Hoshigaki

Hoshigaki are a Japanese delicacy made by gently massaging persimmons while they air dry.
The persimmons used to make Hoshigaki are astringent varieties such as Hachiya. Ideally, choose fruit that still has part of the stem. We've used a couple different varieties of persimmons with nice success.

1) The first step is to cut the top off, while carefully leaving the stem that you will tie string to and they will hang from. And then use a knife of peeler to trim away the skins of the persimmon. Then attach the string and find a good place for your Hosigaki to hang. Broom handles work great for this, we've also used knitting needles, drumsticks and hangers to hang the Hoshigaki from.


2) The first week you just let the Hoshigaki hang and dry till they start to create a thin skin.  After a week has passed you begin to gently massage each persimmon every other day. Be careful not to break the skin.

3) As you keep massaging every other day the fructose in the fruit will begin to come to the surface. The "bloom" begins to appear...it looks like powdered sugar on your persimmons. Keep massaging until the persimmons are more like a dried fruit, changing into a darker color with the bloom, and then enjoy!

Hoshigaki

Hoshigaki

Cranberry Bean with Red Chili, Garlic, and Leek Miso

Ingredients: (makes 1 quart) 

1.5 cups dry cranberry beans

1.5 cups dried koji

2 cloves minced garlic cloves

¼ cup chopped leeks

1 strip chopped seaweed (dulse, kombu, or other)

1-2 tsp red chili flakes (pending on your desired heat level)

4 tbs sea salt

 

Directions:

1. Soak beans overnight (we usually soak for 8 hours)

2. Drain the soaking water and move beans to stock pot and cover with fresh water and cook on medium until al’dente. Other options for cooking beans would be to use a pressure cooker or Instapot.

3. Drain the beans, saving the bean liquid from cooking.

4. Once the bean juice has cooled put your koji in a bowl and add enough bean juice to moisten the koji. You will likely have to add more liquid once the first bit is soaked up. You want it to be wet enough that the koji feels well hydrated.

5. In a separate bowl, take all of your strained beans and start mashing the beans being sure to break the hulls on each bean.

6. Once your beans are mashed combine the bean and koji mixtures into one bowl and start mixing. Next add the leeks, red chili flakes, seaweed, and 3 tbs sea salt.

7. Stir everything together well. It should be a toothpaste like consistency and put it aside.

8. Take your jar and using bean juice or water rinse the inside of the jar making sure to well coat all of the sides of the jar and then sprinkle with the last tablespoon of salt making sure to coat all the sides and the bottom of the jar.

9. Spoon the miso mixture into your jar doing your best to well pack the jar getting out as many air bubbles as possible.

10. Salt the top of the miso well and then add a small piece of wax paper that is the size of the diameter of your jar on top of the salt layer. This will help with any potential mold growth. You have the option to add a weight if you choose, I tend not to with smaller jars and like to add a plate or other weight on bigger batches of miso.

11. Put a lid on your miso, and then label and date it. Store in a cool dark place away from direct sunlight. We like to keep ours under our bed!

12. We like to start our miso in the winter and let it ferment for atleast 10 months (making it a one year miso in miso years)

13. When you are ready to harvest your miso, open it up and take off the weight if you have one and wax paper. Then scrape the top surface of the miso till you get to something that looks nice and rich in color.

14. From here you have a couple options: 1) You can strain off the tamari (liquid pooling in the top of the miso) and save for later use as a flavoring agent. And then you can use the miso in it’s chunky form or take it and food process it into a paste. 2) You can mix it up well and eat it as is.

15. Move it to the fridge and enjoy for months and years to come!

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Fermented Cranberries in Honey

Winter fermentation life can be so different that the bounty that comes in late Spring and runs through late Fall. One of our favorites is Cranberries. I know most of us associate them with cranberry sauce but, we like this spin on these amazing potent berries.

INGREDIENTS: (Makes 1 quart)

4 cups Raw Cranberries

4-5 cups Honey

1" inch Ginger Root

Take your cranberries and give them a rinse under water and then you can either lightly food process them or leave them whole and prick each berry with a knife or fork. We like the later option for this process.

Put your cranberries in a clean jar with the ginger root cut into think slices. Pour honey over the top of the cranberries until you just cover them. Make sure to leave at least 2" of space in the top of the jar to allow for gases and also for the liquid that will be released from the cranberries as the honey ferments them.

We like to let them sit for 5-7 days, periodically giving the jar a little shake. And then enjoy! We like to add this to cocktails, into salads cut with vinegar and other vegetables, and more!

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Blackberry Wine

Wine. That tasty beverage has captured us. Obsessed is more like it. This winter we've thrown ourselves head first into the world of wine making and we're loving it! Combine fruit, sugar, water and yeast and through a little magic and thinking you too can make your own wines.

