Purple-black berries of the Elderberry, Sambucus nigra

When the kids were young I discovered that the Elderberry was one of the best immune boosts for their discerning taste buds.  Many products can be found on the natural foods store shelves under variations of the name Sambucus–which is the latin name for the bush, Elderberry. We tried a few and I could see that the costs would begin to make this habit a bit prohibitive.

I ordered some bulk dried Elderberry berries (flowers are available too for teas) which goes by the latin name of Sambucus nigra, and began making one of the two recipes that I will share with you.

As winter let us know it was on the way, with more time indoors and energy used up to stay warm, and of course, more kids showing up at school with sniffles, I would begin the boys on a round of Elderberry syrup that would last two weeks or so, til the bottle was used up, or we just plain forgot because we had had enough!

Elderberry berries have been used for just about forever because they do benefit the immune system by way of the phytonutrient that makes the berries a dark purple-black color: anthocyanins.  In fact, a good bit of research in Germany is demonstrating that “purple anthocyanins found in elderberries possess approximately three times the antioxidant capacity of carotenoids. Per gram, purple elderberry anthocyanins exhibit more protective antioxidant activity than beta carotene, vitamin C or vitamin E.”  This means high antioxidants for you and me, and good for stress relief, cell protection, heart protection, and immune support. http://www.medicinehunter.com/elderberry2.htm

Check this recent abstract from the journal Phytochemistry regarding H1N1: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/content/elderberry-flavonoids-bind-and-prevent-h1n1-infection-vitro.

Is that enough to get you interested?

Elderberry Syrup–great for young ones and those who prefer a little sweetness….”a little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down”

Get some berries from a reputable source.  Find the source closest to home!  On the sidebar is a great supplier of herbs, Mountain Rose Herbs.

Herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs

Regarding quantities, I am not married to recipes, but will give you guidelines. There’s more freedom and power in learning how to put this all together for yourself!

Our goal is to make a strong infusion. Infusions are like tea, but way, way, beyond tea. This is how I do it:

Recipe 1, Simple Elderberry Syrup

Using a quart mason jar, Add about 1 full cup of dried elderberries.  Adjust quantity  of berries so that the jar is 1/4 full. Add boiling water to the berries and completely fill the jar.  Put a lid on and screw on the band.  Let brew, steep etc… for at least 8 hours! May as well make it overnight, at which time it will be cool.

Elderberry, Echinacea & Reishi ready for boiling water

Strain berries, press out as much of the dark juice as you can.  I often pour another two cups of boiling water on the berries to make another, weaker infusion, to drink later.

Pour the dark juice into a saucepan.  Get a chopstick, popsicle stick, or other slightly absorbent “measuring device.”  We simply want to know how deep is the juice in the pan, and we want to boil to down to half.  By dipping a stick straight into the juice, a mark will be left. You can measure over the course of boiling with the same, unrinsed stick, and see when half of the juice is left.

Let the mixture cool until around 100 degrees F., and then add honey, up to a cup! If you are using raw honey and want to preserve the enzymes, pay close attention to you temperature. Just let the honey melt at low temperature while stirring.  Don’t exceed 110 degrees just to be keep that honey “raw” (hive top temperature is about 118 degrees I’ve heard).

If one cup of honey sounds like a lot, start with half a cup.  The sugar is actually going to help preserve the syrup, but here’s a few options.

Limit the sugar, add 1/4 cup peach schnapps, brandy, or vodka to assist in preservation.

Or, Limit the sugar, avoid  the alcohol, and add two cloves to the boiling juice (high antioxidants also) and store in the fridge, and plan on using up the syrup in the next two weeks. Make smaller quantities.

Elderberry as a strong tea/juice

Recipe 2: Elderberry with Reishi & Echinacea

Follow the above method, but use a about 3/4 cup elderberries, 1/4 cup dried Echinacea root ( I prefer Echinacea angustifolia), and 10-15 slices of dried reishi.  Give a really good squeeze to the herbs when pressing them out. Reishi holds a good bit of liquid.

Recipe 3 Elderberry tea juice

Using the same quantities as above for either the simple elderberry or the triple immune combo of all three herbs, let the tea steep the same overnight length of time.

