Sallygardens Smallholding

Sauerkraut Success - No Going Back!

Since my last post I've been munching my way through two batches of fermented sauerkraut. It's safe to say that I'm addicted to it. It goes on toast, in soup, on salads, in stews ... and then if there's no sign of a meal anytime soon I just grab a forkful and chomp away. From now on I'll be making sure there's always some on the go.

I can't stress how easy the whole thing is and I'd definitely encourage you to try it out.  The costs are minimal and the probiotic health benefits are wonderful.  All you need is a kilo of finely chopped white and/or red cabbage and a tablespoon of salt.  Mix the chopped cabbage and salt in a bowl, rub the salt in, massage and knead the cabbage just as if you're making some dough. After a little while it becomes limp and a little translucent, perhaps some of the cabbages own juices will begin to collect in the bottom of the bowl. Transfer the cabbage and juices into a very clean jar and use something like a wooden spoon or pestle to thud down the cabbage so there are no air gaps. You'll find there should now be enough juices to cover the cabbage, if not, add just enough water to cover it and a little more salt (more salt only if you've had to add water). Now put a clean cloth over the top and leave it to sit on the counter for roughly four days. When four days has passed pop it in the fridge where it will keep for quite a while. Each time you take some out to eat tap it down again so all the cabbage is below the juice.

After four days in my kitchen the sauerkraut smelled pretty strong to say the least and I almost abandoned the project and came very close to throwing it in the compost. I put it in the fridge and the next day I ventured to eat a mouthful, strangely it tasted very nice but I waited until the next day before eating a little more because I wanted to be sure I'd have no ill effects! Since then I've been munching happily on it and have made a second batch. Even my kids like it so all in all its been a very successful dabble of my big toe in the world of fermentation and I fully intend to go knee deep.

My next post will be all about my kombucha tea, another healthy elixir in the form of a culture full of healthy bacteria and yeast.

Fermenting Vegetables

Fermenting vegetables is a process that produces delicious food such as sauerkraut and kimchi. I'm so excited about fermenting vegetables for quite a few reasons. As a grower of vegetables it's a wonderful way to keep my greens edible during winter and hungry gaps of the year. Unlike some other methods of preserving foods such as jams and chutneys it does not involve cooking the food so the nutrient availability is not only preserved by fermenting, it is actually enhanced. We don't need to add pounds of sugar either to keep the contents of the jar fresh, nature does that job for us instead.

So how does the fermenting work? We have been brainwashed to think that all bacteria are bad, this is not true, we need a symbiotic relationship with bacteria to survive healthily! During fermentation naturally occuring bacteria and yeasts that live on plants begin to break down the components of the vegetables. This means several things for us humans. First of all the plant material is transformed into a much easier to digest form and that means our digestive systems need to work less in order to obtain more benefit from what we eat. The bacteria and yeasts that are thriving on the fermenting vegetables are also themselves extremely beneficial to our bodies. If we buy bioyogurt or sauerkraut in shops these products have been pasteurised to kill bad but unfortunately the good bacteria too.  These good bacteria occur naturally within healthy guts where they work as a carefully balanced ecosystem with a high biodiversity containing many strains of bacteria and yeasts that we require in order to digest food properly. These are what many of us familiarly know as 'probiotics'. So by eating the fermented vegetables we are ensuring that we have these probiotics within us doing their work that we rely upon for digestion. It is extremely important that our guts (small intestines) are working properly as many health practitioners believe that our entire immune system relies on a healthy gut as its foundation block.

Many of us need to repopulate our guts with probiotics as we continually destroy and undermine this ecosystem by taking antibiotics, thrush treatments and drinking chlorinated tap water. These chemicals save lives by killing harmful bacteria but they also cause us harm by killing off our necessary friendly bacteria and yeasts, leaving an open playing field for imbalances to arise and cause a cycle of health problems. I've recently read a book that even links these imbalances which can lead to leaky gut syndrome as a cause of ADHD, ADD, IBS, depression, mental illness and autism.

I'm not a health practitioner or nutrionist, I'm just somebody who is interested in living naturally and healthily, so  I'm experimenting with making sauerkraut and I can tell you that it tastes delicious. I've bought the ingrediants for kimchi and I can't wait to start that later today.

If you'd like to try too watch this inspirational clip by Sandor Ellix Katz aka Sandorkraut, author of Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods. He'll tell you everything you need to know.