We just made a nice Blackberry Wine that we are going to let sit a little longer this winter after we ciphon it and we can't wait to drink it!  Makes 1 gallon

Ingredients:

3 pints blackberries

2 cups sugar

Water

1 packet of Lalvin D47 yeast

Instructions:

Take your blackberries and heat them up in in pan with some water to get them soft. We heated ours for about 5 minutes. Set the aside and let them cool. Once you sterilize your jars or carboys with Sani Star  and then fill 1/3 of the way with water. Add sugar and shake. Once your berries have cooled I like to pour the liquid through a mesh strainer and then take a spoon and press the berries through. Alternatively you could take the mixture and run it through a blender or food processor. Add the puree to the container and then your yeast and top off with water. Only fill to the bend in your jar leaving enough space. Shake well and then add a airlock. Label and date your wine and put it in a cool dark place to ferment.

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Fermented Cranberry Relish

I think a lot of people have a love hate relationship with cranberries. As the holidays have rolled around and Thanksgiving came I was thinking a lot about cranberry sauce and how I like it and yet I don't like it but, something in me wanted to redeem what magic cranberries do have so I took it to the kitchen and with the power of fermentation by my side decided to whip up a fermented cranberry relish and the result was a good one! I packed multiple jars for friends and family on a recent Thanksgiving trip to Virginia and Washington DC and it was a hit! Lovers of cranberries and non lovers alike enjoyed this tangy fermented gift. With the hollidays in full swing we hope you'll take a stab at this yummy ferment for the holidays.

 

Fermented Cranberry Relish

Ingredients:

  • Fresh cranberries (3 cups)
  • Dried cranberries (1 cup)
  • Ginger root (2 inch piece)
  • Sugar (3 tablespoons)
  • Sea salt (1 tablespoon)
  • Cinnamon (optional)
  • Walnuts (optional)

Take your cranberries and put them in a food processer and rough chop them. Move to a bowl and add a sea salt. Stir well to allow the brine to start coming out of the cranberries. Grate the ginger root. Add the ginger, sugar, and dried cranberries to the bowl. Mix well. Add cinnamon or chopped walnuts as an optional added bit of magic. Move the mixture to a jar and pack it down, add a weight to keep it submerged below the brine. Cover with a lid or towel and put in a cool dark place to ferment. We let our sit for about 5 days before harvesting.

 

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Cinnamon Fig Shrub

Shrubs! We first fell in love with shrubs on a trip to Portland, Oregon when we hit up the coffeeshop Barista and they had an amazing Fig Shrub based Espresso drink with some other magic mixed in. It was absolutely amazing and when when we got home we started making these easy and tasty drink mixers. We like them in bourbon, gin, seltzer, and more!

This is our Cinnamon Fig Shrub that we recently made after being asked by our friends Thomasin and Alex to make a drink mixer for their upcoming wedding. They wanted something that people could take away as a gift and that would be a nice mixer....so Cinnamon Fig Shrub it was! We love this delightful fall mixer and we think you will too! Note: if you save all those ends and tips you can use them to make a nice Fruit Scrap Vinegar which is what we did!

Cinnamon Fig Shrub

Ingredients:
Fresh Figs
Sugar
Raw Apple Cider Vinegar
Water
Cinnamon Stick (optional)

Directions:

    - Add equal parts of sugar and water to a saucepan, and heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.
    - Add figs and simmer until the fruit's juice blends well into the syrup.
    - Let it rest till it cools
    - Add vinegar to the syrup in a large (ideally glass) container
    - Cover with a lid or airlock and let ferment for 5-10 days
    - Filter your shrub through a strainer and enjoy!

 

Fermented Apple Pear Sauce

When I was a kid at basically every dinner there would be either applesauce or apple butter on the table. The apple butter usually came from the Amish farm or the local apple farm, and the applesauce...well, Mott's was what we had.

Thinking about my love of applesauce and over the years of hauling home a huge CSA loot of apples and pears I started making a slow cooker Apple Pear Sauce somewhere around September. Always the maker and always the person wanting to re-invent things I decided that this year we would do a few batches of Fermented Apple Pear Sauce to add to our fall goodies...promptly followed by Apple Cider Vinegar, Hard Cider, Cyszar, and a fall Apple Kraut.

