The kids de-stemmed them, and then puctured each one with sterilized needles, to prevent them from bursting.  My 7 year old daughter did most of the actual canning work, I just took the hot sterilized jars out for her to fill, and then put them back in the canner when they were full. 

When we prepared the cherries for canning, we had to bring them to a boil with some water in the pot.  The water became cherry juice, and rather than throw it away, I thought I could make jelly from it.  So I googled for cherry jelly recipes, and then googled again more specifically for one that used liquid pectin.  (Pectin is the ingredient that helps it gel, and I bought four boxes of it for .50 each about 18 months ago, thinking it would be a good thing to have.  It just took me longer to get around to it than I expected.  :))  For the cost of the sugar and pectin (under $3), we now have 18 pints of jelly. 

The plums were on the reduced rack for .49 lb.  I don’t usually buy soft fruit, because I won’t eat it.  But I thought it would be just right for jam, so that’s what I used it for.  I was going to make this with my 6 year old son, but he was moving very slowly and I saw that he was more motivated to do something else right then.  So he mixed the jam while it was cooking, but was around to only fill one of the four jars. The kids told me on Sunday that they don’t want me to buy store jams or jellies anymore (not that I buy them frequently anyway), since the homemade mulberry jam was so good that it’s the only thing they want to eat.  Now they’ll have a couple more homemade flavors to enjoy.  🙂

The ground meat was on sale for 3.49 lb.  Yes, I know that’s not incredibly cheap, but I don’t expect that kosher meat is going to go lower than that anymore, so I bought 8 family packs of it yesterday, each about 3 pounds.  I had my 9 year old son seperate three of the packs into smaller chunks, so that there are 12 individually wrapped packages now in the freezer.  This way I can use the amount I want without having to defrost a big package.  Three of the packages (9 lb) I cooked as crumbles.  This is how I use most of my ground meat, since it enhances a lot of dishes without having to use a lot of it.  I used chicken broth that was in the fridge as the liquid to cover it with, since it will hold the flavor well and doesn’t change the look of it, like tomato sauce would.  (Water, broth, and tomato juice are the three things recommended to use.)  That was the last thing I canned so I only had room for 4 pints in the canner, but tomorrow I’ll can up the rest.  Now it’s shelf stable and ready to be used, my own fast food!

The other 6 lb of meat I cooked up with onions, garlic, tomato sauce and paste, and seasonings, including some freshly picked oregano from the garden, to make a hearty spaghetti sauce.  Served heated over some rice (I rarely serve pasta) or spaghetti squash it will make a tasty dinner.  After canning 6 quarts, I have an additional container in the fridge to use for dinner tomorrow night.

My kitchen counter is filled with all of these jars, since they have to cool for about twelve hours before they are moved.  So far it looks like everything sealed properly except for one quart of cherries, which I popped into the fridge and will use sometime soon.  (That’s the chance you take when you let a 7 year old be responsible for it- the lid wasn’t initially screwed on securely before it was placed into the canner – but if you don’t give kids a chance to learn, which includes making mistakes, then they’ll never know how to do any more in the future than they do today.)

I looked up the state fair guidelines for entries a couple of nights ago, and we’ll be able to enter any and all of these that we want in the food preservation section of the fair.  I told my kids that anything they help with can be entered under their name (the only difference it makes is that they get the prize money if it wins a ribbon instead of me). 

My older girls were active in 4H for several years and our summers used to be very busy with them getting ready for the county and then state fair, but we haven’t been involved for a couple of years.  I think this will be nice for the 9, 7, and 6 year olds, and it won’t be nearly as busy as it used to be (the girls then entered sheep and chicken shows, sewing, baked goods of all varieties….).  We’re also going to start baking some things for the fair during our time in the kitchen, and since I’ve learned from the past, we’ll just freeze what they bake now instead of baking everything fresh for three days solid in the heat of August. 🙂

Avivah

Canning turkey and other fun things

canning, food preservation

I was up late, late, late last night.  Until 3 am.  Because I had so much food to put in the fridge, and not enough room for all of it, I had to take out the two roasted turkeys I cooked the day before. I had deboned them and put the pieces in 9 x 13 pans with the intent to can them as my first canning project the following day.  But I had to accelerate my plans so that the food I had didn’t spoil for lack of refrigeration.

