Rio Rose

Hi Kate! Cheese and now sourdough, hooray and thank you!

I've been doing the sourdough bread dance every week for several years now, but still have much to learn. My goal was always to be able to bake like my ancestors, without a scale, without analyzing hydration, just by my hands in the dough. But first I had to learn the  basics. I delved deep into recipes and forums and measured every last particle to the gram like the experts said you must. For years. Technical and intimidating, both.

Once I started getting comfortable with that process, I wanted whole grain that I milled at home, not the shelf-stable stuff on grocery shelves. Fresh-milled flours perform quite differently, and 100% whole grain is harder to make lofty. My loaves went from wondrous to wonky.

Every layer of this process that I uncover, there is another beneath. I am only just getting to a place where I can make a delicious intuitive whole grain bread (no measuring of flour, starter, water or salt). Though I have yet to make a whole grain loaf that rises to the heavens like that sifted shelf stuff.

Still - years later, the number one hardest thing is the timing of it all, and fitting that into a life chock full of other demands. Now that I'm using fresh-milled flours, I am soaking them anywhere from 4-12 hours prior to adding starter. It makes a difference, but is an added time constraint that takes my bakes to three days of process.
Even without the soaking, it's a long haul, the timing of which is dictated by your wee sour-inducing beasties, not you.

How then, to not be held hostage by your bread baking schedule? My dream sourdough baking book would contain tips and tricks for just that.

As an example - and this is something I've never read in any book or forum, but I recently learned (out of necessity, as midnight came and went) it's possible to retard (refrigerate) your dough during bulk ferment instead of the traditional final proof, if your life blows up and you can't keep waiting on it. The bread that emerged from this reverse process, was excellent. That was a freeing lesson!

In hindsight I think it is so much more important to have a good understanding of the science and why bakers do all those technical moves, the secret lives of yeast and bacteria. That good understanding will allow us novice bakers to pivot, explore, make it more of a creative process than simply following another’s route.

You’ve nailed all my issues - the perfection and analysis paralysis is real too. But I’d tell my early baking self that sourdough is like the rest of life, you can’t let fear of messing up stop you. And I would never have believed this in the beginning, but I’ve eaten every single one of my failed lumpy brick-like loaves, and loved them. Eat your failure! You might be surprised at how delicious it is. It’s fun, too. I look forward to reading your work!

Family heirloom vinegar mother, how cool is that! Mine is nowhere near so venerable, but perhaps my experience will help you. I've been keeping a homemade crabapple vinegar for some time with mother on top - it is exquisite. Or rather, it was...

The last time I removed some to use, I found it seemed almost bland, or watery.  It was enough of a change that I did not use it and relegated it to the back of my mind and pantry. Then, while listening to a podcast featuring fermentation teacher Sandor Katz, he speaks about vinegar losing acidity when exposed to oxygen. In an open vessel, once the alcohol is gone (leaving vinegar) the acetobacter will consume the acetic acid it has just produced and the product will be degraded.

He recommends keeping your fermentation vessel full with minimal oxygen at all times, instead of taking some off the top to use as you need it. When you want vinegar you decant and fill smaller jars (preferably the sort with narrow necks, to the rim), keep those sealed until needed, and refresh your main fermentation vessel back to full. If there is visible air gap in your crock at times, this might be the issue.

Good luck, may your lovely mother live long and nourish future generations!

Regarding Cast Iron: I recently purchased a Tetsubin cast iron tea pot to live on my wood stove, where it has been performing admirably for the better part of a month. My only critique thus far is that rust spots are starting to appear in the spout (above the normal water line), and tea left overnight develops some unsightly blotches on top, almost reminiscent of oil. My old tea pot (stainless steel) I could leave tea in overnight with no problem, and refresh the next day. Supposedly this type of teapot adds beneficial amounts of iron back into your beverage, but if that's what is going on, I am not inspired to drink a liquid with unidentified blotches on it.  The manufacturers recommend to dry it out thoroughly after each use, but it can be hard for me to remember to empty and dry the tea pot at night - this time of year, sleep descends with the ferocity of a hammer not all that long past dark, and usually with teacup at hand. It was expensive and I'm sticking with it for now, but the rust issue seems a fatal flaw whose only workaround is extra care on the tea maker's part. Those copper pots are beautiful!