Here's our recipe for our Fermented Apple Pear Sauce. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Ingredients:

  • 5 medium apples and 2-3 medium pears
  • 2 Tbsp. water kefir
  • 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt

Instructions:

  1. Chop apples and pears into chunks. Optional is to peel them -- we like them with peels on with the cores removed. Throw them into a food processor and blend until you get your desired consistency.
  2. Mix in water kefir, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.
  3. Transfer to a quart jar, leave room for the ferment to do it's thing, we suggest 1 inch (or at the curve of the jar).
  4. Cover the jar with a cloth, lid, airlock, pickle pipe, or whatever method of your choosing.
  5. Ferment for 1-3 days until you reach a flavor and texture that you like. We suggest tasting it daily to see how the flavor profile changes daily. It's really the best way to learn how you like your ferments! Once you like the flavor, put a lid on the jar, and store in the fridge. We suggest eating within 1-2 months. 
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Pistachio Miso

One of my favorite things about winter is teaching Miso Workshops. We only teach Miso making in the winter since Miso is traditionally started in the winter months, so when it was time to start amping up for our winter workshops at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and Enlightenment Wines we went and started digging through our Miso stash to see what we wanted to share with our students. If you got a chance to make it to the NYC Fermentation Festival then you likely got to test out some of our Miso's there as well. From our Chickpea Leek Kelp Miso, Blackbean Miso, to our Cashew Miso we've been all about Miso this winter so we wanted to share one of our favorite recipes of late with you. We've be playing with nuts and seeds a lot lately and Pistachio Miso has become one of our favorites. A quick and easy ferment, guaranteed to be a nice accoutrement to any meal.

Here's our recipe:

1 cup Raw unsalted pistachios

1/2 cup Koji (rice or barley koji)

Sea salt

Instructions:

Soak the pistachios for 2-4 hours. Drain the excess liquid. Soak the koji in a few tablespoons of water while you prep the nuts and blender.

In a blender combine the soaked pistachios with the koji and 1 tbs of sea salt and blend into a paste. You will likely have to add a little filtered water while you blend. You ultimately want it to be a toothpaste consistency.

Take a wide mouth jar and pour the mixture into the jar, leaving room at the top, put on a lid and let sit for 2-4 days in a cool dark place.

We like to use this miso as a spread on baked fish, toast, as a soup, in salad dressings and more. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Fermentation and the Human Microbiome Resource List

The First Annual NYC Fermentation Festival was a couple weekends ago here in Brooklyn, NY. It was a fantastic turnout and filled with amazing vendors, workshops, and more! Erin Cramm and I taught on Fermentation and the Human Microbiome this year at the festival and we wanted to share out list of favorite reads and more on this topic with you. So here are our picks and we hope you get a chance to enjoy them as much as we have!

Erin’s List:

I Contain Multitudes - Ed Yong

Food Rules - Michael Pollan

Gut - Giulia Enders

The Human Super-Organism - Dr. Rodney Dietert

Brainmaker - Dr. David Perlmutter

This is Your Brain on Parasites - Kathleen McAuliffe

The Gene - Siddhartha Mukherjee



Cheryl’s List:

The Art of Fermentation - Sandor Katz

Wild Fermentation - Sandor Katz

The Good Gut - Justin Sonnenburg

The Symbiont Factor - Dr. Richard Matthews

Cooked (Book & Netflix Series) - Michael Pollan

An Epidemic of Absence - Moses Velasques-Manoff

Missing Microbes - Dr. Martin J. Blaser

 

Check out the latest from us! The Art of Secondary Fermentation for Edible Brooklyn!

 

Wondering how to flavor your kombucha? Want to know how it's ready? Check out our recent article written by our Chief Fermentationist, Cheryl Paswater for Edible Brooklyn! Also, you can find us in February's Drink's Issue of Edible Brooklyn with a look inside our home fermentation station and more!

 

https://www.ediblebrooklyn.com/2017/secondary-kombucha-fermentation/

 

 

Fermented Nut Cheeses

Fermented Nut Cheeses

Ingredients:

- 2 cups raw nuts of your choice (Almonds, Cashews, Brazil, Macadamia, etc). This will make    2 cups of nut cheese.

- 1 cup Rejuvelac, water kefir, probiotic capsules (crack open two capsules),    brine from a previous ferments, even kvass works.

Soak your nuts:

Nuts are best soaked or partially sprouted because they contain enzyme inhibitors that can strain the digestive tract when consumed in excess. Soaking your nuts makes them easier to digest and their nutrients more readily available. To soak your nuts leave them overnight in salt water, then dry them in a warm oven or dehydrator. Salt activates enzymes that neutralize enzyme inhibitors. You can also soak them in just water and it will still help break down the nuts. Note: Make sure you are always using raw nuts.

Cashews should be soaked no longer than 6 hrs. And all other nuts can be soaked overnight. Once soaked you can blanch the nuts for 3-5 minutes and then the peels should slide right off the nuts. You can skip this step with cashews as they do not have skins. This helps get rid of the bitter taste the skins have but also makes a better consistency cheese.

Mix ingredients:

Blend all the ingredients together in a high-speed blender and continue to mix until smooth. Add more of your liquid if necessary to form a smooth, creamy texture.

Strain & Ferment:

Pour into a nut milk bag or cheesecloth-lined strainer. (Paint strainer bags make great nut bags and can be easily found online or at your local hardware store). Allow to strain for 24-48 hours. You can hang the nut bag over a bowl or place it in a colander with a weight on top. This will apply pressure and push out the excess liquid over the process time. The longer it sits the more tart your nut cheese will be, so feel free to give it a little taste along the way to suit your pallet. Additionally, you could wrap the nut cheese bag around a wooden spoon and find a place to hang it from to allow it to strain.

After 24-48 hours, remove your cheese from the nut bag or cheese cloth. I like to add lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and salt for a very basic cheese. I also to create different flavors of cheese like a Almond Dill cheese where I add lemon zest, fresh dill, and use a almond base. You can add garlic, cumin, roll the cheese in dill or peppercorns. The sky is the limit! Store in the fridge for several weeks and enjoy!

 

Walnut Ridge: A week with Sandor Katz

Back in November Sandor Katz came to NYC for an event hosted by Just Food. While he was here he invited me to come to Walnut Ridge in the spring. I'd heard a lot about Walnut Ridge (Sandor's school off the grid in the mountains of Tenneseee), I had friends who attended and most anyone deeply into the fermentation world has heard something about Walnut Ridge at some point or another. I was honored to be invited so, when the application process came up for the spring, I emailed Sandor and he told me I still had to apply, I immediately got my application in and started an adventure deep into my dreamy, over imaginative, and always project-minded brain thinking about what a week with Sandor would look like.

I knew it would be amazing. I knew I would meet amazing people. I knew I would learn a ton.

There is something to be said about going into something know that it's going to be amazing without a doubt. And a week spent at Walnut Ridge was nothing but all of those things, plus some and then some more and then some more. Where do I even begin? The short version would be that Walnut Ridge is magical.

The longer version would be that Walnut Ridge is a magical 1820's cabin with an amazing kitchen -- complete with a couch (my personal favorite feature), embodied by an amazing mentor, and filled with the most stellar group of people. I truly couldn't not of been paired with a more fantastic group of people! Something happens when you are thrown into the woods, into a communal situation, where you are camping, and are going to ferment a ridiculous amount of food. Shared meals, shared clean up, shared making, shared ideas, a teacher who is fully giving of his knowledge, and a space where creativity and bacteria reign. There is no way to talk about this experience other than to say it more than exceeded anything I could of wanted. We covered 57 ferments in 5 days, bacteria bands were born, friendships kindled, documentaries made, bacteria samples taken and sent back to the American Gut Project, explorations, adventures, and copius amounts of food were consumed. And two weeks after leaving I am still reeling from the experience -- one of the best weeks of my life. Dreams of doogh, and rice beer, and zakvass, miso, and homemade koji -- dreams of bottling homemade wine and making anything and everything you could want. And let me not forget to mention that Sandor is one of the most generous, caring, interested, and giving teachers I have ever worked with.

Ferment! Ferment!

Over the weekend was one of our favorite days for the year! The annual Ferment! Ferment! event in Brooklyn hosted and organized by the amazing Zack Schulman. Ferment! Ferment! is a celebration of all things fermented, for the beginner and the experienced fermenter, and nerds unite!  And you better like to eat because when you walk in and see the rows of tables of everyone's homemade concoctions it's impossible to leave without sampling everything!

There was another fantastic turn out this year and four amazing workshops put on by some fantastic fermenters: Sauerkraut with Angela Davis, Fermented Nut Cheeses with our very own Cheryl Paswater, Sour Beers with James Kinnie, and Kefir based drinks with Ken Fornotoro. There was a great crowd and great food -- so many highlights from Tempeh Pigs in a Blanket with Fermented Ketchup, Dosa, Fermented Cookies, Beer, Kimichi's, Herbal Kombucha's, and more. An event guaranteed to leave your gut and microbiome in a happy place.

Thank you to everyone who came out and makes this community such a special one because that's the thing that makes Ferment! Ferment! so amazing. Gathering our amazingly interesting and creative community together in the name of fermentation. Ferment ALL the things!!

 

Fermentation

Herbal Medicine Meets Fermentation by Meghan Hintz

We're super excited to have guest blogger Meghan Hintz writing this fantastic blog on herbal medicine, fermentation, and sharing her recipe for Nettles Kraut! Meghan is a Fermentationist, Functional Nutrition Health Coach, and creator of Herba Flora, ( http://herbaflorahealth.com/) a line of herbal digestives free from alcohol, sugar, and other common allergens. She lives in the Pacific Northwest where she is currently fawning over the glorious awakening of spring.

 

HERBAL MEDICINE MEETS FERMENTATION

While fermented foods are celebrated – and rightly so – for their digestive and

immune support, they are also notable for the increased bio-availability of their

nutrients. As friendly microorganisms break down cellulose, vitamins and minerals

are liberated making them especially easy for our bodies to absorb. Beyond the

nutrient value, fermentation releases a more mysterious and nuanced quality of

plants – their medicinal actions.

