A ginger bug is a really cool ferment with a fun name. It is essentially a starter culture, much like a sourdough starter is to bread, or a SCOBY is to kombucha. With a ginger bug, you can naturally ferment homemade soda, healthy ginger ale, root beer, and other healthy soda alternatives. Using three simple ingredients—organic ginger root, sugar, and water—a ginger bug will “capture” wild yeasts and bacteria that will eat the sugar and emit carbon dioxide as a “waste” product; hence the ability to give sodas a natural fizz of bubbles. A ginger bug has natural kid-appeal because of its name, and because the process requires “feeding” your ginger bug each day, much like a pet! And because … [Read more...]
Spring Pesto with Chickweed and Green Garlic
When you're craving the fresh, tangy flavors of spring, but are still waiting for almost everything in the garden to start growing, the solution is a spring pesto made with chickweed and green garlic. This spring pesto recipe is easy to make, packed with flavor, and the perfect topping for pizza, pasta, and more! Chickweed (Stellaria media) is an edible and medicinal plant, often thought of as a weed because it is so common! Here in Northeast Missouri, we often find it near creek bottoms in the deciduous forest. After a few years, it made its way into our garden, likely via purchased hay. It is recognizable by its white, star-shaped flowers (hence the Latin name Stellaria) and thin line … [Read more...]
How to Make Hard Cider in 5 Easy Steps
One of our most beloved Autumn traditions is pressing apple cider. Some we refrigerate to drink in its sweet, raw, unpasteurized form. The rest we ferment into hard apple cider. Today my husband Brian joins me to share how to make hard cider in just a few easy steps. Hard apple cider is just sweet apple cider that has had its sugars naturally fermented into alcohol. It is one most local drinks you can make since you don’t need to buy any imported ingredients like sugar. And, you are hearkening back to our American pioneer roots, when John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) walked the land, starting nurseries on the frontier, selling apple trees to the new settlers so that they could … [Read more...]
The BEST Fire-Roasted Jalapeño Fermented Hot Sauce Recipe
One of our favorite ways to preserve hot peppers is to turn them into a lacto-fermented hot sauce. This condiment graces our table every night, and while I’m not the type to add hot sauce to my pasta and meatballs like my husband Brian, I appreciate a bit of spicy tang on my pork tacos and egg burritos! This year we decided to shake up our usual homemade hot sauce recipe and fire-roast the jalapeños before fermenting for a bit of smoky flavor. The results: Ah-mazing! Here is our fermented hot sauce recipe to make and to share! Lacto-Fermented Fire-Roasted Jalapeño Hot Sauce Making fermented hot sauce is quite easy - it’s a great beginner’s ferment because it’s really hard to get it … [Read more...]
7 Ways to Preserve Fresh Herbs to Eat and Enjoy all Winter Long
When I wander around my garden, even in these last days of summer, I still see fresh culinary herbs ready to be harvested and eaten. Some herbs, like dill and cilantro, have reseeded, making a second crop. Others, like my perennial sage, are leafy and full and ready to be harvested. The problem is, I can't possibly eat all of these herbs before a killing frost hits! I need some unique and creative ways to preserve fresh herbs to eat and enjoy all winter long. Fortunately, there are many ways to preserve herbs, from drying to fermenting to freezing. In this post we'll explore 7 ways to preserve herbs, capturing their intense, unique flavor to enjoy through the winter. 7 Delicious Ways to … [Read more...]
Setting Up a Homestead Kitchen on a Budget
Setting up a homestead kitchen on a budget may feel like a daunting task, especially if you're starting from scratch. Admittedly, there are a lot of specialized tools that homesteaders use on a regular basis that you might not find in your standard department store, some of which cost hundreds of dollars. Fortunately, there are creative ways to make setting up your homestead kitchen more affordable. This post was written in collaboration with the company Gumtree to share some ideas on how to set up a homestead kitchen on a budget. What will you need for your homestead kitchen? Setting up a homestead kitchen begins with the usual kitchen items - a set of good knives, cutting boards, … [Read more...]
Ginger Honey Switchel Recipe
Do you ever find yourself reaching for a glass of cold water after a particularly hot and sweaty garden weeding session and find that water is not quite thirst quenching enough? This Ginger Honey Switchel Recipe is a refreshingly tart, probiotic beverage that is not only thirst quenching, but easy to make with ingredients you may already have at home. Switchel, which is a traditional drink also known by the names Haymaker Punch and Ginger Water, is made with only a few simple ingredients - ginger, apple cider vinegar, and natural sweetener such as honey, maple syrup, or molasses. Using apple cider that is homemade or contains "the mother" imparts probiotic benefits, while ginger adds a … [Read more...]
Nettle Beer Recipe
Nettles, also known as Stinging Nettles, are delicious and versatile wild plants. Their signature sting disappears when the nettles are cooked, so they can be harvested as greens, drunk as a mineral-rich tea, or even used to make this delicious nettle beer recipe. Although nettles are so widely distributed that they are easy to wild harvest, when we arrived on our homestead, we could not find any stinging nettle, although we were wildly successful in foraging for wood nettles. I started some stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) by seed and planted them in a few moist and shady spots. When I received a copy of Wild Drinks and Cocktails, by Emily Han, I was immediately drawn to the … [Read more...]
Lacto-Fermented Radishes Recipe
Each spring I sow radish seeds amongst my beets and carrots. Because radishes are such a fast-growing crop, I'm able to harvest them when the beets and carrots are still young, allowing plenty of space for the root vegetables to continue their growth. And while radishes are a treat to eat fresh in salads, or to dip in Zacusca or hummus, after a while, I find myself getting a bit radished-out. That's when I reach for a quart jar and make a batch of lacto-fermented radishes. Lacto-fermented radishes are made with the same basic technique as lacto-fermented pickles and garlic scapes: The vegetables culture in a salt brine with spices or herbs for several days until your … [Read more...]
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