Partial Success with Fermented Pickles

 I have tried a few times to ferment pickles.  While the sauerkraut has always worked, I haven't had any success with fermenting cucumbers (or green beans, which I tried once).  My most recent failed attempt used a five percent brine, at the upper limit suggested on the Make Sauerkraut site. The pickles never took off.  They didn't go bad; they just stayed bright green and crisp and were salty when I tried them.  That was discouraging enough that I shelved further efforts for a year.

I decided to try again and to go to the lower end of the brine range.  I got some mini cucs and loaded them into a quart jar, and added dill and mustard seeds in the same proportions as in making a vinegar batch: two teaspoons of mustard seed and one tablespoon of dill seed.

On day one, the cumbers were obviously fresh.

A day later, things were starting to change. The color was dulling a bit, and bubbles were appearing.  This had never happened before.

After two days, it was obvious fermentation was happening.

I pulled the plug after three full days, because the house was getting warm and three to six days was suggested as the fermentation time on Holly's site.  As it turns out, I pulled the plug too soon.  Fermentation was underway, but they probably could've benefited from another day or two.  The pH was about 4.5.

 

My water is about 6.6 normally, slightly acidic, so this did represent a substantial shift.  I would've liked to see a pH of 3.5-4.0, however.  Next time I'll let them go for a longer time.  Still, this represents a modest success and is welcome.

Driveway Blackberries

 At my new place, I've had nothing but heartache so far with planted blackberry cultivars.  The power company sprayed herbicide on ones I had planted--twice--killing about three dozen in the two episodes. Others I have planted have not thrived.

However, I do have wild ones growing in various places. One such spot is along my driveway.  There's a substantial thicket that is heavily shaded, but does produce some decent-tasting berries (although they're rather small, as wild berries are likely to be).

So far, I seem to mostly have luck with wild berries rather than the ones I have planted.  At my old suburban house, I did have some University of Arkansas cultivars that did well (Ouachita and Navajo; Apache wasn't so good).  I have planted both of those at the new place, but am still waiting on my first harvest.  Back in the suburbs, there were berries along the road (at least until the county came along and mowed them down).

Harvest time is now for these along the driveway; they just started to ripen about a week ago (early-mid June) and are now ripening rapidly.  As these are wild, one can end up punctured and ensnared pretty easily when picking.  Inevitably, some clusters of alluring berries are too far back to reach without bloodletting.  However, there's enough low-hanging or peripheral fruit to provide some satisfaction.

 

Sauerkraut Results, 2021

 As previously discussed, I started some sauerkraut late this spring. My indoor temps fluctuate seasonally, from too cool for optimal fermenting in the winter (mid-60s to upper 50s) to too hot in the summer (upper 70s-low 80s).  Last year's spring batch was done in the month of April and had average temps of about 70 (range, 66-72).  I fermented it for 28 days and it was fine.

This year's batch started off in the 70s for the first week, but temps soon soared as high as 83.  The average was between 75 and 76 over the 25 days that I ran the ferment.    I opened it up and it looked pretty normal.

Once I pulled out the weights and top leaves, I was able to ladle out what ended up being about 1.5 gallons (somewhat more than 5 liters, but it's packed in pretty tightly while fermenting).

It was still pretty crunchy and the flavor's great.  It turned out very well despite the warmer temps. Holly of makesauerkraut.com indicates that the first few days are important for the quality of the finished sauerkraut, and during the first week I never had temps above 75, but most of the time things were in the 68-72 range.  I don't know what species of bacteria I ended up with, but they mixed together pretty successfully.

I won't push my luck and try another batch before fall.

Infestation!

 Last fall I got some bulk wheat.  It can be pretty cheap when bought in 25- or 50-pound bags.  I got a 25-pound bag of red and white (each).  I have been using the red, but hadn't gotten into the white yet.  Sigh.

I put the wheat into some used PETE pretzel barrels, then just put them on the shelf, where they sat untouched for about eight months.