After straining the tea, simply add your favorite juice concentrate to the desired level of sweetness.  I keep ours pretty tart, but add enough juice concentrate to be able to tolerate the bitterness of the echinacea and strageness of the reishi.  You can even add some powdered Vitamin C for an extra kick.  You may know aleady that Vitamin C is better utilized when consumed in the presence of bioflavinoids, of which the Elderberry has high levels!  We’ll use this up over the next week to 10 days.

As far as doses go, I offer my teen children about 1/2 cup of the juice morning and night.  When the boys were young we used the syrup and I gave them about 1 full ounce twice a day.  Note that the syrup recipe yields a doubled concentration of the elderberry.

Sterilize any bottles or carafes that you use and keep it clean from contamination!  Refrigerate all versions of these recipes!

Other variations we’ve tried:

Add juice of two lemons to the dark juice before boiling down.

Add one star of anise, 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, 2-4 cloves, broken pieces of cinnamon before boiling down.

Use concentrate of raspberry or peach and white grape juice. The flavors blend nicely.

Gallons of golden and fruity Kombucha

I got a chuckle out of myself, being so trusting….”Mom, do you want a kombucha baby from one of my teachers?”…..”Yea, sure…find out how to make it too….”  Since when do you just make weird drinks from strange- looking gelatinous patties with no written instructions, let it sit out for a week or two or six and then just drink it?  And give it to your kids?

Well it’s not the first time…the other time was the so-called kefir granules…and I did slip that strange tangy, slightly-off (but not too far), fermented milk into some recipes….It sure wasn’t kefir that you get in a sanitized plastic bottle at the natural foods store, but it did go into a few smoothies….

Ah well, I always said that I needed more adventure in my life! This is one kind of internal adventure. No, I don’t need co-dependent drama in my life, and I’ve already done the mountain climbing and spelunking… I’ll leave it up to my discerning taste buds, my instinctual nose and my loyal gastrointestinal flora to take me to the edges of safety and sanity!  At least for this year.

A beautiful morning, and Golden Herbal & Elderberry Kombucha ready for drinking

On this lovely Friday morning, the brewing Kombucha was getting rather vinegary smelling in the kitchen and I had a free hour to decant and tidy up this recent brew. With some sparkling sunshine igniting the kitchen it was definitely a morning to enjoy some kitchen-wizardry.

Here’s the history on Kombucha tea: it comes from the Russian people, the Chinese & the Japanese. It is purported to be thousands of years old and has a lore of healing people and keeping them alive for a long time.  There is not a single source or reliable source of information.  A cursory internet search reveals many people quoting other people, quoting other people.

Here’s the biology of kombucha:  the drink is a tea of water and acids that are beneficial to our human biology. The acids are synthesized by a live colony of bacteria and yeast (a zoogleal mat!)  which feast on the added sugar and the natural tannic acids in the teas.  During the brewing time, and after as well, they turn these sugar and acid molecules into another form which includes glucaric acids[i], other acids, and vitamins, generating probiotics and enzymes in the process.

From outside the jar you will see that the baby patty will float, list, and perhaps sink.  All is okay. The colony is reproducing and the offspring float to the surface, where with a bit of air, begin to assemble into a second generation zoogleal mat.  The advancingof the mat is accompanied by a vinegar like smell, which will tell that adventurous nose that all is well once again.  There is a lack of conclusive research into the biology of kombucha, particularly since the patty that you or I may have is different from the ones in China or Russia.

The Zoogleal Mat thrives in the tea, reproduces yeast & bacteria which float to the surface and continue to reproduce with a bit of air, forming a second generation mat.

Here’s the health claims:
The Glucaric acid which is created by the zoogleal mat, helps remove waste products from the liver. The liver is known to store waste products and can become congested.  If you can keep your liver running smoothly, you will have better health since the liver is responsible for over 500 functions in the body.[ii] I personally respond well to a tall glass of kombucha when feeling ill.  When taken in an undiluted form—I brew mine for a long time and it becomes strong—I feel the firey acids at work in my stomach. Whether I benefit from the high acidity killing off pathogens, or the alkalizing of my blood, or the added acids and enzymes and probiotics….I’ll never know for sure.  It works fine for me.  I don’t drink it all the time or even every day.  I do find it cooling during the summer and very thirst quenching.