If I could have one instant gratification upgrade to my life today, it would be about food: every now and again, I would love someone to prepare me delicious food I can feel good about, and do the dishes after.

Once upon a time, that wish was easily granted - in restaurant form. All one needed was money, the options were endless. But for me at least, things have changed.

The problem with taking charge of my own health and diet for years now, is that I have changed my biome. Even if my taste buds were fooled into thinking this food is acceptable, my body is not. Every restaurant experience for the last six plus years has ended with me feeling queasy and generally unwell. It is salt in the wound that I paid money for the experience.

I live in a remote place where food service options are limited and far from my preferences, which compounds the issue further. I recently traveled to see family, and in more urban environs was able to indulge my food fantasies. Farm to table - clean - ethical - sustainable eateries DO still exist. But at $52 for a single plate of braised short-rib and $38 for a pasta dish with heirloom vegetables, well - that pushes it back into fantasy realm for me. I even spied a single steak valued at $350 - an animal that had been honored from inception, apparently.

So much for instant gratification in the food realm. I’m about to braise the venison neck of a buck I hunted alone last year in the mountains near my home and processed myself - he’s been marinating in wild Oregon Grape wine and spices for several days - also harvested and processed myself - served over vegetables I’ve grown with sourdough I've baked of local home-milled flour. Months of effort for a single dish prepared over days. Price tag:  impossible to calculate.

Whatever the opposite of instant gratification is - that is the life I’ve chosen. Most days, I view it as a privilege. But oh how I wish the rest of the world thought clean food was as important as I do. It would not be so hard for us to be well fed and healthy. Food shops and restaurants everywhere would be places of nourishment, instead of experiences which leave us depleted. And farmers would be revered - Heroes of Legend. A girl can dream.

I put the heads of deer I harvest for food each year in my raised beds.  I have done this with three thus far, over three years. I wrap the antlers in aluminum foil to preserve them from rodent teeth, make sure they have a good 12 inches of earth on top, then plant annuals (lettuces, brassicas, etc). The beds always seem to do great - at the least, they do not noticeably suffer.  I’ve never had an issue with canines or others digging them up, and took no extra care beyond the placement in tall-ish (four feet off the ground) raised beds. I suspect I’ve simply been lucky in that regard - as we do have skunks, raccoons, coyotes, bears and a dog with a penchant for stinky things. The following year during spring prep I dig them up, and they are cleaned up and ready for their next purpose. So far it works a treat, and I think of those greens as real 'brain' food. Happy Halloween! 🎃
Edited to add - I leave them in the beds for a full year's cycle before digging back up

I have read/seen the same consumption warning regarding Stropharia Rugosa (wine caps), that they can cause gastro issues if consumed multiple days in a row, and I understood it to apply to that species in particular (not all mushrooms in general).  

I don't particularly love the green bean flavor of wine caps, so I have not tested the warning associated with them.  I can tell you that all mushrooms, regardless of species, will at some point fruit in prolific quantities, and those of us who hunt them will end up with masses and masses delicious edible fungi that we absolutely do eat for days on end, with no ill effect.  I have consumed chanterelles, porcini, morels, honeys, lion's mane, and so many more until 'they are coming out our ears', as my husband likes to say, and feel only nourished.

I would also say that everyone is different - when it comes to mushrooms and species that are new to you, go easy at first, until you know if they are friend or foe to your particular gastro setup. Good luck in your myco-adventures!

ris steele wrote:
the funny thing is i feel like i've developed a romantic (for lack of a better word) relationship with the forest.  i feel more tree or wind than human some days.

