Well would I ever!




You guys know that I don’t often take on sponsors (for all kinds of reasons), but a love of mason jars + all things preserving? Well yeah, that’s something I can whole-heartedly get behind! Can-It-Forward Day is all about celebrating the bounty of the season, and it’s happening tomorrow, this Friday July 22nd. There will be Facebook Live demos and Twitter parties and tons of info, so tune in here for more on that!




In honor of the project, I received a copy of The All New Ball Book Of Canning & Preserving. So of course, I immediately flipped to the section on fermented foods! As you guys know, I’m an avid lover of all things cultured, and I was eager to see what sort of exciting new ideas this book had to offer. There’s an easily-veganizable Worcestershire sauce that caught my eye, and a fermented Harissa hot sauce that looks absolutely amazing. But then! Serendipity! I came across a recipe for a Ginger Bug.

I’ve been dying to try my hand at making my own Ginger Bug ever since I saw Bianca from Vegan Crunk do a demo last year at Vida Vegan Con. So when I saw the recipe here, I knew I had to try it!




Ingredients:
1/3 cup sugar (organic is best), divided
1/3 cup grated unpeeled fresh organic ginger **use only organic ginger in this recipe! non-organic ginger has been irradiated and does not carry the natural yeasts and bacteria essential for fermentation
3 1/2 cups non-chlorinated water or spring water

Instructions:
You’ll need a 1-qt canning jar, measuring spoons, a small grater or microplane, and cheesecloth or a coffee filter.

Combine 2 yablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of grated ginger in the 1-qt canning jar, and then cover with the 3 1/2 cups of water. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Cover the jar with the cheesecloth or coffee filter, secured with a rubber band, and set aside in a cool place out of direct sunlight.





Each day for the next three days, add 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon ginger, stirring and then re-covering with the cheesecloth.

On the fourth day, remove the cheesecloth and loosely apply the canning jar lid. Each day for the next four days, add 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon ginger, stirring and then re-covering with the lid. The mixture will become very bubbly, at which point you can transfer it to the refrigerator for storage.




Lots of ginger at the bottom of the jar, and a cloudiness to the liquid, by the end of the process.

Use your Ginger Bug within 2 weeks of transferring it to the fridge. Or, you can re-activate it to keep it growing by bringing it back to room temperature and continuing to feed it for a few days as described above. Like a sourdough starter, you should be able to keep your Ginger Bug alive indefinitely this way.

You can use your Ginger Bug to make all manner of home-fermented sodas and herbal brews. Its got all the probiotic goodness of other cultured foods, and it’s absolutely delicious.

But as for Jeremy and I? Well . . . we made cocktails of course! Because that’s what you do when barware is your business.





Moscow Mules with Ginger Bug soda, hibiscus-infused agave, and homegrown mint. Garnished with my beautiful Bachelor Buttons which are growing like mad all over my yard (and they’re edible, too!).

Don’t forget, tomorrow, Friday July 22, is international Can-It-Forward Day! You can sign up and get tons of info on the Pledge Page. Also, tune in to the Facebook page for Facebook Live demos all day long, or check out the Twitter party and ask any and all canning questions throughout the day on the @BallCanning Twitter handle, by using the hashtag #canitforward.

Hope to see you there!

♥

That’s rare.

More often things progress very slowly, churning around in the back of my mind, little pieces falling into place. I’ll take a photo that I know will work in the final blog post, even though that post, and the associated project, won’t actually happen for years to come. Or I’ll pick up a prop/tool/tchotchke at the thrift shop, knowing it will fit in . . . later. I mean, sometimes it’s literally years! (This extended timeline becomes problematic with product reviews, which is part of the reason I do so few of them, but that’s a discussion for another day.) I’d guess at any given time I probably have 15-25 potential projects cooking on a burner in the back of my brain.




Anyway, that’s just a little insight into my creative process, and has nothing to do with this particular post. This post is about salsa! And more specifically, lacto-fermented salsa that is brimming with happy healthy beasties! Fermenting the salsa adds beneficial probiotic bacteria, increased nutrients, a longer lifespan, and of course, that delightful salty tang.

Last week I found myself facing an abundance of late season tomatoes, and since I was leaving town for 10 days, I had to find a way to use them up – and quickly. And thus, after many years of plotting and planning, a fermented salsa recipe finally came to life in my little kitchen.

Here’s what you’ll need if you want to have a go at it in yours:

** A note – all of these measurements are approximations, and can be modified to suit your taste or depending on your access to produce. The only thing you’ll need to keep constant is the salt, because otherwise it won’t ferment and you’ll end up with a big ‘ol bowl of rotten tomatoes. And of course it follows, if you add a bunch of additional ingredients without subtracting anything, you’ll need to up the salt to compensate. Make sense?


Ingredients
2-3 pounds tomatoes, any type – chopped
1 medium white or yellow onion – diced
2-4 cloves of garlic – crushed or minced
1-3 jalapeños (depending on how spicy you like it) – minced
small bunch cilantro – chopped
2 tablespoons raw unfiltered unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sea salt





Place all the ingredients in a big bowl. Toss everything to mix it up thoroughly.

Portion the salsa into clean canning jars or glass containers. Make sure there is enough liquid to cover the top of the solid salsa (just use your fingertips to pack it down if you need), then cover with a lid and set the jars out for 48(ish) hours.




As it ferments you may see a little foam forming on top – this is totally normal. After 48 hours, screw on the caps and transfer the jars to the fridge.

You’re done! Your salsa will last many months in the fridge, but you probably won’t need that long. This stuff is delicious!

♥ ♥ ♥

This event was pure pleasure. Just absolute and abundant happy. We spent our entire day there, close to 5 hours, drinking in every last celebratory drop. There were farmers and hippies and families and bohemians and artisans and Average Joes, all coming together to celebrate the ancient art of culturing food. It was more than I expected, much much more, and now I can’t wait for next year’s event! Here’s how our day of good ol’ simple farm-style fun unfolded:

♥ ♥ ♥

Which is new for me! I had always wanted to brew my own red wine vinegar at home (you all know how I do so love my DIY ferments), but, well, wine was something that was always scarce and sacred ’round these parts! So when Jeremy came into my life, and I found myself swimming in more wine than I could possibly ever put to use, I knew the time had finally come. Vinegar time!




I am delighted to report that making red wine vinegar at home is just about as easy as it gets. And the results? Oh my goodness, this vinegar! I’ve been using it daily on my salads, and it’s the best red wine vinegar I’ve ever had – pungent and robust, yet silky smooth and surprisingly refined.

Red wine vinegar has always been my favorite salad vinegar, but it’s also excellent in marinades, sauces, pickled dishes, and even some desserts! And like I said, it’s just a snap to make at home.

It does require a bit of upfront investment, but the payoff is huge (and perpetual – you can continue brewing ad infinitum). To start, you’ll need to purchase a mother of vinegar, which is sort of like a kombucha SCOBY but obviously, you know, for vinegar.

You’ll also need a goodly portion of wine, somewhere between a half gallon and a gallon. The better quality wine you use, the better your vinegar will be. But you don’t have to use all of the same kind! Feel free to mix and match. We used exclusively Pinot Noir because, well because we could so why not? But most commercial red wine vinegars draw from a variety of grapes. My suggestion is to wait until you have a party or an event or something – something that will leave you with a few opened, partially-full bottles. Maybe a work function, or a dinner party. Or, worse comes to worst, you can save your own leftovers in the fridge for a couple of months, until you’ve accumulated enough. That would work too.




To make your vinegar, dump all of your wine (about 1/2 – 3/4 gallons) into a clean glass jar (I use 1-gallon jars that I bought for a song when my neighborhood bulk herb shop went under (so sad, long live Limbo!), but you can find the exact same thing here).

Add 1/4 – 3/4 cup filtered water. These measurements are imprecise, and that’s sort of the point. It’s not baking. It’s okay to be loosey goosey with the amounts, I promise! Just make sure that everything is clean, and you’ll be fine.

Add the mother of vinegar. Cover the opening with a rag or cheesecloth, held in place by a rubber band. Store out of direct sunlight, in a warm (not hot) dry place. I like to keep my ferments on top of my refrigerator, shaded behind the plants.




We began tasting our vinegar at around 5 weeks. The full conversion might take a few months, and yes, the more age on the vinegar, the better it will taste. But we couldn’t wait!

After 5 weeks, our homemade red wine vinegar was already delicious.




When the taste of the vinegar is to your liking, filter it through a sieve (to catch the mother threads) and into storage bottles. I keep one bottle in the pantry and the rest in the fridge (refrigeration is not required). Remember to leave a few inches in the bottom of the gallon jar!

Now, you can just continue to add all your leftover wines as you collect them. A few dregs here, a forgotten half bottle there. As you add to the culture, remember to include a splash of water every now and again. The mother will continue to convert the wine into vinegar, and you’ll be able to draw off of it forevermore. As long as you keep adding wine, you’ll keep getting vinegar.




So what do you think? Is homemade red wine vinegar in your future? Also, I’d love to hear from anyone who’s already done this!

Next up in my fermentation laboratory: apple cider vinegar! I’ll make sure to report back as soon as I get some results . . .

Cheers!
♥