Here’s the interesting, adventurous, part: If you recall from the sauerkraut biology, the bacteria create vitamins and other compounds and make them more available to our digestive process.  Kombucha has the same “spontaneous generation magic.” (to our ignorant eyes)   Imagine being in the middle of winter, not having any fresh vegetables or fruits—therefore lacking vitamin C and other benefits of fresh food—such as enzymes and probiotics.  Enter the kombucha drink—which pretty much has an indefinite shelf life, has created vitamins, enzymes, and probiotics by just being fed pennies worth of tea and sugar.  The English would have had much better teeth if they could have adopted this use of tea and sugar!(sorry guys)  Just keep the colony, (bacteria and fungi, not English) from drying out, and keep the kombucha jar reasonably free from contaminants.  And, if you are following my stories on raw milk, yogurt, and the sauerkraut, you may recall that these live foods have acid producing bacteria that literally eats errant bacteria  & fungus that can contaminate them plus their acids create and inhospitable acidic environment.  Double whammy against pathogens.   Usually contamination occurs from airborne sources (a million per cubic foot are normally floating around!)[iii], or from utensils or the sneeze or the talking-spit-effect…but amazingly enough, these bacteria usually neutralize these contaminants.

The Big Mac of strange brewing: a very very robust patty, aged 5 weeks, fed by the extra nutrients in the elderberries.

And now, a word from the scientists….If you are not as adventurous as I am, you may appreciate the cautions from Paul Staments, who runs Fungi Perfecti, a very reputable mushroom company from my old stomping grounds in the mycological capital of America—Olympia Washington.  Read his article from 1995 http://www.fungi.com/info/articles/blob.html.  His main concern against home-brew is for people who are immunocompromised and may unknowingly ingest contaminated kombucha tea and become poisoned.  His concerns are valid, so of course I add–be wary.  I personally have never had an adverse reaction to my own tea, and have never had a batch which appears to have contamination from mold.  I am strict about cleanliness in the kitchen and encourage you to do the same.  However, I feel rather healthy and resilient.

Here's the lighter colored kombucha baby disc being pulled away from the earlier generation, --the darker brown disc-patty-thing

Here’s the kombucha how-to:

Adopt a kombucha “baby” from someone. This may be the hardest part, so start asking around.  You probably have one friend like me who has a strange food hobby. Next ask at you natural food stores. After that go to your local metaphysical book store or of course, if you have an herb shop or similar goddess-inhabited-place of mercantile, you will find a connection there. There’s no reason to pay anyone for these patties because this drink represents food freedom! And every time a batch is brewed, the kombucha patty produces a baby, and the kitchen gods & goddesses have too many on their hands and want to give them away!

Find a beautiful one gallon jar. Lid is not necessary. Garage sales, neighbor’s basement, some restaurants still get glass jars full of olives, red peppers etc….so again, ask around. If you can’t get one, you can improvise. The key here is to find a vessel which has an opening of 3 to 6 inches.  Where the tea in the jar meets the air is where the new patty will form, and you will likely find it easier for this baby to be a manageable size.  And you’ll have to put the patty in, and take the patties out later, which may require your hand to go inside the jar. Take a look at all the pictures and you’ll see how this makes sense. I have used a huge bowl, and this allowed me to watch the colonization process unfold, but the baby produced was thin, had holes and was too large to handle.

The Standard recipe:

Gallon Jar & Yes... I use mainstream tea bags sometimes. These are the ice-tea size.

• 6 heaping tablespoons of black tea or equivalent tea bags
• One cup white sugar
• Boiling water
• Sanitized gallon jar
• Paper towel & rubber band
• Kombucha “baby” patty with about ¼ cup or more of the kombucha liquid that it came with.