I’ve been very interested in the idea of canning for quite some time.  This year, I decided I’m going to stop being interested in the idea and learn how to do it!  Four weeks ago, I bought a large number of jars from someone who was downsizing her canning since her sons were in college.  Then two different people from Craig’s List gave me some smaller canning jars.  Two weeks later, the canner I bought on Amazon arrived (Presto 23 quart size).  Several days ago, my mom picked up the canning tools kit that I was still needing.  I checked out canning books from the library and read several to get an idea of what was involved.  Plus I did bunches of online reading. 

So I was finally ready, and just in time to rescue my food from ruin.  🙂  I had a good bit of trepidation about using a pressure canner – what little I had ever heard about pressure cookers scared me and intimidated me.  But vegetables and meats have to be pressure canned for them to be safely preserved, so there was no way around it.

Since it was my first time, it was a long process.  First I had to prepare the jars, lids, heat up the turkey until it was hot, prepare stock to pour on top of the turkey – and that was before I started canning anything.  Then I filled each of the jars with turkey pieces, poured stock on top to fill the space, closed them up and when the canner was full, I closed the lid and began exhausting the steam from inside the pot.  That meant boiling it until the steam came out the top, then letting it boil another ten minutes with the steam coming through the vent hole – I think the purpose is to get rid of all the air inside.  But I might be mixed up about the whys of it. 

Anyway, after that, I put the pressure regulator on top of the vent hole, and watched the dial gauge register the pressure.  It took a few minutes for the pressure to start to build enough for the gauge to register, but it started rising steadily.  Once it hit 11 pounds of pressure, I turned the heat down and kept an eye on it to be sure it didn’t drop below that or go above that.  It took 90 minutes to process once the pressure reached the desired number.  And then when I finally could turn it off, I had to wait for the pressure to totally come down before I could open it.

So it took a long time.  It wasn’t a lot of hands on time, most of it was in preparing in the beginning, and then needing to be close by to keep an eye on it.  If this was in the middle of the day, it wouldn’t have been such a pain.  But the hour got later and later and I was exhausted before I even started – I started a little before midnight.  While I was waiting for it finish processing, my 13 year old daughter started making mulberry jam.  (I didn’t mention that after a long day of shopping, we came home, unpacked for a half hour and then took my son to his little league baseball game.  Or that right after that, we picked mulberries near the field for a half hour.  And then we finally got home and had a late dinner and eventually put most of the kids to bed before I started all of this.)

Fruit jams don’t require pressure cooking, they just need a water bath processing.  So since I had to be awake and in the kitchen anyway, after she prepared the jam and filled the jars, I sent her to sleep and put that on the stove to cook as well. 

When it was finally all done, I had seven quarts of turkey lined up on my counter, along with eight jars of jam.  It was a very satisfying sight.  And especially nice to know that this is food that will stay good indefinitely, regardless of power outtages, and ready for me to use on a busy day.  Not only that, I was able to take advantage of the turkey being on sale, when usually I would be forced to pass it by or buy less because I wouldn’t have had room for it.  So there’s a financial savings in it, too. 

Tonight I made 5 quarts of dilled carrots, using dill from our garden and baby carrots that I picked up on sale yesterday (5 lb for $2).  Remember the issue I have with insufficient fridge space?  So 8 pounds of baby carrots were transformed into a tasty side dish that won’t need refrigerating until each jar is opened.  It’s very liberating!  I have a 16 quart pot on the stove simmering with stock as I write.  Tomorrow I plan to can large jars of stock.  That way I’ll have smaller amounts whenever I need it to cook with.  I enjoy having an ever present pot of soup or stock simmering on the stove in the winter, but I welcome it less in the summer!

I’m also planning to can bean soups, beans, and chilis, and if our garden gives us enough produce, then I’ll use the extra to preserve the taste of summer vegetables for the winter.  🙂  Now I need to get lots more jars – I thought when I got 6.5 dozen large, 6.5 dozen medium, and about 5 dozen small that I would have plenty.  But they get filled up very quickly!

Avivah

Dandelions and mulberries

dehydrating, food preservation, gardening

You know, I seriously have at least five posts every day that I want to write, but not enough time for most of them.  Life is so full and there’s always something going on (particularly in my thoughts:)), but once the day is over, I can’t even remember the next day what happened to post retroactively!