 

Elderberry Syrup Winter Warmer

Quickly go and grab the last of the elderberries (sambucus nigra), grab roughly a kilo if you can. Bring an ID book or a friend you trust in the know. Now you've almost got everything you need to make elderberry syrup and it's really easy to do. Don't be put off if you've tried eating a raw elderberry and the tart flavour almost turned your face inside out because trust me, the syrup is quite delicious. And if delicous isn't enough to persuade you then maybe you'll be swayed by the fact that this fruit is bursting with vitamins and antioxidants. Google elderberry nutrition and you'll also find mention of research into it being an immune system booster, cancer preventative and other such claims. Did I also mention it tastes delicious?

Snip the berries from the green stalks into a large pan (do you like the way I've just bullied you into making it?). Don't worry too much about the tiny stalks, well I don't worry about them anyway. I then use a potato masher to push the berries down and pour in just enough water to cover the fruit. Simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the resulting dark purple mixture through a sieve into a measuring jug. For each pint add 450grams (1lb) of white sugar and the juice of one lemon. Simmer again for another 20 minutes and leave covered to cool for 15 minutes or so. Pour the syrup into sterilised bottles. It's too late to mention it now but whatever wooden spoon you've used will now remain a lovely deep crimson colour. I hope you didn't spill any on your clothes.

That's the basic recipe. You can also add to the initial simmering an inch of ginger root, a dash of mixed spice, a cardamom pod, whatever you fancy.

Enjoy your syrup like a fruit cordial diluted with water, on ice cream, in hot water like a non alcoholic mulled wine or in a hot port like a very alchoholic mulled port.

Windfall Apples

The apples are falling from the trees and it's a shame to let them go to waste. There's a few things I like to try and do when there are apples on the ground. Pure apple juice is delicious, whether you use a centrifugal juicer or a mechanical one. It's worth doing a litre at a time and sipping at it through the day. It's almost instant and a real treat for everyone in the house.

 

Another option is to collect a basketful and make a simple apple crumble. Just cut the apples into slices, perhaps pour  a tablespoon of fruit juice, lemon, or water over the apples, you could throw in three cloves and a pinch of mixed spice or cinnamon. In a bowl mix some porridge oats, raisins, a tablespoon of sugar and some seeds such as pumpkin and sunflower, some nuts if you like them too.  Stir in 50g of melted butter to moisten the crumble mix. Pour this over the apples and sprinkle a spoon of dark sugar over the top and pop it in the oven for roughly 40 minutes at 180C.

 

Last but not least is the long term option to juice the apples and instead of drinking it instantly pour it into a sterilised demijohn with a spoon of cider yeast. I tried making my cider without adding yeast, relying on wild yeasts to flourish but alas it all went wrong and blue mould took hold. Next time I'll definitely use a commercial yeast to ensure it takes hold before anything else gets a chance. I have an e-booklet about brewing country wines if you'd like to give it a try, it's really quite simple and not expensive to get started (see store top right hand corner).

If you keep pigs they will devour any windfall apples with great glee. Or you could keep your apples for eating over winter by storing them in a cool room. They need checking every week because as they so rightly say, 'one bad apple spoils the bunch'! If you can pilfer some of those paper trays from your local vegetable shop they are ideal for stacking and storing apples.

How to Make Pickled Eggs

Trust me, pickled eggs are delicious, no really they are. I think this is mainly an English tradition as I've never experienced them in Ireland. My first rendezvous with a pickled egg was after a long hike in the English countryside which ended at a rural pub, where my companion ordered me a pint of scrumpy cider and a packet of salt and vinegar crisps with a pickled egg thrown into it. I'll never forget that wonderful culinary discovery!

As the days begin to shorten and the weather cools chicken will slow down their laying and some will stop completely until spring. So while there is still a good stock of eggs in the fridge perhaps now is a good time to experiment with pickling.

Buy a good quality pale vinegar from your health shop, organic apple cider vinegar is great stuff and you can use up any remainder for your vegetable pickles and chutneys. As always, sterilise all equipment and utensils to be used and wash hands and surfaces in advance. Bring a pot of vinegar to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes to pasteurise it. Keep covered and allow to cool.  Hard boil some clean undamaged chicken eggs and allow to cool completely. Remove the shells with clean hands and place the eggs into a sterilised storage jar. Pour in enough vinegar to cover all the eggs completely and keep refrigerated. Leave the eggs to pickle for two weeks before eating.

Cleaning and sterisiling is very important to avoid botulism.

Onion Ropes

After a few sunny days the onion skins were nice and dry (see previous post) so I began making onion ropes. First rub the loose dry soil from the onions with a soft dry cloth or teatowel, but don't peel them, the dry skins help to keep the onion bulbs fresh. Keep any damaged or bruised onions in a basket for immediate use in the kitchen, don't incorporate these in your ropes because as they begin to rot the mould will spread to the good onions too.  Put on some good music and get roping, enjoy the task, even better get a friend to come along and 'learn the ropes', passing on these skills to others is important (and fun). Here's a great link on how to rope onions to get you started. It's really very easy and you'll soon get a rhythm going.

