Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

Great book by Sally Fallon - Highly recommended!
Mucho information about culturing raw milk...makes awesome cream cheese...

PROJECT: Pasta Sauce

This was a bad year for growing tomatoes...cold and wet summer...our garden tomatoes did very well but we just ate them all...I did get a half bushel out of our Amish farm folks...but they wanted to keep what they had left...so I made tomato vegetable juice with those...but for this here sauce I purchased Don Pepino crushed tomatoes in the large size cans...add olive oil, dry basil, dry oregano, and plenty of fresh garlic...simmer it up for a while and don't burn the bottom...

Boil up your quart jars and funnel...

Looks ready to put up...

Load up the jars...

Wipe down the jar tops...leave 1/4 inch head space...

Simmer the lids in water...line it up and put it on...

Tighten down the bands...

Process in boiling water for 10-15 minutes or so...

Let cool and here is the finished product...

Beautiful!

PROJECT: Beer Bread

This is some great EASY bread...it goes very well with nice hot soup...time it to come out just at dinner time and slather it with some homemade raw butter...I'll be posting that soon too...

Here is the vital information...

Actually, I went up to 5 teaspoons of baking powder on this mix and it worked out better than the 4 1/2 listed here...so go with 5...Also, use a full body beer vs. a light beer...and I also used raw sugar...Mix up well and put into dutch oven...cover and bake at 350 1 hour 15 minutes...

And here is the finished product...Very Good Indeed!

 

PROJECT: Sauerkraut

This is some very nice red cabbage we grew in the garden this year...and a little left over green cabbage...this is the first shot at making sauerkraut so we will see how it comes out...it's about 10 pounds of cabbage...

Wash the cabbage, peel off the outer leaves and keep for packing into the crock later...go ahead and core out the cabbage too...

 

 

We will be using double plastic bags filled with salted water to 'hold down' the cabbage...so get that ready now as it need to cool down to room temperature before bagging...

Here is the vital information...

6 Tablespoons of sea salt to 4 quarts of water...next time I will go with 6 quarts of water and 7 TBS of sea salt...just because I was a little short with this batch...this brine will be double bagged and used as weight to hold down the caggage...it is salted so that in case the bags break or leak into the kraut, it will not ruin the fermentation and taste...

Clean and sanitize the crock and all your tools etc...I used food grade 35% hydrogen peroxide...1 ounce to 1 quart of water...

Here is my great grandmother's crock we will be using...I guess it's about 3 gallons or so...all cleaned and sanitized...

...and here is my great grandmother's cabbage shredder...

Shred up that cabbage...it helps to have 2 people workin' this bad boy...

And here is what it looks like all nice and shredded...

Now sprinkle and mix in the sea salt...7 Tablespoons to 10 pounds of cabbage...the salt draws out the water in the cabbage to form the brine and keeps your final product crunchy...MIX and MIX Some More...keep mixing all the salt in and you  will start to see the water coming out...

Make an extra quart of brine with 1 1/2 Tablespoons of sea salt and 1 quart of spring water...this will be used as extra brine in case you do not have enough to cover the cabbage in the crock...

Always use sea salt or kosher salt as table salt has nasty chemicals and iodine in it...always use fresh spring water as tap water has a whole bunch of nasty stuff in it too...I always want the best ingredients possible...

After you are well mixed up, start to press out the brine with a masher...you will see nice juice coming out after about a hour or so...

OK...load up that crock and pack down as hard as you can...then pack some more with the masher...

 

My brine was not over the top of the cabbage, so I added the quart of spring water and sea salt... this seemed to be real close, I could have added another quart...but I will check it after 24 hours to see if the brine is up over the cabbage...if not I can add some more...

Now fill up the double bags...I guess 2 gallon freezer bags would work fine...

 

I made 2 at first, but ended up needing 3 for good coverage and weight...you want to keep that cabbage down in the brine for good fermentation...

Now pack the clean cabbage outer leaves on top of the packed kraut...keep pushing it down real nice...this will be a nice buffer between the kraut and the plastic bags...put your bags in to weight it all down...cover and store in an area that does not get over 70 degrees...the cooler the area the longer fermentation time...and it will not ferment at room temperatures over 70 degrees...

 

 

So there we are...I will check it for brine level tomorrow evening...and wait about 4 weeks for the final product...will post when I bottle it up and sample it...Thanks...

Four Chimneys Organic Winery

Took a Seneca Lake NY wine trail tour...hit 11 winery's on a Saturday this fall...rainy at first then it cleared up for a beautiful day...the best was Four Chimneys...

It's an organic winery...

Kingdom White and Kingdom Red are the best wines...and their hats and shirts are cool too... next time we will spend all or half a day here...drinking the tasty wine and walking the grounds...hopefully in spring or summer when there are fewer folks around...

Fall is crazy on the wine trail...

See what I mean...

Red Newt Winery

Here is Kathy letting Ned out of the car...

 

...and our DD Roberto...standing at ATTENTION...

Circle B Farms Organic Chicken

There is a little sign advertising organic produce, that we pass on the way home from Tricia and Roberto's house.  This time I was not hung over, so we took the turn and found Circle B Certified Organic Farms.  What a find...

...and they have a teepee too.  We met Lynn who raises organic free range chickens, organic apples and pears.  They are in Lyons NY on State Route 14 about 3 miles off 250...east of Webster.  They also have organic strawberries in the spring...that's great because those are hard to find...

...so here is what half an organic free range chicken looks like in the dutch oven, with sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts we picked up at Ontario Orchards in Oswego NY.  Added some coconut oil and water...sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  Yes, it came out great.

Here is a picture of Lynn's organic pears...we will be ordering a bushel next fall to put up some pear sauce...

They have nice looking organic apples too...will be puttin' up some juice, sauce and apple butter this weekend...OK now that's fun stuff...Later...

PROJECT: Test

Testing 1...2...3...Over and Out...It's dinner time...