1. Boil water—half a gallon will do to start. We’ll top it off later.
2. Make the tea in the gallon jar with the tea bags, or in an alternate vessel if loose tea.
3. Let steep for 20 min-45 minutes. We’re making a strong tea.
4. Remove tea bags, or strain the hot tea into the gallon jar.
5. While tea is hot, add the cup of sugar, and stir to dissolve.
6. Boil additional water and let both the tea and this additional water cool to room temperature. This could take a few hours, so go do something else. Do not put it outside in cold weather (crack!)
7. Once room temperature, add the additional boiled water to about three inches below the rim.
8. Place the kombucha patty on the surface of the water. It will list, and may sink. No worries. She is fine.  Add at least ¼ cup of the tea that came with the patty, as a “starter.”  This is probably full enough.
9. Place a paper towel over the lid and rubberband it on.
10. Put the gallon jar in a temperature stable area, not in direct sunlight or over a heater.  On a cabinet or in the corner of the countertop is good.
11. Let brew for at least one week. Two weeks to a four weeks has proven to be ideal for our palate.  Stable temperature means around 70 degrees F.  Cooler temps slow the process; warmer temps speed up the process. Adjust your timing to fit your environment.

Decanting the Kombucha:  Gather together:

Pouring Golden Komucha

• Clean pitchers & jars to equal about 3 quarts.
• Fine mesh strainer
• Glass or other container to store patties

1. Have a clean pitcher or other jars ready.
2. Using a fine mesh strainer, carefully pour the tea into the pitcher or jar.
3. When near the bottom, pause to remove the patty with clean hands.  Enlist the help of small boned female or child of either gender if necessary.  Warning: It will be like the Halloween-eyeball-peeled grapes—feel-it-with- your-eyes-closed trick.
4. Leave sediment on bottom.
5. Put the two patties which are attached into a clean container and pour some of the tea over them, to cover the top and keep them moist.  Put the container in the refrigerator. Shelf life? Forever?

Slightly slimy, but firm--looks and feels healthy, but strange...

Hopefully your kombucha has the look of an India Pale Ale—golden and clear.  It may cloud up when you put in into the refrigerator. If you are an ice-tea-making person, you know that this happens to iced tea.

Elderberries added to standard tea recipe.

Here are the variations on the standard Kombucha recipe that I have tried:

• Use green tea or any variety of tea you have on hand.  Especially tea that you just want to use up if you don’t like it.  Flavored tea will add some flavors to the final product.
• Use herbs instead of tea. Choose herbs with tannins—those that make your mouth or tongue pucker a little—such as red raspberry leaves, or gingko leaves. Add some other herbs for interest.
• Add dried elderberries or hawthorn berries—about ¼ cup.
• Add fresh fruit—I boiled (to kill bacteria) and strained some wine berries and added them—about ¾ cup.
• Add sliced fresh ginger—about 1/8 cup or about 1 ½ inches of an average root.

India Pale Kombucha

Serving suggestion for Kombucha

Serve it cold for an especially refreshing experience. Allow to warm up a bit also.   Do not heat up—kombucha is a live food with probiotics and heating will kill these gut-friendly flora.

Add fruit juice concentrate to desired level of sweetness.

Mix equal parts apple cider or other juice with kombucha tea.

Some other interesting observations:

• Left to brew for weeks, it continues to get strong, almost concentrated.   Add water to dilute.
• If fruit juice or concentrate is added, this live food will continue to digest the sugar and render the tea even more acidic and less sweet.  This can occur even in the refrigerator, and at an accelerated pace if left in room temperature.
• Contamination will be seen as mold colonies floating on the surface of the tea, or growing on the inside of the jar near the top.  If in doubt, throw it out.
• About the fizz, the carbonation.  When the store-bought type of kombucha is opened, there is a great amount of carbon dioxide  released. At home, without a secured lid, the gases leave unhindered.  If you tighten a lid on your finished product some gas will accumulate and you can have that little bit of fun too.

Elderberry & Herbal Kombucha Babies side by side. Notice the berry baby is very thick. I believe it's from the added nturients of the berries. The new "baby" is formed on the top of the tea where there is air. The "mother" patty is submerged in the tea and is reproducing. The berries (on left patty) can be seen in-between the patties since they floated to the surface.

[ii] http://www.hsc.virginia.edu/uvahealth/adult_liver/liver.cfm

[iii] Staments, Paul http://www.fungi.com/info/articles/blob.html.