Today I had fun foraging for edible wild foods with the kids.  I’m very interested in learning to identify plants that grow locally in the wild, and finding out what they are used for.  I need to get a decent book with good photos, though.  I’m enjoying the book I’m reading now, Stalking the Wild Asparagus, but there are only line drawings in it and I can’t figure out if what I see in my yard matches those drawings.

I brought samples of a couple of plants inside, went online, and googled for pictures of what I conjectured they might be.  It really wasn’t a very efficient way to do it, but I’m trying to learn!  But I’m hesitant to eat anything unless I’m positive it’s edible, and I realized that getting help from someone who knows something would be really good!  I called an older neighbor this evening and asked her if we could visit her garden so she could show us what she’s growing, and then asked if she recognized the weeds that are local.  She said she knew some of them, and would be happy to show us what she knows when the weather gets a little cooler. 

I saw a reference for The Forager’s Harvest, which sounded perfect, because the pictures are supposedly very clear and make identifying what you see easy – that’s what I want.  Amazon was out of stock, so I found his website and called them directly.  His wife called me back and after telling me how to order it directly from them (that’s what I called to ask about), answered a question about the pile of burdock leaves that my 13 year old daughter picked today.  I was hoping they would be edible, but she said she didn’t recommend using the leaves, just the stem part, and that it tasted similar to celery when cooked.  People nowadays just don’t have this kind of knowledge or familiarity anymore, of knowing how to prepare indigenous plants, whether for food or medicine.  Knowing how the world around us works is empowering, whatever the specific skill is, and I want my children and I to access some of the ancient wisdom and know at least what is growing wild in my backyard. 

I didn’t try the burdock stems yet, but prior to her call we did identify dandelion greens, and picked a bunch of those.  Since it’s a little late in the season, they aren’t tender enough to eat fresh in a salad; they’re too bitter uncooked.  I boiled them once, and then decided to put them in boiling water a second time, which I read helps minimize the bitterness.  Then I blended them up and put them into the lentil soup for dinner. I didn’t have any (because my son accidentally added some sweetener), but the kids said it was very good.  I love knowing that I could add some power packed nutrition to our meals (dandelion is very high in vitamin C) by using what is generally considered a pesky weed. 🙂

Then after dinner, we took a short drive to a field where we noticed a bunch of mulberries growing last year.  I really like this location since there are plenty of branches that are low enough for even the littlest kids to pick independently.  My two year old got his own plastic container to put his berries into, and was so proud when he came home and showed his older brother (who stayed home) the mulberries he picked!

It’s really just the beginning of the mulberry season here, so the majority of the berries weren’t ripe yet, but we still got a nice amount.  It didn’t take long and it was a pleasant time of evening to be out – it was about 8:30 pm, so it was cool but still light out.  After we got home, we measured out all that we picked, and it came out to 16 cups.  I thought I would make jam out of it (something else I want to learn to do), but my kids remembered that my mom left a dehyrator here when she moved out a year ago.  We’ve never used it before (I didn’t even know it was here until a couple of weeks ago when I was cleaning out a storage area where she kept her things), but this seemed like a good way to inaugurate it.  The mulberries perfectly filled all five racks.  I read that dried mulberries are good used like dried figs or raisins in baked goods (or eaten alone). 

I plan to go back in a week or so, when the berries have ripened more, and pick some to eat fresh, some to make jam with, and some to can in its own juice.  I’ve never done this before, so it will be an interesting experiment.  I really love the idea of using the resources that are around us, free for the taking, if we just take the time to learn about it!

Avivah

Vegetable bargains

food preservation, frugal strategies

I popped out to the store today to pick up some refreshments for our homeschooling gathering tomorrow, and when I was there saw some veggies on sale.  There are vegetables on sale, and then there are veggies that are super cheap.  These were in the latter category – on the reduced rack.

There was a point that I shunned reduced produce racks, thinking they were semi rotten vegetables that the store owner was still trying to crank some profit from.   But I’ve since learned that often there is just an overstock of a given vegetable and they want to sell the produce quickly before it goes bad.  I stay away from produce that looks really bad, since I don’t find it worth my time or money to cut away all the yukky spots. 