When you've finished there's nothing more beautiful than a few ropes hanging in your scullery and kitchen, it's such a welcoming sight and every time you reach for an onion over the winter you'll feel very happy with your achievement.

Butchering Free Range Organic Pigs at Home

When your pigs get to slaughter weight you can take them to the abattoir and they'll kill, butcher and bag up all the meat if you wish. Of course after you've been through it all a few times you may start to get tempted by the thought of saving a few Euros, or simply be keen to have a go and attempt to do the butchering yourself. You can arrange with the abattoir for them to kill and gut the pig so you can collect the cleaned out carcass in two halves and attempt the butchering at home.

Amazingly (and you'll be even more amazed once you've tried it yourself!), a trained butcher can cut up a pig in little over an hour but don't use this as your guideline for completing a the job!  Allow a full twelve hour day with the help of at least one other person, preferably four keen workers. A second day will also be needed if you intend to make your own sausages and salami. Don't forget about freezer space, a couple of pigs will fill three or four drawers of an upright freezer.

Before you gather troops and collect the pig carcass it's vital you have a number of essentials to hand which should be organised  and lined up ready to hit the ground running a few weeks prior to the event. Invest in some butchers knives and a sharpener, ask your local butcher where he buys his own. Also buy a couple of rolls of plastic bags for packing and a good black permanent marker for labeling bags. It's handy to have a weighing scales for measuring out portions when bagging up too. 

If you also intend to make sausages ensure you have already decided on flavours and bought in the necessary herbs and spices well in advance, mix these the day before so they can be easily added to each batch of ground sausage meet as you work. Ensure you have sausage casings and a sausage maker ready to roll.  Buy and watch the River Cottage DVD 'Pig In a Day With Hugh & Ray', watch it several times and set it up in front of the table you'll be working on so you can play and pause the DVD as you make your cuts. We pool bought ours to share between friends.  Keep a well stocked first aid kit close to hand. Take regular breaks and eat well because you'll need to keep up your energy levels. Warn any squeemish, vegan or vegetarian friends and neighbours not to call in that day! Have some chilled beer and wine to crack open once you've finished to celebrate.

Again this is a fantastic experience for children to witness first hand. There is no mistake where their pork chops come from after seeing this. I'm all in favour of educating people as to where their food originates and if that results in my children choosing to become vegetarian then I'd be proud to assist them, we all eat too much meat anyway. I don't want them to be so disjointed from the realities of food that it comes as a shock that pork was once a living pig, or that their burger was a cow. So many kids (and adults) these days don't make the connection or never get the opportunity to, because meat is not packaged with any visual reminders of animals on the labels and our lives are so removed from the whole process. It's all too easy to mentally bypass the realities of life, death and animal welfare that is required for us to consume meat.

I've often had visitors to our home who meet our pigs and find them delightful creatures (which they are), then when I explain that they aren't pets but are for the table, the conversation usually goes ; 'That's so cruel, how could you?',  'Are you vegetarian?', 'No!', 'Do you eat pork from the supermarket?', 'Yes, but that's different', 'yes it is because our pigs are outdoors and free ranging, your pork has probably never seen the light of day and has been raised indoors', silent thoughtfulness then ensues. On the other hand I've had lifelong vegetarians stay with us who have decided to eat our meat because they see that the animal welfare issues that stop them supporting intensive meat production systems are simply not an issue here. Education and awareness followed by informed choice and less meat eating could improve life for a lot of pigs!

Goats Cheese Almost Got The Better Of Me

Last year I made the most simple form of cheese which involves straining the moisture out of yogurt until it reaches the consistency of a cheese spread. It only keeps for a few days in the fridge so it has to be made as and when it's required. You can do this with shop bought yogurt or use your own home produced milk if you have it. The process is simple and not much goes to waste, it's also a wonderful thing for the children to get involved with. I think showing them how food is made really broadens their horizons on so many levels. They begin to think about animal welfare, ingredients, the labour involved and of course the flavours. When we buy yogurt in the supermarket now they seem to have far more respect for their food and little goes to waste. Even if they don't finish something, they'll think about which animal could eat it safely or where to compost it.

Since the simple yogurt cheese making all went so well last year I was determined to try and make 'proper' cheese this year. I did a bit of research into which might be the best book and I invested in Ricki Carrols 'Home Cheese Making' which I have found to be a fantastic book. It not only has hundreds of recipes in it but also ideas and case studies from many home producers and small artisan business people. There's great explanations of the whole history and process of cheese making, as well as the essential individual recipes. Having read through the book several times I then decided on trying to make a simple farmhouse cheddar cheese and ordered some sachets of starter and rennet from Moorlands Cheesemakers in the UK.

