Who Needs a Fancy Dehydrator?….. You.

Posted by admin as live-culture, recipes

Well, Stephanie asked the question (see comments)… “What besides yogurt, do you use your fancy dehydrator for?”

Here’s why you need a fancy dehydrator: Synergy.  Ever notice that eating fermented foods gets easier when you have the right equipment? Same thing happens when you add a dehydrator to your kitchen mix. I happen to have an Excalibur nine tray, which I LOVE, and I kinda fell into by accident.

“It was Christmas time in early 2000’s and iPods were hot. My stepbrother wanted one, and my parents subscribe to the mentality of each kid getting the same value gift, so my sister Blythe  called me all jazzed and said we have a $400 budget (or something like that) I personally couldn’t think of $400 worth of anything  that i wanted, but I had been running around with Pat Greer so Blythe had seen how Pat had 6(!) of the Excalibur nine trays, and had just purchased 3 more dehydrators that are the size of small outdoor A/C unit . So she said, “What the hell, get a nine tray.” So I did.

So in the seven years since then, how has a dehydrator influenced my health, eating, and life? The biggest impact has come from the ability to have dandelion tea  EVERY DAY (watch out if you spend any time with me, cause I’m gonna get you drinking it too).  See, I had a wicked rough back injury in 2005, and took much medication as I healed.  As a result my adrenal glands were CHEWED, and I went from having an hour glass figure to that square hips and back end, otherwise known as the butt-shelf.
Look around, who has the butt-shelf? Folks who are on the edge and look like they might be drifting towards diabetes, and this was certainly my case. Enter the dandelion.

When I first started looking for a way to restore my adrenal health I first thought of nettles, but then I saw nettle’s close cousin, the dandelion. I have access to miles and piles of fresh seasonal dandelion from my job at Central City Co-op  so I dusted off the Excalibur and began dehydrating like a wild woman. I know the secret to recovery with herbs is  a consistent repeated action, otherwise known as “slow and steady wins the race.” So in the beginning I didn’t really consider how much to dehydrate, I just got busy. And I got drinking.

The hour glass figure returned, and soon other folks were noticing. I then became the dandelion tea hook up, so now when dandelions come in season I dehydrate five bunches every Wed, and I do it Oct – March.

And because I’m frugal, if the dehydrators going how else can I utilize the extra heat and airflow? The top of the dehydrator will stay warm, so you can dry dishes, make kefir or yogurt (cover with a loose kitchen cloth) and here is my favorite, keep your crock of culturing veggies close by, your veggies will culture fast (in my experience half the time, even if the dehydrator is only on a short time) and delicious.

I use tons of herbs in my cooking, cultured vegetables and health, so it is great to be able to dry cups and cups of dill, basil or oregano that I freaking grew myself.  Occasionally I dry fruit, and my friends the Jays dry apples and pears for their dog Blaze as a snack.  OOOH, and I almost forgot when I have tons of bananas I make the fruit leathers which are fantastic as snacks for when I am funning around.

So for me an Excalibur smokes the round cheapos, and has so paid for itself in the money I haven’t spent on convenience food  or in medication to regain my health. Not to mention the quicker turn over time with my cultured veggies.

  And thats what I know,
    Rowan

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“Oh No! What Happened Here!? A Fermentation Gone South”

Posted by admin as live-culture, probiotic,

So what happened? Why did my fermenting foods project, yogurt making bonanza, end up as curds and whey? Any Guesses?

 Here is what I did: I super cleaned my VitaMix and my gallon jars with my top secret super cleaning routine, heated the milk to 100 ish degrees, added the yogurt cultures, blended in the VitaMix some more, and placed in my clean one gallon jars. Here is a special note, dear reader, if you are like myself and have more than one size and diameter of one gallon jar: perhaps you should check to see before you start cleaning if the jar you are planning to use is the short and squat one gallon jar as opposed to the taller one gallon jar that, yes, you guessed it, does not freaking fit in the Excalibur. Aye Carumba!

So after I wasted more time shuffling and cleaning jars with the super secret process I pulled all the trays out of the Excalibur, placed jars in with a kitchen towel secured over the mouth with a rubber band, fired that bad girl up to 105, set the timer for 12 hours and told her I would check her in the morning.

                                                               

Cr@p! What happened here?  My ratio was off of inoculating yogurt to milk. As in, use more than one tablespoon of starter yogurt for an entire gallon of milk, Rowan.

So I ended up with curds and whey, which is still a fermented food, but not the yogurt I was hoping for. The curds, the white on the top has a similarity to lebne (a Lebanese style, I think) which is a fermented cheese that has the taste and texture of a cottage cheese/sour cream blend. I love this style of cheese on chili, yes.

 So don’t throw it away! Bake a potato, make chili, bust out the onion soup packet and some chips, this is still definitely edible and most probably delicious, just different from the original intent.

And what to do with the whey? Well almost anything according to  Sally Fallon of the Weston Price Foundation.

So keep fermenting your food, and don’t give up if your result is different than your desired result.
Be brave, get cultured!
Rowan

p.s. feel free to share your own learning curve.

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The Stove Had To Go…

Posted by admin as ferment,, live-culture

My home was built in 1927, the kitchen is small, a feng shui no no. So I deported the oven/stove, moved the fridge to where the oven had been, voila! A spacious open kitchen, or at least better than it was.

One point I had not foreseen, how were my roommates and partner going to cook? Because I would have sworn they only stepped in the kitchen to get water, make a PBJ or were in transit to the garage. Apparently they were secretly cooking when I was not home, making elaborate meals and feeding friends, or at least thats what they told me after the fact. I am more inclined to believe that it was more of a, ”what, we have to have a stove, all kitchens have a stove, wait, where did the microwave go?”

So my friend and best buddy Pat gave me a hot~plate that belonged to her dad, another friend rewired it after it sparked one day when he was over, and we were in business.

     So what is in my kitchen?

Things that cook:                                                                        
hot plate,
second hand convection oven,
a mammoth crock pot for enchiladas,
and a newly acquired waffle iron (I heart waffles!)

Things that do not cook:

Excalibur nine tray dehydrator
VitaMix
Green Star Juicer
Jack La Lane Juicer
Orange juicer
fridge (duh)

Acutriments in my kitchen that is use in my “high raw lifestyle”:
colanders
sprouter
mandolin
crocks
knives
jars & lids.

I am thinking I know more than the average bear about  different products, either from my experience, Pat’s feedback, or bitching and gritching from folks at Central City Co-op, so I will post what I know.

Supah Love,

Rowan

 

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