Just as the fermentation process frees nutrients, it is able to extract the therapeutic

properties of herbs. This can be a fabulous alternative to alcohol-based tinctures, as

alcohol can increase intestinal permeability and may not be suitable for children,

pregnant women, and those experiencing alcohol sensitivity or addiction.

When choosing herbs for your ferment consider flavor and herbal actions. Food

herbs like fennel, ginger, and turmeric are naturals and help ease gas, settle an upset

stomach and decrease inflammation, respectively. Rose is calming to the nerves and

pleasantly floral, but also astringent so start with small amounts. Remember that

your ferment will take time so herbs that become harsh after a long steep (think

lavender) may not be the best fit. Likewise, steer clear of herbs with strong

antimicrobial actions that could kill off friendly bacteria and halt fermentation.

Favorite spring tonic herbs, all suitable for sauerkraut and miso, include burdock

root for the liver and skin, dandelion root and leaf (the leaves can be quite bitter, the

root more mild) for the liver and kidneys, and my favorite: nettles.

Stinging Nettles, Urtica dioica, are exceptionally high in minerals, anti-inflammatory,

and supportive of the adrenal glands. With their bright color, grassy flavor, and

nutritional boost they are the epitome of spring. They grow wild in parts of North

America and can be found at farmers markets this time of year, but you can also use

dried nettles. They lose their sting when cooked, dried, or fermented, but be sure to

wear gloves while handling them fresh!

Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal. It’s the perfect time to look beyond the well-loved

traditional benefits of fermentation and experiment with the new flavors and beneficial actions

spring herbs have to offer.

 

Nettle Sauerkraut (1 quart)

1.25 lbs Green cabbage, evenly sliced (reserve the core and one outer leaf)

½ cup packed fresh nettle leaves, chopped (don’t forget the gloves!)

OR

2 Tbsp dried nettles moistened with 1 Tbsp heated water

2-3 scallions, sliced into rings

2 ½ tsp coarse grey Celtic sea salt

Use your favorite fermentation technique to make your Nettle Sauerkraut. I use

Sandor Katz’s technique.

Now that you’re wildly curious about nettles, here’s a lovely write-up for more info:

http://www.susunweed.com/Article_Energy_Stamina.htm

This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease. Please consult

a medical professional before beginning any healthcare regimen.

The Illustrated Journal with Caroline Choe

We had the honor to be on The Illustrated Journal with Caroline Choe (S3E1: "Around the Table"). She videoed somer of the collaborative dinners put on by Contraband Ferments and goldpennyloafer (www.goldpennyloafer.com). We love this video that greatly captures community and how food brings people together!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPt5ojMEAxA

Just Food Conference 2016

Just Food Conference 2016    by Cheryl Paswater, Chief Fermentationist, Contraband Ferments

One of my favorite events of the year was this past weekend, the Just Food Conference at Teachers College, Columbia University. It's a yearly conference dedicated to ethical food practices, food advocacy, greenmarkets, CSA's, farming, education, and more! It's always been a wonderful learning experience, filled with so many amazing people, and a strong current around building communities. After all, food brings communities together!

I've always attended the conference as a attendee that squeezes in as many workshops and lectures as possible and talking to as many people I can but, this year I had the honor and privilege to to get to be a presenter with my good friend Erin Cramm (also notoriously known as my fermentation wife) on the Human Microbiome and Fermentation. So after spending the morning catching up with friends and fellow food nerds, and squeezing in multiple workshops that morning from Herbal Medicine, to GMO Laws in NY, to Using Food as a Tool to End Mass Incarceration, and even catching part of Andrea Beamans lecture on Detoxing your Liver, and a lovely locally grown lunch we powered up or an afternoon of nerdy bacteria talk.

I won't go into all the details because I would be here all day but, I do want to share our favorites list for all things Fermentation and the Human Microbiome! We hope you enjoy it!

Resources for the Gut Microbiome and Ferments

Gut

Giulia Enders (Book)

The Good Gut

Justin and Erica Sonnenburg (Book)

Cooked, Book & Netflix Series

Michael Pollan (Episode/Chapter: Earth)

How Bacteria “Talk”

Bonnie Bassler (TED talk)

Missing Microbes

Martin J. Blaser, MD

Fuhmentaboudit! (Radio Show)

http://heritageradionetwork.org/series/fuhmentaboudit/

Wild Fermentation & The Art of Fermentation

Sandor Katz (Book)

Body Ecology Diet

Donna Gates

Gut and Psychology Syndrome

Dr. Natasha Campbell- McBride, MD

The Symbiont Factor

Richard Matthews, DC, DACNB, FACFN

The Epidemic of Absence

Moises Velasquez-Manoff

The Human Microbiome Project

http://hmpdacc.org/

Cider, Bringing People Together by Rachel Jacobs

We are super excited to have the amazing Rachel Jacobs writing for us this month! She is the co-producer of the radio show Fuhmentaboudit! on the Heritage Radio Network, an avid beer and cider brewer, fermenter, and all around awesome lady! Check out her post on Cider Making and Bringing People together -- one of the best things that fermentation does!

