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Monthly Archives: October 2014


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Garden food – Wild Fermentation

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I grew up with a mum who often pickled vegetables and fruit to store over the winter, but wild fermentation is something completely new to me… I came across a very interesting book, read it and got hooked: Wild Fermentation, by Sandor Ellix Katz, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2003. It’s so easy to ferment and you can really do it with almost anything! Lots of the things we have in our cupbords and pantries are actually fermented: yogurt, beer, wine, soya sauce and miso paste (it actually take about one year to ferment the soya beans into miso paste!)

This is my present fermenting project: I’m fermenting carrots! I wonder what they will taste like once they are finished. At the moment they are just very salty, but in time the salt will turn the sweet tasting carrots sour. Here is my very quick tutorial, remember to keep everything including hands very clean:

You need:

– a wide jar made of plastic, glass or clay and a cover (it needs to breath, but not let bugs or bacteria in)

– some kind of weight: a plate small enough to fit into the jar, but big enough to cover the vegetables, covered by a heavy (sterilised/ boiled) rock or a cup of water.

– vegetables (carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, bell peppers, onions …. anything will do really)

– sea salt

What to do:

– Clean and cut your vegetables into strips, slices, grind them or whatever you prefer.

– put them in the bowl and add some sea salt. For my test run I used about a table spoon of sea salt to three big carrots.

– add your weight and leave overnight.

– in the morning the salt will have let the liquids out of the vegetables enough to cover them (this is called “the brine”), if not, add cooled, boiled water until the water covers the vegetables.

– put the cover on and store the jar somewhere in reach. Check it every now and again and in a week or two taste them. You decide when they are ready. The longer you wait, the more sour they become.

Update 2015: Look at my new fermentation jar that my mother and father in law gave me for Christmas!!!!!! So much better. Can’t wait to use it 🙂

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Garden food – How to Sprout Lentils

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What to do with those dried lentils in your pantry… Sprout them! Add then them to salads, eat them as a snack, add them to smoothies or use them as micro greens in the winter (if you can’t grow your own salad due lack of light). They have a mild and slightly nutty flavour. Delicious! And so healthy… Try doing it with the kids: they will love seeing it grow so fast!

I’m cautious to what goes into my body nowadays, especially since I became a vegetarian two years ago. I like to eat “real food”, by that I mean that I avoid processed food, even for vegetarians and vegans. I want to make all the food I eat by myself. I buy organic produce, or grow as much as I can in my garden, I buy local and seasonal. I never thought it was difficult to quit the meat though, as there are so much delicious stuff to replace it with. And replacing the meat really helps our health and also the environment. What’s also interesting is that blood tests I’ve done lately shows that my iron and protein levels are so much better now since before, when I still ate meat.

Anyway, my new favourite source of protein nowadays are lentils and beans. I make salads with boiled lentils together with chopped red onions and add a really tasty sesame dressing (2 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tbsp Japanese soya sauce, 4 tbsp toasted sesame seeds and 4 tbsp tahini sauce). Or you can make this quick salad dish above from sprouted lentils: a chopped up apple from the garden, sprouted lentils, cherry tomatoes and some basil leaves. And again, the sesame dressing. Yummie!

 

 

 

You need:

– a big glass jar

– a rubberband

– a loosely woven piece of cloth (like cheese cloth, but any cover that lets out water will do, a small sieve for example).

– lentils: black, red, green… any kind will do.

 

How to do it:

– rinse and put the lentils in your jar.

– add water almost to the top, grab the cheese cloth and attach it on the top with the rubber band. Keep it close by so that you don’t forget about them. I keep my jars in the kitchen, by the window, as that’s where I am several times per day.

– in the morning, add water through the fabric, and shake them lightly, then remove the water again. They need to constantly stay moist, but not wet.

– keep adding water, shake and remove for a few days. Morning and night will do. It will take about 2-3 days until your sprouts are ready to eat, but you can leave them to grow as big as you want them.


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Garden food – Carrot cake smoothie

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I had a major craving for carrot cake the other day, but I didn’t have the time to bake it, so I made a carrot cake flavoured smoothie instead. So much healthier! Just throw all the below ingredients into a blender and enjoy. And don’t forget to super charge it with some hemp powder, chia seeds or acai powder for example.

 

 

Healthy carrot cake smoothie (for two) :

 

3-4 dl vanilla flavoured soya milk

1 tbsp chia seeds or finely shredded oats

1 tbsp peanut butter or finely shredded pecan nuts

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 small finely shredded carrot

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

3 tsp hemp raw powder or Acai powder

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DIY – Dip dyed fireplace basket

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Isn’t this nice? I’m crazy about dip dyed stuff at the moment, so when my fireplace basket needed an update, I bought some spray paint, some masking tape and got to work. Just tape where you want the color to end, put the basket upside down on some newspaper outside and spray away! This could be such a pretty decoration for a wedding, to store gifts or confetti. Or perhaps you could use it in the garden or as a pretty basket to take along to the Farmer’s market. OR imagine how great it could look on one of those beach bags… endless opportunities…

 


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Garden food – Dried apple rings

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Did you know that you easily can dry the edible produce that you find maybe in your garden and in the forest? It takes very little space and it will store for a very long time if stored the correct way. If you think about it, a lot of products in your pantry are actually dried: pasta, müsli, oats, flour, nuts, raisins, spices, rice etc. There are lots of different ways to dry products: in the oven on very low temperature, over a heat source, hung in a paper bag (best for herbs) or on a long string or wooden stick, which is what I’ll be telling you about today 🙂

 

DIY Dried apple rings (made into a decorative garland!) :

1. Gather your apples. Pick about 5-6 for this project and check them for worm holes, rot or small stains. Only pick the prettiest ones. You can peel the apples or leave the skin on. If you have kids and want to make them eat it, kids usually prefer peeled apple rings. Then, with a corer, remove the seeds, leaves and stems until they look like the apples in the picture.

 

3. Cut the apples into 2-3 mm wide rings, but throw away the top and bottom ring as they easily mould and are basically only skin anyway.

 

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4. Grab a 1metre long thread (strong enough to hold 6 apples!) and a needle. Pierce a few apples at a time and pull the thread through. I made a knot around apple number one to make sure they stayed on the thread and saved about 30 cm on the same side to be able to hang it.

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4. Between two securely attached nails, hang up the garland. Spread out the apples evenly on the thread and give the apples a week or two before eating or storing them. For storage information, see below. Good luck!

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Storage advice: Dried products must be protected from moisture, light, dust and excessive heat and the best storage place is a dark and dry place with a temperature of 10-20 degrees Celsius. Packaging materials are brown paper bags, plastic bags, cloth bags of dark and dense fabric, glass jars and wooden boxes. It’s good to write down the content and packaging date on all the packages, it’s so easy to forget 😉 Vegetables, berries, fruit and mushrooms can be packed tightly, but herbs are packed loosely. Brown glass jars can be store in the kitchen shelves, but transparent glass jars must be kept in a dark place, a cupboard for example.

 

Alternative drying method for a quick snack: Spread out the apple rings on an oven plate and dry them overnight on the lowest heat, at 50-100° C.

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