The next step was waiting for the goats to kid which induces lactation, and once the kids were a month old I began to take just a  morning milking which gave me between one and two litres of milk. A lot of milk is needed for a small amount of cheese so it took me about five days to save two gallons (nine litres). Unlike cows milk which produces golden yellow cheese, goats milk  produces snow white cheese and butter.

All set and enthusiastic I began heating the milk up to 85F which took quite a long time and then added a pinch of the starter.  After leaving it to stand for forty five minutes I added the rennet. After another forty five minutes the milk had magically turned into a delicate white jelly which meant it was time for cutting the curds into one inch blocks.

I then put the pot into a sink and slowly brought the curds and whey painstakingly up to 100F over the course of half an hour by adding warm tap  water at first and eventually hot kettle water to the sink. The curds were gently stirred all the time and shrank in size as the moisture seeped out, forming the yellow greenish whey.  Once at 100F it was left to sit for five minutes.

The contents were then all poured out into a muslin lined colander, and the curds hung to drip. After a set time, the curds were then placed into a clean bowl and broken down gently into walnut sized chunks, I added salt and then packed the curds into molds with drainage holes.

For molds I used small tubs and drilled holes around the base and sides. I didn't have suitable 10, 20 and 50lb (25 kilo) weights to place on the molds for the suggested timings and it was at this point I came close to losing patience with the whole exercise! Luckily Lena our WWOOFER came up with an ingenious idea; using clamps instead of weights.

The next morning I released the clamps and finally we peeled off the muslin and set the little cheese rounds on a wooden board to air dry for a few days. When the rind developed the cheese were painted with melted bees wax and now it's sitting in the scullery for a month to ripen.

I can tell you it was a marathon task and I was exhausted by the end of it all. At one stage, when I realised I didn't have anything to improvise for the weights, I was on the verge of chucking the lot in the bin!!!  I think it's something we will do on rare occasions as special treats and seasonal gifts for friends and family. Stay tuned to see how the cheese turns out.

If you fancy having a go at cheese making it's essential to follow a proper recipe to the letter because the timings and temperatures are vital to the final result. Using scrupulously clean equipment and researching the pros and cons of pasteurised versus non pasteurised milk is also compulsory before the fun begins.

Making Time for Air Dried Hams

Sometimes when all the pork comes back from the butcher it can be quite overwhelming deciding what to do with everything. By the time you've made a years supply of various sausages and salami there's little or no energy left for much else. Something we tried with our last pigs which were butchered in February was so freeze the joints we intended to air dry. We recently defrosted them when a few rainy days arrived and so a little time indoors was well spent preparing the hams. Once they have been frozen and defrosted they only need half the curing time in the salt in comparison to fresh pork.

With our first hams we followed the River Cottage dry cure recipe but this time we tweaked it a little, changing the amount of sugar (within safe curing guidelines), juniper and bay, and adding a couple of other herbs and spices.

I suppose with each batch we will tweak the cure mix and so I begin to appreciate how mixes become guarded secrets from various parts of the world where they have centuries of experience and have tweaked to perfection!

But somehow Leitrim Ham doesn't have the same ring to it as Parma Ham or Jamon de Serrano. Anyway, not that we'd ever want to part with it by selling.

Elderflower Pancakes

Quick get out to the hedgerows and gather the last of the elderflowers, they are already beginning to fade. Whatever you do don't let the summer pass without harnessing some of this exceptional resource. The elderflower is such a fantastic bonus to the smallholder or anybody with access to the plant. It's so versatile in it's use; we've made a mountain of elderflower cordial and also a small batch of precious elderflower champagne. Another favourite of mine and one use I've not seen described on other blogs is elderflower pancakes. If you wish to delight your children, impress your other half and treat yourself all at once why not give it a go? The secret to anything made with elderflowers is to pick them on a hot sunny day (if at all possible!). Identify the elder with the help of a knowledgeable friend and/or an excellent identification book, be sure the area has not been treated or sprayed.

Make a simple pancake batter, for example Mrs Beeton uses 1 egg, 250ml milk, one 15ml spoon caster sugar and100g plain flour to serve four. For those dairy or wheat free it works well with soya or corn flour substitutes too. Beat the milk and egg into the flour and sugar. Pour some batter onto a hot buttered pan and sprinkle roughly half an elderflower head into the cooking pancake, snipping or hand stripping the flowerletts off the green stalks. Flip it and cook the other side. Serve hot with honey and lemon juice. Enjoy.

If you've missed the flowers don't worry, soon the elderberries will be ready for jam and wine! In the meantime, for more excellent foraging recipes try Cooking Weeds by Vivien Weise.