Simple Cider from Scratch, Bringing People Togetherby Rachel Jacobs

When your roommates don’t drink beer and you want to start home brewing, you can do one of two things: either drink all the home-made beer yourself while sticking your tongue out at your friends – or you can brew something that everyone will enjoy. A homebrew is a thing meant to be shared, and a lot of my friends and family members have one stomach problem or another – gluten intolerance, dairy allergies, strawberry sensitivity – so something with a large amount of ingredients and high in allergens meant that someone won't be able to have it.

My first hesitation with cider was that there seemed to be less room for creativity– there are less ingredients, there’s less types of yeast to inoculate the juice, and the whole science of making cider is much less complicated. After all, I thought, if you buy a jug of Red Jacket’s cold pressed cider and you use champagne yeast, doesn't it turn out to be exactly the same thing?

This is not strictly speaking true. Yeast, as I’ve come to learn, are finicky, and the slightest variation of temperature, pH, or pressure can cause it to act slightly differently. Each batch of something home-made, unless in an ultra-controlled environment, will turn out differently.

But I didn’t know this when I first started. And that’s how I got to pressing my own juice to make hard cider.  And you can, too!

If you’re patient and not averse to pruney hands, you don’t actually need all that much in the way of materials. In addition to a carboy, airlock, and yeast, you’ll need:

-Apples, whatever varieties you like. I prefer to get about 10 pounds of nice apples and the rest of cheap filler – Macintosh, Cortland.

-Food processor/ blender

-Cheese cloth

It takes about 15 pounds of apples to make a gallon of juice, which is about 35 apples of sufficient size. Very often, you can get 5-lb bags at the grocery store for cheap, or get the bags of ugly apples at the famer’s market for less than the more marketable, pretty apples.

1.    Cut the apples into manageable pieces and toss them in the blender until they’re more or less applesauce consistency.

2.    Next, spoon the pulp into a cheesecloth, twist, and squeeze, collecting the juice in a bowl.

3.    Once the bowl is full, strain it through the cheesecloth once more before putting it in the carboy.

4.    Add the yeast – I’m a fan of 71B when using fresh fruit because that sucker will eat through everything, but Champagne Yeast will do it faster and give you the satisfaction of watching a bubbly airlock.

5.    Add the airlock and let it sit somewhere temperate for 2-4 weeks. Sediment will collect at the bottom, just like store-bought cider, and you can choose to siphon the cider to another carboy and rack it for another 2-4 weeks; or if you don’t care, you can bottle it as-is.

The first time I did this, I spent the entire day crushing and squeezing apples with a tiny Cuisinart food processor and cheese cloth. (I bought 30 pounds of apples but lost my patience at a gallon and a half, and 5 pounds were actually no good because they were – and I’m not kidding – full of spiders. Very farm fresh).

Yes, the process is fatiguing and sometimes tries my patience, but with a Netflix account and good pair of headphones, it’s all good. Or you could do it in batches. When I don’t have a full day to spare, I press some of the apples and freeze the juice; when I’ve collected a few gallons, I defrost, put in the carboy, and add the yeast.

Cider is a good compromising homebrew if you want to share with a lot of people and not worry about their various dietary restrictions, because there is only one ingredient: apples. You can still make it your own, though, if you want to get fancy, you can add different fruit juices or flavoring agents. The last batch I bottled was made with Skittles and tastes vaguely like a bootleg Smirnoff Ice, and one that’s sitting under my sink is mixed with tart cherry juice. The roommates love it and I’ve been giving it out to friends for weddings and birthdays, too. People can be picky with beer, but everyone drinks cider. Everyone. Even George Washington.

Conclusion: drinks are more fun when shared with friends, and it doesn’t have to make your brews boring. 

Pickle Juice, Probiotics, & The Bad Bugs: with Guest blogger Robbie Bianchi-Pray

We are super excited to have another guest blogger this week here at Contraband Ferments! Robbi Bianchi-Pray is a Nutritional Therapist, Fermentationist, and GAPS practitioner based out of Chicago, IL. She's passionate about food and healing through food, has some killer tattoos, and is an all around bad ass! Enjoy this amazing post!

 

Pickle Juice, Probiotics, & The Bad Bugs

 by Robbie Bianchi-Pray

I remember drinking the pickle juice as a girl. My desire for that salty and tangy brine was always stronger than my craving of sweets like other kids. After becoming a Certified Nutritional Therapist, Fermentationist, and a Gut and Psychology Practitioner; I discovered why…

My desire for this deliciously salty and tangy brine, was actually one of the first signs of my stomach acid deficiency.

