LearningHerbs Blog

Sourdough Bread

I've been having fun experimenting with sourdough bread making. I've made some the last 3 weekends in a row. I've discovered a few interesting things. First, it worked well to let my starter sit out overnight and start baking first thing in the morning this morning. My bread was done by dinner time instead of after bedtime for the kids. Nice!

Also, I've discovered that adding a couple of cups of white flour to every four cups of whole wheat and letting my dough be rather sticky is producing a nice light loaf of bread. I'm not sure which of these factors is creating the result I like or if it's a combination of the two, but I've really enjoyed my bread the last couple of weeks. I may try all wheat flour and leaving the dough sticky next week. I hope that works, because I'd rather not include the white flour.

Today I also started some beet kvass - a fermented beet drink suggested in Nourishing Traditions. You just peel and chop up a couple of medium sized beets add a couple tablespoons of whey and a teaspoon of salt and enough water to fill a 2 quart jar. Cap the jar and let it sit out for 2 days before moving it to the fridge. I'm excited to try it when it's done.

I also started an apple soda - also a fermented drink.

AND - I dug some burdock root. What excellent fall medicine - digging roots! I went to my friend's house up on a hill in the woods. The burdock was growing out on the sunny hill overlooking a little pond and surrounded by evergreen trees. As I sat with the roots while digging them I was enchanted with this peaceful place where the burdock plants had chosen to grow. The voices of bird and tree frog song were music to my ears. I dug several partial roots. (Partial because the digging got pretty tough further down.) I loved the digging and found myself thinking about my own foundation - what grounds me - as I dug deeper and deeper into the earth.

Best yet, I added one of the roots to our tortellini supper soup for dinner tonight! I'm going to be adding bits of what I dug to our meals all week. Yum! I do love the taste of burdock and wild ones like this bring so much excellent nutrition to our meals.

Happy Digging!

Kimberly

Elderberries

Today, my friend and I spent about an hour stripping elderberries from their stems in preparation for John's wine making. I truly love that kind of work. It just feels good in my body. It was so relaxing sitting outside on this warm day in the shade of our cherry tree in the front yard and talking and feeling the berries in our hands. It made me think about all the years and years that women have done this kind of work together. I can feel so connected with my ancestors in those moments.

Oh, and just a tip - it's much easier to strip the berries if they're frozen first.

Sodas

I got another batch of blueberry soda going today. I really liked that first batch and am excited for another round. I made a batch of peach soda in between. I hated it at first, and it was really explosive when I opened it - I had to open the bottles in the back yard with a bowl over the top of them and one underneath. But, I ended up serving it up at a little party here at the house and everyone loved it. So, I guess the lesson here is don't be thrown off by your first taste of something - and it's best to be prepared for a possible explosion when opening these homemade sodas. Even with the two bowl method I had soda all over me and all over the kitchen with the first bottle of peach.

Oh, and those drinking it at the party really commented on how alive the soda tasted and how great they felt drinking it. We were reminded about how sodas started out as healthy tonic drinks (which is why they were served in pharmacies). I know I'm sure loving this way of getting lacto-fermented goodness into my children (and myself for that matter).

--Kimberly

Blackberry Ice Cream

I made the blackberry ice cream today. It came out great! I had two guests arrive just as it finished up in the ice cream maker, and it was fun to be able to offer them such a delicious summer treat.

I wrote a couple of days ago that I would give instructions about the soda making in HerbMentor News, but we've decided the process is a bit complex for that, so look for a video coming soon on HerbMentor if you're interested in those step by step instructions.

If I can find some more blackberries to pick before the season is over I'm going to try making a blackberry soda as well. The blueberry was delicious and I've got my peach soda in bottles now.

Happy fruit season!

Kimberly

Our CSA farm

Tuesday is my favorite day of the week in the summer time. It's the day we go to the farm and to the farmer's market. Today Rowan and John went to Wild Waves together so it was just Hailey and I at the farm. The two owners of our local CSA, Eric and Wendy, do something they call "Farm School" on each of their pick-up days. During this hour they provide some kind of activity for the children that come to the farm. This was the last farm school day of the season (since school school is about start again).

