This post is a continuation of Pear Scrap Vinegar in Progress. After sitting near the window for a couple weeks, my jars of pear scraps was making good progress toward vinegar. The liquid was bubbling and a layer of yeast and starches produced by vinegar bacteria was forming on the surface. It was time for the next step in the vinegar-making … Read more
I’ve been meaning to blog about my fall cleaning and canning activities, I’ve been so busy that I get overwhelmed thinking about where to start. Hence, I haven’t blogged in ages. So I’m starting simply, with a picture I took yesterday when the sun came out for the first time in ages. I’ve had five of these half gallon jars … Read more
This is a bad year for apples in our neighborhood. The Golden Delicious tree I usually pick from only produced a handful of apples at the highest branches (ten pounds at the most), and the tree with the red Jonagold-type fruit produced only about 100 apples, most of which the bees and worms got to first. I’ve picked maybe a dozen … Read more
Companion made this beautiful salad. My first instinct, of course, was to take a picture. But it tastes good too. The white chunks are not cheese, though they sort of look like it from this angle. They are kohlrabi, a close relative of broccoli eaten for the stem, rather than the florets. Kohlrabi has a nice, nutty taste and crispy texture. … Read more
I’ve been eating black raspberries at every meal now that they’re in season. They were in my oatmeal at breakfast, my yogurt at lunch, and in my salad at dinner. I love how they look next to the beets. The colors would make a lovely combination for a duotone quilt. If only I had made the salad before the sun set, the picture would have … Read more
You know the feeling: you turn on the faucet and the water sprays in weird directions because the holes that the water is supposed to come out of are all clogged with mineral deposits. And maybe the faucet itself isn’t too pretty, either, coated with a white film that won’t come off no matter how hard you scrub. Fortunately, there’s … Read more
One of the best hair tips I ever got was to rinse with diluted vinegar after shampooing. It sounds weird, but it works wonders. It removes shampoo residues, makes hair softer and shinier, and even works as a detangler. In my shower, I keep a pretty blue bottle filled with homemade cider or wine vinegar (I wrote about making cider … Read more
In many parts of the U.S., it’s still possible to get fresh apple cider at your local farmer’s market – but it won’t last long. There are two traditional ways to make cider last longer: making hard cider and making vinegar. Making these things can be as simple or as complicated as you want. Here is my simplest apple cider vinegar method, … Read more
I was too sick to write up a wine recipe today, but Lilo wanted me to make a Fermentation Friday post anyway. She jumped on top of the kitchen cabinets and started posing with the backstock of homemade vinegars & brews I keep up there. So today is a photo post. Next week I should be feeling well enough to … Read more
In the past year or so, I’ve found at least half a dozen K-cup coffee makers sitting on the curb or next to Dumpsters on trash day. All of them turned out to be perfectly functional once I cleaned the hard water buildup from the works. My guess is that they were thrown out because the previous owners didn’t know how to remove … Read more