Stomach acid serves as a first line of defense against invaders in the body. Destroying pathogenic bacteria onsite and keeping the bodies precious ecosystem in balance while saving you from experiencing digestive and stomach distress. You know what I am talking about… the screaming shits? Ever came down with Medusa’s revenge?

In addition to the need for hydrochloric acid, I think my poor little body new it was in dire need of fermented foods. Fermented foods help to repopulate the gut. Humans used to receive soil based organisms daily from their food. Since big agriculture has now began sterilizing the soil with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides; the number of these monumental little allies have dropped exponentially.

Not only does the body require an acidic environment in the stomach to break down fats, proteins, along with vitamins and minerals; the body also requires a strong community of bacteria to ensure proper breakdown and absorption of all those tasty organic ingredients that you call dinner.

We now know that 90% of the cells and genetic materials in our body consist of gut flora. That means that we are simply a 10% shell to house this incredible inner ecosystem. They outnumber us 10 to 1! In order to have a healthy and balanced inner ecosystem or Microbiome as they have termed it today; we are required to consume a plentiful amount of these beneficial bacteria daily.

Grocery store shelves are lined with so-called healthy probiotics supplements to choose from. Unfortunately, many of these products do not contain what the labels claim. When tested, many of them did not even contain the bacteria species they claimed on the label, nor did they have the claimed bacterial strength!

A good probiotic should have as many different species of bacteria as possible, and there should be a mixture of them in order to derive maximum benefit. A mixture of strains is most beneficial and it is best to have a combination of lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, and soil based organisms. It should have a concentrated amount of at least 8 billion bacteria cell per gram. You need to provide the body with enough organisms per dose to actually feel an improvement or healing reaction. I recommend working with a qualified practitioner when ordering supplements period. This ensures a professional and therapeutic grade product. Ordering online or purchasing from big box discount stores is risky because you never know how old the product, how it was stored, or if the product even contains what is claimed. For example, probiotics and fish oil are very heat and age sensitive… Do you want your supplements to be rancid or expired upon purchase? In addition, many supplements available are rip offs or rejects containing no health benefits at all, along with potential serious risks. Check out this link to hear more about the risk of gluten, heavy metals, and other reasons to always purchase supplements from a qualified healthcare professional. To order your therapeutic grade probiotics now, visit my store.

As you introduce probiotic bacteria into your new health regimen at a therapeutic dose, you will likely produce the so-called “die off” reaction. These bacteria will begin to kill off and destroy pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and fungi. When these bad boys begin dying off, they will produce a large amount of toxicity! These toxins are often the cause of your previous symptoms. The characteristics of symptoms you experienced prior to, are likely to present themselves and may temporarily get worse. You may find yourself more tired than usual or generally of color. In addition, you may experience any number of possible new symptoms like an unexpected rash, feeling emotional, or even flu like symptoms. This is a temporary reaction and typically only lasts a few days to several weeks depending on the individual.

To make the experience as bearable as possible it is important to build upon your doses to reduce the onset of an extreme healing reaction. Build the probiotics slowly starting with a very small dose. Observing for “die-off” reactions and settle on each dose prior to increasing the dose again. If you have a strong reaction, you may choose to grin and bare through it or back of to the previous dosage for a week before trying again. You may find that it takes a several weeks to a number of months to reach a therapeutic dosage. Some people even take years…

According to world renowned neurologist, neurosurgeon, nutritionists, and author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a therapeutic probiotic dosage for an adult is 15-20 billion bacteria cells per day. Her research, Gut & Psychology Syndrome or “GAPS” protocol connects the brain with the gut and is what I would consider a 3 legged stool approach. It combines diet, supplementation and lifestyle changes to maximize healing and sealing of the gut, eliminating food allergies, starving out pathogenic “bad bacteria” and repopulating with beneficial flora along with addressing other physical symptoms like autoimmune disorders, psychological symptoms like depression, anxiety, autism, and ADD/ADHD along with various digestive disorders such as IBS, Crohn’s disease, constipation, and diarrhea as well.  To learn more, please refer to her book for a complete guide to probiotics and the supporting diet protocol and book your free 15 minute consultation today.

Once a therapeutic dosage has been reached, it should be maintained for a minimum of 6 months to rebuild normal gut flora and remove the pathogenic bacteria. Adhering to the GAPS nutritional protocol is paramount to your success. One must starve out the “bad bugs” to allow our beneficial friends to predominate. After the therapeutic period is completed the therapeutic dose may be slowly decreased at the same rate it was applied. Observe for reactions. The maintenance dose is individual and may take quite some time to discover.

My favorite way to receive these beneficial buddies is with the addition of delicious, unpasteurized, probiotic rich fermented foods into the diet!  Sauerkraut and lacto-fermented vegetables along with homemade milk kefir, yogurt and creme frais are a delicious way to daily receive the beneficial probiotics and yeast into your the belly that keep pathogenic and opportunistic microbes at bay.