Eric took us on a hay ride out to the fields to taste melons and harvest potatoes. Hailey enjoyed digging in the dirt after the potatoes even though she'd dressed herself in a cream and blue dress with bright white tennis shoes. :) The kids and I really love the hay rides. There's just something really special about them. As we rode along today I was reflecting about the fact that I've been taking my kids to the farm in the summers every week since their births. It's part of the rhythm of our lives. I feel like it is so important for the kids to see where their food is coming from and feel so grateful that ours comes from such a beautiful local place.

These trips to the farm are part of my on-going effort to empower my children to make healthy choices about their food. Going to the farm, helping me harvest some of our vegetables, developing relationships with the farmers, participating in farm school - all these things are creating brain patterns that I believe will stay with them throughout their lives.

Blackberry Jam and Blueberry Soda

Today I made a small batch of blackberry jam with honey. My sister loves this jam, so I make a small batch every year so I can give her some for Christmas. The blackberries are lovely here in Washington right now.

I'm going to make some blackberry ice cream when I get my cream at the farmer's market tomorrow. I just love my countertop ice cream maker. I make ice cream every week, because it's a maple syrup sweetened treat that my kids both love, and made with raw milk and cream it is pretty healthy.

I popped the top on my lacto-fermented blueberry soda today too. It overflowed the bottles it was so fizzy - guess I left it out a little too long. Anyway, I took precautions and opened it over a bowl, so I caught all the soda. Boy was it delicious! I've got some peach soda fermenting away on the counter right now. Maybe I'll have better success with the bottling of that one. I'm so excited about these live sodas - what a fun way to get healthy bacteria into my kids diets! If you're interested in more information about how to make these sodas there's a great article on the Weston Price website, and I'll do a step by step lesson for the blueberry soda in the next Herbmentor News.

Blessings,

Kimberly

Pesto and canned peaches

Well, I got another coat of varnish on the boat today, and it even got to dry a little bit before the rain started.

And, I made pesto with fresh basil from the farm and we canned peaches too.

Our pesto recipe comes from EagleSong at RavenCroft Garden and is:

2 cups packed chopped basil (or chickweed or lambsquarter or...)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 cloves chopped garlic
3 Tablespoons pine nuts (but I used sunflower seeds)
1/4 teaspoon of salt

I make big batches of it this time of year and freeze it so I can pull it out any time I'm in the mood for it.

We canned about 18 quart jars of peaches. 12 will go for Christmas gifts, so I may have to can some more later in the week. Our whole family loves the canned peaches. They are like a little bit of sunshine during our rainy Washington winters.

Fermented Pickles!

Sorry to have been so silent for so long. Life is FULL for me this time of year. There's all the end of summer herbal and food preservation projects, plus the "back to school" schedule changes that always require some planning for me. AND this summer Rowan and I built a small sailboat at a family boat building workshop, so I've added sanding and varnishing to my already full end of summer line up. YIKES!

Still, today, I managed to get my fermented dill pickles going, and that feels great. Even Rowan is looking forward to them. The process we use is to layer grape leaves, pickling cucumbers, onions, garlic, and dill in a gallon jar, then pour a warm salt water bring over them putting a plastic follower and a weight on the top to be sure they're covered with at least an inch of brine. Then we let them sit out for 4-7 days and ferment. At that point they're very tasty and can be stored in the fridge as one more live, fermented food even the children love!

Today I also bottled my lacto-fermented blueberry soda, started a peach soda, picked peaches for canning tomorrow, and blackberries to make into jam.

Wow, what a day! (I also put a coat of varnish on all the various pieces of the boat.)

Definitely time to give myself a rest and watch an old episode of Northern Exposure with John. :)

"I listened to my stomach!"

Rowan (8) was eating his oatmeal this morning and he came into my computer room, and said, "Mom, I listened to my stomach this morning, instead of my head and stopped eating when I was full." This feels like a huge breakthrough. He's been eating his oats and feeling sick after for the last week. (We put maple syrup in the oats, and he likes the sweet.)

For a mom working on how to teach her kids about following their intuition about eating and learning to make healthy choices this was quite a wonderful thing to hear!

Strawberry Mania!

Hailey and I picked strawberries this morning. With this flat we are going to enjoy homemade strawberry yogurt and ice cream. We are also going to try making lacto-fermented strawberry soda (look for a lesson with pictures in an upcoming Herb Mentor News). We'll freeze the rest so we can have some berries for winter yogurt and smoothies! We'll be picking strawberries at the local farm all week to keep increasing our winter store.

Hurray for berry season!

Kimberly