Why? This alchemical food improves digestion by introducing probiotics into your gut, increases bioavailability of nutrients from the cabbage, creates Vitamin C and other B vitamins, and the list goes on. Did I mention fiber? How about simply being a bit acidic and stimulating to the digestion.  Many people know of KimChi, which is the Korean version of this kraut, made with a variety of vegetables flavors.  Koreans have it on their table for most meals. Do you see why?

Green Cabbage is elegant & simple

The bacteria that create the fermentation of sauerkraut are also remarkable for not allowing pathogenic bacteria to survive in the anaerobic environment of the jars, vats and barrels. Reread that sentence, because this bully type of behavior is exactly why you want these probiotics in your gut!

Voila, amazing food that travels extremely well without refrigeration!  Isn’t that modern!

What is it about this simple cabbage that ties it to such an amazing role in human physiology and history?  It’s those leaves…they just host the perfect array of naturally occurring beneficial bacteria on their surface. Almost by magic, once you begin the process, you need not add any other store bought cultures; cabbage has all of it for you. Food for the masses I tell you! If you have salt & cabbage, you have health-giving food during ocean voyages and for everyday fare!

Some folks make sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables two additional ways—one method is to use whey from the cheese making process, which also has lactic acid producing bacteria swimming in it, the other way is to purchase a commercial culture in a package and add that. If you want to lower the salt content, you may want to consider these options.  The amount of salt that I use below is fairly standard and not a salty final product.

The purpose of the salt is to create a sterile environment inhibiting any pathogenic bacteria from rotting your lovely cabbage before the good bacteria get a foothold and create the acids that preserve the food, create that sour flavor, and allow themselves to remain alive for your eating and health pleasures.

Now let’s get started.

Ingredients:
Purchase a fresh cabbage—firm, green, about 5 pounds (2.25 Kg)

1  Tablespoon  Salt (15 g.)—sea salt preferred personally, but Kosher, or other salt is just fine.

Boil 1 quart of filtered water. Add 1 Tablespoon  (15 g.) salt, dissolve and let cool. This will be extra liquid to top off the vegetables once in the jar.

Equipment:

A large, long knife, or a food processor or reliable grater

A very large and wide bowl

Stainless steel tongs or forks will do

About 4 to 5 quart size sanitized mason jars or equivalent.  You can use one container, such as a gallon jar or a crock that may hold the gallon of shredded cabbage.  You’ll want a couple of inches of room at the top to limit overspill as the fermentation can move gases up and out of the jar, thereby increasing the volume of the contents. The sanitation can simply be a full cycle in the dish washer including drying.

Some type of blunt stick with which you can pound the cabbage & push the shreds into the jars.

A sanitized chopstick or stainless steal skewer or a slender butter knife could do, to release air bubbles.

Now here’s a creative moment where you must plan ahead  Once the shreds have been put into the jars, a non-corrosive flat disc needs to be laid upon the surface and submerged by a weight to limit the oxygen contact with the shreds, thereby limiting rotting, and encouraging fermentation.

I have selected small rocks from my life’s collection, boiled them, and employed them as the weight over a carefully cut piece of plastic which was fashioned by cutting the rim off of a small yogurt container lid.  Folded like a taco, it is easily inserted into the typical wide-mouth mason jar.

If you are using a crock or a bowl, a close-fitting plate may be perfect.

So gather up your rocks, plastic lids, or other versions of these ideas.

Pause to admire the fabulous intricacy of nature and the sublime green colors

Let’s get shredding.

Remove only the outer most leaves of your cabbage which may have been contaminated by it’s voyage to your kitchen. Cut in half or quarters and remove the core.

You have a choice of slicing or grating your cabbage. I’ve done the entire cabbage with a knife, which yields elegant long strands of cabbage. Alternately, the grater can produce a finer texture, similar to the food processor fitted with a grater attachment. If you use the slicer attachment, do experiment first that the slices are narrower than ¼ inch. If you end up with a good deal of stiffness due to the width being a bit too wide, just take a knife to the pile and have your way with it. All of the strands will wilt, but you will know how you want it in the end, so chop if you need to.

Tossing the Salt and Cabbage

Put all the cabbage into that big wide bowl. Sprinkle with the salt. Then toss away for a few minutes until you think the salt has been well dispersed.  At this time, some people use a blunt tool to pound the cabbage to further release juices.  Leaving the cabbage a total of 45 minutes to one hour, toss every fifteen minutes.