These beneficial microbes or “probiotics” will aid in digestion and even employ other opportunistic bacteria. Believe it or not they will even multiply the vitamins C in your cabbage by 200%! Creating loads of lactic acid and B vitamins, breaking down fibers and protein, they transform a simple cabbage into an absolute superfood! These fabulous friends then stimulate your immune response and will absorb toxins.

Probiotic supplementation is paramount to vibrant health and vital to treating any form of digestion, psychological, and physiological disorders. Enjoying that tasty sauerkraut will pay off in folds stimulating your hydrochloric acid production in the gut, aiding in the breakdown of foods and boosting the immune system along with the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine that keep you happy!

For more information on how to work with me and implementing GAPS protocol, please reach out for your free 15 minute consultation to see if GAPS is right for you! GAPS week long immersion training and retreats are now available.

 

 

Fuhmentaboudit! Episode 151 Wintery Ferments

We are huge fans of the heritage Food Radio Network and of the radio show Fuhmentaboudit! So when they called us up and wanted to have our Chief Fermentationist, brain child, and fearless leader Cheryl Paswater on the show, we of course said yes! Here she is talking about all things wintery and fermenty with host Chris Cuzme and co-producer Rachel Jacobs.

http://heritageradionetwork.org/podcast/winter-ferments-with-cheryl-paswater/

Canine Sauerkraut : with Guest blogger Cynthia Farris

 We are so excited to have guest fermenter and coach Cynthia Farris writing on Canine Sauerkraut for our blog this month! She's doing amazing things in the animal community, helping to keep both the pups and their humans happy and healthy. Here she is telling us all we need to know on canines and fermentation.

 

Dogs Eat Kraut?

The savvy ones do!  Like all of us, dogs need plant-based, probiotic-rich foods for health and vitality.  Both conventional and holistic vets agree our canine companions need more antioxidants to fight free radical damage and they need probiotics to support their microbiomes (the trillions of microorganisms that live on and in them (and us) that are involved in virtually every aspect of health).  Fermented veggies contain both in readily digestable forms.

Following are a few of the benefits of including probiotic rich foods in your dog’s diet, and in yours:

Probiotics + Enzymes

Probiotic + enzyme supplements are being prescribed at record numbers to support digestion (e.g. gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, etc.).  Again, just like your diet, supplements may or may not make it thru the highly acidic stomach to do their job in the colon.  Food-based, probiotic + enzyme-rich foods, such as krauts and cultured vegetables, are amazing ways to support our shared health.

Pup Got the Sniffles?

Gut vitality is critical to overall immune strength.  On-going feeding of probiotic rich foods build immunity and strengthen your pooch’s resilience.  

Anxiety + Toxins

The 21st Century pup is exposed to myriad toxins given their proximity to exhausts and pollutants that settle on the ground where their highly permeable paws absorb them.  Probiotics support detoxification helping rid the body of damaging chemicals and heavy metals. 

Dogs with a history of neglect, stress, malnourishment, and lack of exposure to nature, can especially benefit from krauts and fermented vegetables. 

My Dog Won’t Touch the Stuff

You’d be surprised at how many dogs actually love vegetables. If yours is a veggie virgin, start with raw or cooked foods they show interest in (e.g. green beans, peas, carrots, apple or pear).  Then, take their favorites and add them to a simple kraut and slowly add to their favorite meal.  Be sure to honor their timing and level of interest in the new foods.

Stick with Basics Blends

It’s not that Rover won’t lap up your amazing blend of Curried Kraut with Green Apple & Raisins, but not all people food is good for dogs.  For a conservative list of potentially harmful foods see the ASPCA’s site and do your own research.  Raisins are no-no’s and curry may have onions/garlic which generally aren’t recommended for dogs.  

How Much Do I Give My Dog?

Probiotics can have a powerful effect on the GI system.  Initial reaction could result in some bacterial die off.  So, go slowly.  Dr. Karen Becker, DVM, in this video and how-to, suggests starting with 1-3 teaspoons for every 20 pounds of body weight.  This cutie (photo) started with a nibble, and came back 3xs for more.

Sharing is Caring

Whole food, probiotic rich foods are amazing to share with our canine families.  Do some experimenting and find that irresistible blend you both love.  

 

About Cynthia Farris

Cynthia is a passionate dog person, functional nutritionist + lifestyle coach.   She makes Custom Canine Krauts (for pups and people) for her Denver-based clients and educates those around the globe how to make special blends for their four legged pals.  Reach her at Cynthia@cynthiafarris.com + soon:  www.cynthiafarris.com.

The content of this post is intended for general informational purposes only.  It is not intended to diagnose, treat or mitigate disease in you or your pet.  Dietary foods can interact unexpectedly with your or your dog’s unique physiology.  Food can also interact with prescription medications.  If you or your dogs are taking prescriptions, become informed about possible interactions.