Settling down....

Wow...I can't believe it has been since OCTOBER that I have posted here!

I am not under a rock.

And it is not quiet here at all. I have been brewing & mixing for weeks, as the first wave of the flu hit our circle. Both of my kids caught it, and I was brewing elderberry syrup like a mad woman! Thankfully, it kept me healthy, made it through with just a little fatigue. Making your own syrup is simple, economic, and you can adjust it to taste. I add lots of cloves, cinnamon, ginger...:)..and nutmeg. Raw honey. I mix it with bubbly water and make "soda" for the kids, pour it on pancakes, ice-cream, etc.

Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOYzWyFGkqM for a video tutorial.

With that thwarted, I am clearing, once again :). In time to welcome the Winter Solstice and 2012.

After a tremendous chicken trauma, we now have an Orpington (not a Leghorn), and a Silver Laced Wyandotte chicken. I say CHICKEN, because we are sure if both of our chickens are hens....Your guesses are most welcome! :) Go ahead, wager...



They are quite funny little creatures, and I keep manifesting "GIRL!!", as I would have to part with either or both. They kinda grow on you......They still live with us in the house in a kennel at night. My country life....

The garden is fairly dead. I planted a few winter veggies, that promptly got devoured by snails, and the chickens. Then the dog proceeded to "warm" them...and most of it is dead. Just spread some cover crop, and am browsing seed catalogs :).

Hope everyone is staying safe & warm.
Much love,
Heike

Enjoying our first batch of brew!

Yesterday was the day!

We got to "tap" our first batch of ginger soda! After waiting 2 weeks for it to bubble and brew, we were anxious to taste our homemade concoction. Especially my son, who babied and fed his Ginger Bug vehemently for 7 days; hard commitment for THIS 8 year old boy!

I was a little apprehensive, as our ale looked quite flat sitting on the shelf. Don't let that quiet look fool you!

I unscrewed the top just a tad....WHOOOOOOOOSHHHHH!

Olala!

There was some serious carbonation happening in that bottle! It took about 10 minutes of slow release until we could finally get our lips on our brew.

YUMMY! Need I say more?

We have been experimenting with our water kefir brews also. My favorite sofar: plain with some lemon. My kid's favorite sofar: Vanilla Cream (just add some vanilla :)...), and lemon with cinnamon chips (like that one too!).

Happy brewing!

Braumeister....addicted to brew.

I was recently introduced to home-made Ginger Ale by Ayla at ChrysalisWoman. Not only did it taste yummy, I was intrigued at the process of making it. Now, I am not usually one to jump on the opportunity of "feeding", "turning", "culturing", "watering", anything on a daily or consistant basis....it scares me.

I thought starting a Ginger Bug would be a great summer experiment for my son. I was right, he is quite the little Braumeister (Brewmaster), and is responsible for feeding the bug daily. After 7 days of feeding the ginger bug every day, we finally had the frothy base we needed to brew our ale and bottle it. We added some Sarsaparilla to the syrup to give it a little extra taste. Now we need to let it ferment for at least 2 weeks....

We took a little of our Ginger Bug and started a new one. Now the process won't take so long, and we will continously brew. What a great alternative to soda! If you google "Ginger Bug", or "Ginger Soda", you will come up with a plethora of brewing tips & recipes!

I ordered some water kefir grains (the growing of beneficial bacteria...mmm....).The water kefir...yum. The initial batch came dehydrated, so it takes a few days to get started. After that, you can continuously reuse your grains. We added some lemon and had a tingly lemonade. I did start the newest batch with sucanat, which is dried cane sugar, instead of organic sugar. The sucanat has a molasses flavor, and is supposed to help the grains multiply. Waiting to see what the difference will be in taste.

I also tried my hands at joghurt to try to replicate the joghurt I love so much from Germany. Sofar, I have killed both batches. It is a bit fickle, as it needs warmth to start to culture. The first time I left it too close to the oven when baking bread (instant curdle), and the second time the house got to warm. We don't use the AC unless it is close to 100, so I will have to find a way to do this now that the days are getting hotter.

Great place to explore and order cultures is culturesforhealth.com.