I would hesitate at calling my relationship with the wilds and my own physical world romantic, but the feeling is the same for me as with relationships I have with humans, completely.

There is a give and take, there is communication, there are moods. There is support that is asked for, offered, given and even at times, withheld. We are none of us alone in this journey of being alive, and everything is connected. For me it is a profound source of comfort and communion, to recognize the same spark of spirit in all things.

That said, there is great power too in beings of the same species coming together. I came to my relationship with the land because I am alone there more often than not (alone as in the singular human in the landscape), but I also have a loving and supportive human partner with whom I share the large and small wonders of this life. It is beyond precious.

Would it be enough, I wonder, to live and love only the land? To substitute entirely human connection for the velvet caresses and banshee screams of the wind? Perhaps, and perhaps not.  I do not wish to know, anytime soon.  May we all find sustaining connection, in whatever form. ❤️

I am a self-taught solo hunter, (huntress, more accurately). I started at 39, and my only motivation was to feed myself and my family, to take responsibility for my place in the food chain. I scoured books and the internet, I talked to anyone who would engage, and I wandered the woods with shotgun and rifle. I made every mistake in the book and came up with a few new ones. If survival were truly at stake, I would have starved long ago.

I am 45 now, and while far from a veteran, I am no longer a novice. I have learned valuable skills and am feeding my family with far more wild meat than domestic. If anything, hunting for my own food has increased my respect and love for all earth’s creatures. My consumption is far less wasteful than it once was, when my meat was sourced in plastic packages under artificial lights. I go to great pains to use the entire animal, and to feast and celebrate when I do. It is a truly humbling and empowering journey, both at once.

Best thing I've found to do with Elderberry to retain medicinal value and negate potential toxicity - by far - has been fermenting the berries by themselves in raw local honey. No water added, no crushing or heat processing. Just cover the berries in honey, and let time and wild yeast work their magic. The resulting liquid is like a sparkly and slightly runny syrup, and is lovely. It keeps for a long time in the fridge.

Emily - My own two cents: the color difference in your elderberries (provided you are confident in your ID) is normal and nothing to be concerned about. Though I don't tincture elderberry, elderberries in my experience don't ripen uniformly, and alcohol will show that up over time. It can be quite a trick to get all perfectly ripe berries into your basket - especially given how beloved they are to the birds, once truly ripe.  

In fact, I frequently find both flowers and berries in various stages of ripeness on a single tree. I read somewhere that they have evolved the staggered fruiting trait because they are so sought after by winged ones. If a hungry flock strips all the ripe berries from a tree, they still have a shot at producing viable seed with the ones still in process.

One tip is to look at the stems where they attach to the berries: dark stems and you are in the realm of ripe. Green stems - even with purple berries - and you've still got a bit to go. Either way, a few almost-but-not-quite ripe berries, won't spoil the batch.

Do you have details on the amount of sugar per volume of water, and the length of the fermentation?

Sure! So for sugar amount, I go by taste. For my preferences (I don't love super sweet drinks) I want it to be just a tad sweeter than the desired outcome, as some of the sugars are consumed during the fermentation process. Experiment and you'll get your sweet spot. 😊

Length of fermentation: depends on the ambient temp of the space you've got them in, as well as the wild yeast content of ingredients: the warmer your kitchen, the faster the ferment. Generally for me it takes between 2-5 days to get things fizzy and active. The more you stir also (airflow), the quicker things get going. I use a glass gallon jug open on top with a tea towel or paper towel secured with a rubber band, to keep unwanted things out.

One last tip: Once you start doing these regularly, you can save a bit of the last batch (if you liked the flavor) in the fridge and add it as a starter to your next batch. That will get things going even more reliably. A generous splash (tablespoon or so) is all that's needed. I keep an elderberry and raw honey ferment in the fridge for that purpose, that works great, and doubles as an immunity booster.