To find these reduced racks, look for small privately owned markets that discount produce substantially when it’s ripe or a little overripe.  I’ve found a local Asian market and a Russian market both have these, along with another local smallish store.The large supermarkets very rarely have these sections -I’ve only twice in years found reduced produce at national chains – both times ripe (not overripe) bananas.  They just throw away anything with imperfections. 

The challenge with reduced produce is that it has a short shelf life, and you need to use it pretty promptly.  For a family like ours, that’s not usually a problem, since the kids love fruits and vegetables and go through it fast.  But sometimes I’ve gotten carried away by the super cheap prices and gotten too much, and then had to make a real effort to use it so it didn’t go bad. 

Now that I’ve learned about making fermented vegetables, I don’t have that kind of pressure anymore.  Today I bought a lot of tomatoes and peppers, and then prepared two quarts of tomato pepper relish when I got home (you’d be amazed how many plum tomatoes you have to use to fill up a two quart jar!).  I also added some tomatoes to the batch of salsa I made, which was way too spicy for my taste.  (My policy is to make a recipe the first time as it’s written, so I know what it’s supposed to taste like before I make my adaptations to it.)  It’s nice that I can just add some vegetables to already fermented vegetables and then put it back on the shelf to ferment some more. 

My dd13 made two versions of cortido (Latin American sauerkraut), using the pineapple vinegar we made as the fermenting agent instead of sea salt for two quarts and sea salt for the other two quarts.  (The pineapple vinegar was interesting and easy to make – you put the core and skin of a pineapple in a jar with some oregano and water to cover, and let it sit out, covered for 3 days.  Then strain it out and voila – pineapple vinegar!) 

Avivah

Making lacto fermented vegetables

food preservation, lacto fermentation, nutrition, recipes

This was a new thing that I started doing about three weeks ago, and it’s been very successful.  Like the sourdough bread, I thought it would be a big deal to make, and it’s amazing how incredibly simple it is.

Let me backtrack a minute and say what lacto fermented vegetables are, and what the benefit of them is.  It’s a natural method of pickling that was used by traditional societies throughout the world until vinegar was created and replaced lacto fermentation because the results were easily duplicated and consistent.  But vinegar kills all the microorganisms, while lacto fermentation enhances the nutritional value of vegetables by enhancing the growth of lactobacilli, which enhances the vitamins, aids digestion and helps produce other helpful enzymes.  Lacto fermented veggies are a good addition to any meal because they help all the foods be better digested.

So here’s how incredibly easy it is: you take a quart sized jar, chop or shred up the vegetables you want to ferment, and pack it in as firmly as possible so that the juices of the vegetable(s) cover the top.  If there isn’t enough juice for that, you add some filtered water to cover.  Add some spices if you want.  Put in some sea salt at the top (I use Celtic sea salt for this), close the lid, and voila – after two days to three days your veggies are ready.  That’s the basic process in a nutshell. It took me making about six different recipes to realize that it was all this basic process, since there were little variations of ingredients and spicing for all of them.

Using this basic process, we’ve so far made: cucumber pickles (my 5 and 7 yo kids did these), pickled tomatoes and peppers, ginger carrots, kimchi (so far the favorite), beets, roasted red peppers, turnips, sauerkraut, preserved lemons, salsa, horseradish, garlic, daikon, and a veggie mix of my own creation (second favorite).  A bonus is that they look very attractive lined up on the kitchen counter.  🙂

Though they can be ready in as few as 2 – 3 days, they can stay out for lots longer than that.  That’s nice because there aren’t suddenly lots of pickled vegetables that all have to be eaten at the same time.   And I don’t know about you, but I often find that I don’t serve as many salads or fresh veggies at mealtimes because of the time it takes to prepare.  Now even at my busiest, I can whip out two or three of these at mealtime – no preparation needed but to put it in a serving bowl!

