In the last few years I've done an enormous amount of canning, freeze drying, freezing, dehydrating, as well as fermenting my garden harvest. We usually have 2 freezers plus a fridge with small freezer, running year round. This is mostly to preserve meats, but I also have a vast collection of berries that I pick for smoothies. I'm trying to get away from this reliance on frozen and refrigerated foods.
David Asher's book "the art of natural cheese making" was a huge inspiration and kick started my journey. I leave milk on the counter to clabber, for cream cheese, and cultured butter. Being as I get 2 gallons a day out of our jersey, this was a very welcome change, I only have to cool 2 litres a day for drinking, so this free's up a lot of space in my fridge. After 1 day on the cupboard, the milk tastes no different, I can cool more for drinking if I want, or skim the cream for butter or sourcream, or make more kefir. Amazingly if you cool milk in your fridge, and then attempt to clabber it on the cupboard for cream cheese, the result is highly unsatisfactory. The cold loving bacteria in your fridge proliferate and produce a rotten taste in the resulting cheese! I'm attending a class by David Asher in Manitoba at the end of February and I will be excited to share more info about my cheese making after that!
So dairy and veggies can be fermented and kept for long periods without refrigeration, what about meats? I have a roast curing in my fridge at the moment. I have never tried this so I will follow up on how that's going after I've tasted it!
I've always wondered "how did people do it in the old days? What did they do with their milk without a fridge?!" I've asked grandparents and older people, and even they seem to have lost this ancient wisdom. This podcast by Sandor Katz is excellent. I read his book "wild fermentation" a few months ago, and this further inspired me to get more glass crocks for fermenting ALL of my garden harvest. Any vegetable can be fermented, and with tremendous health benefits! Please feel free to visit the WAPF website with all of their podcasts, they are an awesome source of info!
https://www.westonaprice.org/podcast/114-wild-world-fermentation/
Congratulations @bthebest7! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPDownvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Would love to hear more about cheese making! I have a jersey cow and I've been wanting to try, but I'm nervous!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
David Asher's book the art of natural cheese making is awesome! It's the only resource I've found on raw cheese. I started a Camembert and my 18 month old climbed up on the table to nibble on it in the drying process, lol, but I will follow up on it soon!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Awesome! I'll check it out! Gotta love our babies!!! Haha
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
We really enjoy eating saurkraut, kimchi, and kombucha but I haven't tried kefir. I am interested to see how fermenting your garden goes and what kind of results you get.
My dad grew up on a farm and he talks about how they used to store their milk in the well. They'd put the jugs in the bucket and lower it into the cool, shaded ground.
Look forward to following you.
-Aimee
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
My grandma had a similar story, they kept milk in cool water in the basement, she said her grandma used to make clabber as well, and they always had meat on the cupboard (I imagine it was salted, curing). Thanks for following!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
We find this all very interesting and hope to also apply some of these these techniques once we get our homestead set up.
It's a shame that most of this knowledge has been forgotten but I feel like it is starting to make a comeback.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I am looking forward to hearing more about this. Fermented food is good for you and doesn't need refrigeration which is a bonus.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Good information. I am not able to watch the podcast but I will look forward to more information after you take your class in February.
Thanks for sharing
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thanks for the vote, I really appreciate it, this Steemit thing is tough when no friends or family are on it! Really have to use your inventive skills to bring interest lol.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Yes it can be tough at the beginning. If you keep at it, things will flourish. Hang in there.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
this is excellent! i look forward to following your journey as you ferment more and more and learn different ways of food preservation without freezing. We ferment a lot in our household as well and I put a lot of food away simply by freezing too. Our freezer runs off solar power so I actually feel pretty secure and good about using the sun's energy, but it is even better, as you say, to have a non electronic way to do it.
I've always wondered this too!:
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thanks for the support, I've enjoyed all of your posts so far as well!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Welcome to steemit! If you are ever looking for a group, actually a community, of homesteaders/gardeners/self-sufficient like-minded people, I am the moderator of a group here... also the "un"official ambassador to the group.
let me know and I can post an invite link here for you!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
That sounds great!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Join Link: https://discord.gg/VKCrWsS
The main chat area is the Front Porch
Welcome!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit