Dave Burton's Boot Adventures at Wheaton Labs and Basecamp

Good afternoon! Worfie went hiking with me!

Day 35



The overnight oats I made with the oats that I had soaked after using them in Haymaker's Oat Water turned out nice! To recap the life the oats have lived through so far, they were in two batches of Haymaker's Oat Water, then they soaked with some coconut oil, coconut milk, APC vinegar, cinnamon, and nutmeg for 48 hours. Then, bananas, sesame seeds, and pumpkin seeds were added to them along with more coconut milk and coconut oil. At that point, they were "warmed" in a slow cooker for at least 8 hours. These overnight oats have a pleasantly sweet and sour kind of flavor to them, and they're deliciously sticky!



I spotted the gray cat today! I managed to get a couple photos of it!



I'm making a variation on the Yellow Peaso recipe by going for what's a little a more of "we're working with what we've got here!" kind of spin! Koji probably isn't just sitting around just waiting to be used, and I'm not too interested in spending money to get some spores. So, I looked up how to make miso without koji. From what I found online about Miso-dama, The Natural Art of Fermenting Miso without Koji Malt, and The Fungus at the Heart of Japanese Fermentation and Cuisine, it seems to me like miso follows a similar general pattern as dosa- mix some kind of legume (e.g. beans, lentils) with some kind of starch (e.g. rice, barley). So, I'm taking the adventurous and experimental route to do it differently! Since I don't have rice or barley that's been cooked, sprinkled with wood ash, and sat around collecting spores and cultivating fungi, I'm going to use the starch I do have that's been sitting around and collecting spores- fermented bread!

I boiled the soaked spli green peas, and I am waiting for them to cool off before I make my next move!



The next step in my "working with what we've got!" version of peaso, I will be adding in leftover bread and pounding it it all together. I'm doing a weird synthesis of my own of many schools of thought- Noma fermentation style, traditional Koji-dama style, and Wild fermentation!



After working the bread into the cooled off peas mixture, I added a little bit of APC vinegar and sea salt. Then, I packed a quarter of the mix into two jars (one to ferment a month, another for one year). I covered the tops with sea salt and then a tight cheesecloth. For the other half of the mixture, I worked it into balls and split those roughly into half, so that one can ferment a month and another for one year. This way I can find out some of the differences between the traditional method of miso-dama and the way that the Noma guide recommends. I'm not really following either method exactly, but I'll still learn something!



I also cooked up some fermented sweet potato cookie blobs and idli in the oven! And some more sweet potato soda was ready, so I strained that. Needing a break from the kitchen, as much fun as I am having, I will have to get to making sweet potato pickles (out of the sweet potatoes used in the soda) at a later date.

Good morning! I'm enjoying the nice twilight of the morning!

Day 36





I think the blues in the sky of early morning are quite beautiful!



We spent today putting the excavator track back on the excavator. We had to do a lot of levering, pushing, finangling, a little tractor time, and more levering. I've learned that the excavator travels better when the plane that the two tracks exist in is level between the tracks.





We got the track back on! We still need to add grease back in to get rid of the slack.



I loved the misty mountains that we had this morning!





I coated the peaso balls with sea salt, because I think that would work well for making sure the fungi I want to grow for the fermentation survives and the other fungi and bacteria don't.



I started soaking Sona Masoori rice and Urad Gota lentils for the next batches of dosas or idli. I'm going to soak them for three days, then process and combine them. The combined mixture of rice and lentils will ferment for four days before they get cooked into dosas or idli.





Then, with the sweet potato slices that had been fermenting to make sweet potato soda, I turned those into sweet potato pickles by adding sea salt, APC vinegar, and red pepper flakes. I sealed the lid very tight, and I'm going to let them go for at least a week, maybe a month. It'll be however long I can let them go without a weight, since I couldn't find anything of the right size to fit in there.

I'm really enjoying this hands-on experience with the fermentation adventures.  I'll be reading this thread over again in the future and doing further research to get up to your 'speed'  (got too many irons in the fire right now to do it justice.)   Thanks!

Good morning, Nancy! Thank you! I'm enjoying making and eating the ferments I'm doing, and I'm glad you're enjoying me sharing them! Here's a look at some of the ferments I have going on right now!

Day 37



Soaking rice and lentils to make dosas or idli!



Fermented bean pastes, which we'll be trying tonight at Taco Tuesday!



Latin American Sauerkraut, pickled sweet potatos, and peaso! Other ferments I have going right now are fermented watermelon rinds and lacto-fermented tomato water!



I think we had another awesomely misty morning!



We fired up the rocket cooktop on Allerton Abbey today! In this picture, the way I'm starting the fire is by doing bottom-lit loading, which entails putting finer thin paper on the bottom, gradually thicker paper on top of that, then, kindling of increasing size, and then sticks of wood of increasing size. I was informed that an important aspect to make sure this works is to alternate stacking in different directions to ensure that there is air between everything- that way the wood burns. I learned that fire needs fuel, air, and heat, and I learned too much or too little of these can put out a fire.



Lots of fire pictures! Ooh! Aah!



The beast is glowing! mwahahaha!



I think being able to watch the fire through multiple glass parts on the rocket cooktop is great! I think it's pretty to watch the fire going!





I also took some videos of different views of the fire in the rocket cooktop!



Fire!!! I think this is quite pretty!



More fire!





We also made cob and applied it to one of the cob floors in Allerton Abbey. We're now working on applying the one-inch layer of cob to the two older floors. The most recent cob floor is still not dry enough for the next layer. We have to wait for each layer to be completely dry before the next layer can be applied.





The raw linseed oil and dirt floor was getting repaired from the critter bites in the finish layer.



And Jen leveled the cob between the steps.



At Taco Tuesday, I tried my fermented bean paste that I made, and I think it turned out delicious! It has a nice sour flavor with beans, garlic, and onions to it.

Good morning! I made another pot of slow cook soup this morning- beets, carrots, celery, potatoes, fennel, corn, hot peppers, and a bunch of different spices! Also I put in mushrooms!

Day 38







We had another gloriously misty morning!





We lit the rocket cooktop again today!





We picked up the Building a Better World in Your Backyard book!



A couple of the boxes were damaged when we found them at the pick-up location.



We loaded them up onto the trailer and got them back to Basecamp for the upcoming book signing party!



I think Allerton Abbey is coming along nicely as we're working on it!





And the soup I made turned out delicious!



I made a spicier version of Mint Chutney with lots of hot peppers, garlic, onions, and apples. I used lots of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and pumpkin seeds. I used the last of the apple chutney as a starter for this mint chutney.

Good morning! I think we’re having another lovely foggy morning!

Day 39









Some of the nice fog at Allerton Abbey! The mornings start off a little nippy, but they get pretty warm in the afternoon and evening, so I'm still rocking out shorts and a t-shirt!



The sun shining through the back door of Allerton Abbey!



We made a lot more cob for the second layer (one-inch layer) of cob for the first and second cob floors, which are dry enough for their next layer. Making cob is a slow process, but it does make a nice pretty building material that's fairly easy to work with.



The second cob floor got its one-inch layer of cob completed! All it needs left is its finish layer of cob!



The first cob floor also got its one-inch layer of cob completed, too!



The raw linseed oil and dirt floor is drying more. You can kind of see dry patches on the floor now.



We fired up the rocket cooktop some more, and I really enjoy how beautiful the fire is to watch!





And you can see the fire's movement through the double-shoe box design!





I find watching the rocket cooktop to be awesome!





Seeing the fire crackling behind the casserole lid!





And watching the fountain of fire!





Some pretty flowers by The Library!



And the pollinators really enjoy the ice plants (Crassulaceae Sedum spectabile) on the hugelkultur berms around the Fischer Price House.



I processed the lentils and rice into dosa batter.





And I made a mix of chili beans, black beans, and pinto beans to soak for four days, then get cooked in a slow cooker, and then turned into fermented bean paste.