I’ve also made pineapple vinegar, but have yet to use it for anything.  I’m planning to use it for salad dressing and for some of my next batch of fermented vegetables, but I still have about 8 jars on the counter, fermenting away, so I’m not rushing to make any more right now. I combined the two quarts of preserved lemon into one jar when it was finished and drained out a bunch of the liquid for salad dressing – it’s delish!  I’ve been using it every day by itself as dressing for my lunchtime salad.  Since I poured it into a salad dressing container (there was just a little of the original stuff left so I poured it out to make room for this), everyone, guest included, has been using it on their salads and is none the wiser.  🙂

Making sourdough bread

food preservation, lacto fermentation

Here’s another of my new culinary experiments – sourdough bread.  I began my making the starter, and I’ve found it very interesting to see how it works.  I never knew much about it, but it seemed intimidating to me.  Basically, a starter is homemade yeast.  You just mix some water and flour, leaving it covered at room temperature for a day.  Then the next day add a cup of flour and water each, and continue this for seven days, while it continues to stay at room temperature (covered so nothing gets in it).  I found it fascinating to see how the microorganisms all around us can be grown in a way that contributes to our health. (Ideally you should use non chlorinated water but I’ve done it with sink water and it’s still worked.  You can also let the water sit overnight so that the chlorine evaporates.)

At the end of seven days, you use some of the starter as the leavening agent for bread, and mix in some more water, flour, and salt.  (I used the recipe in Nourishing Traditions.)  Stick it in a loaf pan, place it in y0ur unheated oven, and let it rise overnight.  Letting it rise long enough is really important to the quality of the final loaf – the second time we made it, dd13 was doing it and she let it rise for only an hour in a warm oven (she’s used to baking yeasted doughs) and the final result was so heavy that it was hard to chew.  Bake for about an hour at 350 degrees.  We baked it when we got up in the morning and enjoyed it fresh from the oven with butter for breakfast.  Yum!  It was a dense loaf, but very flavorful.  Since it was so much heavier than regular yeast loaves, it only took a couple of slices to be satisfied.

I think that I’ll start to make this once a week since everyone is enjoying it.

Sprouting grains

food preservation, nutrition

Today I did something I’ve thought about doing for a long time but never did – I sprouted wheat grains!  Are you wondering why in the world I would want to do that? 

Grains have phytic acid in them, and this blocks the nutrients present in the grains from being fully utilized.  So while you might feel really healthy when your diet is filled with whole grains, not nearly as many of the nutrients are  absorbed by your body as you might expect.  There are a couple of ways to remedy this.  The suggestion I’ve seen most often recommended for improving the quality of flour is to soak the flour in an acidic medium before baking with it.  But this didn’t appeal to me since it would change the quality of the bread. 

Then I remembered reading somewhere about someone who soaked and sprouted her wheat, then dehydrated it, and then ground it.  That option would give me a good quality flour and the flour would maintain it’s usual consistency for baking.  So I decided to try that.

The sprouting went much more quickly than I expected.  I needed to sprout a large amount of wheat, so I couldn’t use the usual quart jar that I use for sprouting salad sprouts.  I filled up a large pot a little more than halfway with grain, then filled it up close to the top with water.  In the morning, the pot was almost full since the water was mostly absorbed.  I poured out the remaining water and rinsed the wheat with fresh water before draining it again.  I was concerned about how effectively it would sprout due to the large amount that I was working with, but it really worked out fine.  I stirred it around when I swished water in, so that whatever was in the middle or top would switch places.  I did this a total of three times.

The wheat sprouted after a day and a half, much faster than I was expecting.   I didn’t even notice the tiny sprouts at first; my kids had to bring it to my attention.  Then I put all of the sprouted wheat into a big turkey roaster to dehydrate on a low temp in the oven, and periodically stirred it.

On one of the early stirrings, dd decided to taste one of the grains, and thought it was so good that she asked if she could eat some.  At first I thought she was joking, but then I realized it would potentially make a nice dish, so I agreed that we could cook a few cupfuls up.  I served it with butter and honey, and everyone gobbled it all up for lunch, and requested more.  I agreed again, but told them we would need to start more wheat sprouting so we would have the flour to bake with when we needed – that was the point of doing all this!  Today we started another large amount of wheat soaking, maybe about 15 cups or so (two potfuls this time). 

It’s amazing how easy this was – I initially envisioned it would be very time consuming (which is why I was reluctant to try it for so long), but the hands on time for it was maybe ten minutes total.  Most of the time involved was waiting.  I think the hardest part is just thinking and planning a couple of days ahead so that the grains are ready for grinding when you want to make bread.

Avivah