As you visit the bowl for tossing, you should start to see the cabbage sweat.  The concentrated salt is drawing water out of the cabbage.  This cabbage water creates a medium for the lactic acid bacteria to live in.  We want this liquid, so if you don’t see too much of it you will want to pound!

After the 45 minute mark, begin to load the shredded, sweaty cabbage into your jars or crock.

Jars: Push the strands in and pack the jars as compactly as possible, doing some additional gentle pounding.  Leave 2 inches of room.  Whatever amount of green liquid you have left over, divide among the jars. As you compress the strands in the jar, liquid will rise. If there is not enough to come up to the top and cover the cabbage, add some of the cooled salted water.  Don’t go overboard, as your new sauerkraut will continue to extrude water on it’s own.  IF you get into a habit of making sauerkraut, you will find some cabbage has much more water in it than other, and you will simply adjust the brine as necessary.

Crock: When using a wide crock, which is just a ceramic bucket, you can try an alternate method of layering the shredded cabbage with sprinkles of salt.  This is an oft mentioned method, especially when dealing with large quantities.  If choosing this method, then skip the salt & wait for weeping mentioned above. Just cut the cabbage & get layering with salt. This method can be used in jars,it’s just a bit impractical!  Proceed with the covering explained below.

Employ the weight system you have devised, laying the plastic lid or plate on the sauerkraut. Let the liquid come up over the edges. Make sure there is no air underneath it.  Our goal is to keep air away from the cabbage so that errant bacteria cannot set up.  Hopefully your “lid” is very nearly inside the rim of your container so no strands of cabbage creep out.

Keep at a steady room temperature, in the 70’s for 3 to 4 days where you can keep an eye on it. This means, out of sunlight, and not on a window sill.   Bubbling will occur which indicates that the fermentation process is happening. You may want to slip a plate under the jars just in case you filled them a bit full– liquid may be pushed out of the jar by the gas bubbles.  Hopefully after a few days you can smell the sourness developing.  I do not leave a tight seal on my kraut, it seems to hamper the development of a proper smell, and the off-gassing fills the sealed jar. I let the gasses go and the kraut begins to smell wonderful.  After the sourness is underway, less vigilance is required, just check on it every few days. Keep at a steady temperature.

Warmer summer temperatures in your home will certainly stimulate faster reproduction of the lactic acid bacteria, and of course, cooler winter household temps slow the culturing process down. Just keep this in mind!

Do put a clean dish towel or paper towel, kept in place with a string or rubber band, to keep dirt and curious kitchen creatures away.

Hard for modern folks to digest, is that I leave mine on the counter for weeks, maybe a month or more, until it tastes just right.

You can begin to dip out of your kraut after a few days, but keep in mind that you must keep the utensils and the process of serving it very sanitary. At that time, if you plan on plundering the new loot, take out a few servings at a time and let the batch be!

The artist in you will revel in this culinary blast of color

Variation:

I offer you a delicious variation in color and flavor that was

shared with me by my friend Pia:

Follow the above instructions for preparation, but add to the cabbage the following:

2 green apples

3 medium carrots

2 medium beets

10 peppercorns

about 1 TBS to 2 TBS ginger.

This particular set of ingredients would best be grated by hand or in a food processor. Of course,you’ll probably need more containers or a larger single container.

Toss as above with the salt or layer in a crock with the salt.  Expect a little more bubbling, and you may see a bit of a scum or foam that you will want to spoon off daily due to increased amounts of sugar in the vegetables.  Pack the jars with at least 3 inches of room! (a bit more than solo cabbage) The bubbling will settle down eventually.  Last batch of this one I made was left on the counter for about 5 weeks.

See the lids submerged just below the surface? That's my mom with me!

Signs of trouble will  be a result of contamination:

• Mold on the top of the shreds or darkening of shreds–scoop off until you reach uncontaminated shreds.  Top off with cooled salt brine & replace with sterilized lids
• Strange smells other than a lovely acidic sourness–have you had a lid on tightly? Leave off for a day and smell again. If still strange, follow the instructions for mold. You may have some contamination in the top layers.  If the smell doesn’t resolve, read on.

