Viewing entries tagged with 'vinegar'
Make your own apple cider vinegar Part two
I figured it was time I got around to straining off my apple cider vinegar. See Make your own cider vinegar Part one. Well over a year has passed since I had put it down and it was a grey and rainy Sunday, just perfect for mucking around in the kitchen. Read the full post.
Bottling Beetroot
I gathered up the last scraggy beetroots from my summer garden and bottled them today. I preserved the main crop about a month ago. These were the ones that weren't big enough then. They still haven't grown much but needed to come out of the ground. I buy beetroot from the vege shop all year long, boil or steam it, slice it and keep it in apple cider vinegar in the fridge. It comes in handy as an extra veg for most meals. Come next spring I'm going to grow a main crop of beetroot for bottling and will aim to cultivate a years supply. They are so very easy to bottle. Here's how.
PICKLED GHERKINS
Every couple of years I make sure to grow between eight to twelve plants of gherkin cucumbers and pickle enough gherkins for about three years worth of eating. They are one of the easiest vegetable plants to grow and they produce prolifically. It takes some commitment to be around during January and early February. This is when they produce their main crop. During this time you check your plants every day and collect the fruit that you deem large enough for pickling. I start collecting the little cucumbers when they are approx 10-12 cms long and keep them in a plastic bag stored in the fridge. When I have collected about 50 cucumbers I make the first brine solution. The cucumbers will stay in the brine for up to 7 days and I gently stir them at least three times a day. While this lot is in the brine I'm storing the daily pick in the fridge until I again have 50 or so, and keep repeating the process until the plants ease off production. For more details read the full post.
Make your own apple cider vinegar Part one
Every year, when the apples are ripening and falling off the trees faster than they can be eaten or bottled or given away it's the time to turn some of them into apple cider vinegar. Apple Cider vinegar is touted as an amazing cure-all by many. Unfortunately there is a dirth of research, yet I believe that if nothing else is it is undoubtedly the healthiest vinegar out of all vinegars available. Apple cider vinegar should have a dark cloudy sediment, which is called 'the mother' and is the mark of an unfiltered and unpasteurised vinegar. That's what we are looking for. Vinegar is the product of a fermentation process and we want the good bacteria alive and kicking. They do the good work in our gut. Unpasteurised cider vinegar has been shown to lower blood glucose levels, and to bring the body into a more alkaline state. This is something most of us need to consider as most of our diets, often heavy in processed foods, meat, grains and dairy tend to create an acid situation in our bodies which can cause lack of energy, excess mucous, infections, depression, headaches, irritability, and, make some of us prone to arthritic and gouty conditions. It is recommended to take one or two tablespoons of the vinegar in a small glass of warm water first thing in the morning before eating. If you can't manage that then anytime is better than no time! For more details read the full post.
KEEPING IT SIMPLE
I attended a seminar yesterday talking about herbal solutions for skin problems. We all get (well I know I do) overwhelmed and confused by the information about the "bad" ingredients in shampoos, conditioners, moisturisers, hand creams, washing powders, detergent, etc etc etc. For more details read the full post
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