My "Other" Art Form: Fermentation!

The past three days have been "kitchen" days.  When the harvest is ripe, the time to put up the produce is "now"!  And, in spite of the drought and the nasty hail storm we had three weeks ago,
we still had a few bruised apples to harvest and process in some fashion.  The photo on the top is a sampling of all I/we got done this past week.  The rest is in the pantry.  When the fermentation is complete, in a few days, all the ferments will be stored in the extra 'frig. They'll look just like they do now:  fresh-picked and colorful and chock-full of enhanced nutrients and pro-biotics. And Delicious!

From left to right in the back row:  Fermented Kim Chi, fermented Fruit Kim Chi, Vegeroncini, fermented apple sauce and fermented pineapple (the rest went into the Fruit Kim Chi).  The next row is Apple Jelly, Apple Butter, and made earlier in the season, Blackberry and Peach Jam.
In front is a loaf of long-rise San Francisco Sour Dough bread made from Einkorn flour.
The bottom picture is a 1/2 liter of beautiful, golden Ghee made from 2 lbs of Kerry Gold Butter!

Why ferment?  It's an ancient way of preserving just about anything and everything.  Our ancestors didn't have our "modern" methods of preserving foods, so they dried, salted and fermented whatever wouldn't keep more than a day or so.  And especially during harvest times, whether it be grains, fruits, vegetables or meat of just about any kind.    Fermentation not only preserves enzymes,  it enhances the nutrient value, too. It's actually even better for you than eating the product fresh.  Not to mention the friendly bacteria that cause the fermentation in the first place enhance and aid digestion, and colonize our guts with ba-zillions of life-giving little critters that virtually effect every  function in our body.  Especially our immune system.  Some docs say, "your immune system begins in your gut".   We try and eat a fermented product with every meal, and sometimes we eat entire meals composed of fermented foods, like a "peasant lunch" of lactic-acid fermented sausage, cheese, a pickle, some sourdough bread and a refreshing glass of kombucha, (which is fermented tea). 

Here's a list of the fermented foods we eat or drink on a daily basis. Most of them we make ourselves.
 I'll bet you're eating some and didn't even know it!
Coffee, dried black  tea, chocolate, wine, kombucha, kefir and water kefir, yogurt, sourdough bread, greek yogurt/sourcream, dill pickles, pickled beets, jalapenos, kim chi, sourkraut, fruit kim chi, fermented peaches, blackberries, pineapple, applesauce, vegeroncini, lactic-acid summer sausage, cheddar cheese.  I'm sure I've left out something, but you get the idea.  The coffee,  dried tea and chocolate no longer contain active bacteria, but they are produced by a fermentation process, nonetheless.  Beer is, too, but now it is pasteurized and no longer as good for you as in times past. Same with wine. 

I'll write another blog about my process for making my Einkorn Sourdough another time, along with the beautiful and delicious butter Ghee.  My mouth is watering for some right now!