Then today I noticed this:

At first glance, I thought it might be mold, meaning the wheat hadn't been dry when it went into the containers.  But no, as you can see, it's not mold at all.

My apologies for the small, dark, grainy ultra closeup.  My wheat is infested with weevils, who are having a great time in the pretzel barrels.  I had heard about this being a possibility, and various sites warn about it, but I hadn't had it happen with me before.  I have been buying whole berries for years, and they often sit on the shelf for several months before being used up.

I'll obviously have to deal with this.  Oxygen absorbers are recommended for long-term food storage; the removal of oxygen slows the deterioration of the food.  However, dropping O2 levels below one percent for several days also kills eggs and bugs.  I didn't use oxygen absorbers for this wheat, obviously.  Another solution (mentioned by the site linked above) is freezing. The red is fine.  But all three containers of white wheat are... alive.  But not for long.

White Bread

 I don't make it very often, but every once in a while, I bake a loaf using all white flour.  It rises much more than all whole wheat or 50/50.

The process is pretty much the same as for my standard loaves, which are usually 50/50 (or occasionally 100% whole wheat).  The only thing that varies is the amount of water needed to get a workable sponge.  My grain mill grinds the flour somewhat more coarsely than normal, so it does not take as much water.  Ironically, using all white flour means more water is needed, even though it's usually the opposite.  The flour is also somewhat stickier when wet (though not as bad as dough made with rye).

With no fiber, the dough rises aggressively, and the loaf balloons in the oven.

Large gas pockets are visible, but as long as the rise is even, there aren't huge holes in the slices.

This is too decadent and non-nutritive to eat on a routine basis, but every once in a while, it can be nice for a change of pace.

Sauerkraut, 2021

 Last year's kraut turned out okay.  The temps ended up being near-perfect for the whole fermenting time.  There was one three-day period when the temps were 73-75, but otherwise everything stayed 68-72.  After 28 days, I opened the crock and all was well.

This year I'm getting off to a later start.  I didn't have enough storage space in the refrigerator to do a crock last fall, and this year I procrastinated.  So in early May, way too late for Georgia, I'm making kraut.

The basic process is unchanged.  I spent about an hour chopping cabbage, mixing it with salt, and loading it in the crock.

 

This year I decided to try Himalayan pink salt, following Holly's recommendation at makesauerkraut.com.

Often people recommend against table/iodized salt; the anti-caking agents make the brine murky.  As you can see, the pink salt is also pretty cloudy (you can also see that the camera adjusted the white balance quite differently in the two pictures).  We'll see what the final product looks like.  I have always had to add at least some brine; I might generate enough from the cabbage and salt alone but I don't let them sit long enough for that to happen.  Or maybe I just don't stomp and massage it enough.

The loaded crock is now closed up and I'll base the fermentation time on the temps. So far, on day 5, the temperature has held in the 69-72 range, although the first day was a bit warmer. It reached as high as 74.

As I mentioned last year, I can only get 7-8 pounds into my 5-liter crock.  There might be room for a little more, but not if I want to put the weights in (the crock and weights came from Stone Creek Trading--they sell the glass weights separately, as well). 

More on Solid Surface Countertops

 As I noted the first time I discussed solid surface countertops, they scratch relatively easily.  Although the dark countertop I showed in that post was in reasonably good shape, the general guidance to stick to lighter colors seemed reasonably sound.

Fast forward a couple of years and I am accumulating scratches.  It's unavoidable, although one can obviously be careful and minimize the damage.  Even though I have a collection of scratches now--even cleaning the surfaces could cause minor scratching--the countertops still look pretty good unless one is on a scratch hunt.

Casual inspection doesn't really turn up anything.  A careful angled view is needed.  I have friends with a light-colored Corian surface, similar to this, and I asked them if they had any scratches.  They said no.  I looked and they were there, but similar to my picture above, they weren't that easy to spot.  Their counters are about a decade older than mine.

If there ever is substantial damage, it can be buffed out.  There are YouTube videos showing how.  I don't expect that level of wear.