As a human being you have been blessed with a great tool–your nose.  Do not underestimate the sensitivity of your nose, especially with respect to your personal tastes and digestive tolerance. What someone else’s stomach can tolerate with regards to strange foods may not be amenable to your body. The nose sends the signals to a very primitive part of your brain that makes good decisions for you. So if your food smells wierd, always remember, when in doubt, throw it out!

I don't think I could live well without wine

Hasn’t shopping for wine become a lot more interesting, dare I say, personal?  And what a great showplace for expression on the labels of wine. It’s a moment of reflection in the wine aisle at the supermarket…

“what artistic label expresses me best….. what animal reference on the label do I want to be associated with (loons, frogs, trees, creeks, dogs….are you kidding, have I been swooned by this?!)… is that in my price range….do I trust this is a decent year (what do I know? are you kidding?)…top shelf, middle shelf….I think I saw that at my friend’s house….I just want a delich table wine for myself….party wine for the masses….special guests….the sale prices are just great for wine these days!”

I do have a few favorites that I go back to over and over again–one is Bogle’s Cabernet Sauvingon, and 2001 was amazing. We had drought for several years and it was reflected in the grapes….wherever they were grown. And I kept looking for 2001 and drinking it until it couldn’t be found.  Never did put my hands on a whole case. 

You see, Bogle is one of the wines you may have at a decent restaurant, but they are vinters, meaning they craft the wine, they don’t grow the grapes. They purchase their grapes wholesale and do their own magic. And as vinters go, they have done a good job of impressing me with their merlot and their cab.  On their label and that of other wines, you will see the words, “vinted and bottled by” or “cellared and bottled by“  as opposed to the term “produced and bottled by” which means they GREW the grapes as well.  Bogle is so huge (you can find their wine everywhere) they simply have to buy some of those grapes since they can’t grow them all themselves.

"Vinted and Bottled by..." means they create the wine from raw materials

Just this summer I went to my first wine tasting at a local vineyard here in gorgeous central Virginia, Pollack Vineyards.   Tucked up next to the dreamy foot hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I could see myself wake up here, gaze at the sky and hills here and sleep here. I scouted around for lots or houses for sale as we drove in. It’s really just 23 minutes from my house believe it or not.  I just wanted to pick those luscious grapes from the vines as we walked by.  I bought some wine instead, and due to it’s deliciousness I paid more for three bottles than I ever had.  www.pollakvineyards.com

"Produced and Bottles by" means they grew the grapes and created the wine

Fast forward to December… on NPR right before Christmas was an interview with Keith Wallace, (he blogs on The Daily Beast) where he educated me on these terms, vinted, cellared, produced…which I had heretofore ignored!  It shocked me at first, and then my sensibilities set in regarding the nature of modern business, albeit wine business.  I encourage you to read his post: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-03/how-wine-became-like-fast-food/ or listen to his interview. Wine: To the Glass from the Factory on NPR

After hearing the NPR interview I realized the wine I purchased from Pollack Vineyard was actually one of these “produced and bottled by” places, and a really small one at that….and I should enjoy the wine as such– the entire list of reasons why requires an entirely separate article.

So if you want to be discerning in a variety of ways, perhaps support your local wineries by paying more premium prices, often  for very unique wines in small batches, exercise your wine label reading muscles (don’t forget to take your reading glasses to the store with you). And frequent your local wine shop as well.  But be forewarned—also to be learned from Mr. Wallace’s article is how local shops are also now in the wine business with their private labels. I purchased some of their dirt cheap wine myself for a party—decent wine, but not much pedigree I guess you could say. At the same time, an older gentleman guided me to a cabernet that he swore by, and voila, it’s a vinter, and a division of Don Sebastian & Sons. Maybe it’s good. I haven’t opened it yet.

Lastly, I will share with you my ground-truthing exercise in our local Giant supermarket that has an entire aisle of wine –a slightly ginormous aisle. I checked about 20 bottles of wine from the upper shelves and found ONE bottle that said “produced and bottled by.”  I bought it, just to exercise my vote as a consumer.

Can you guess which one is the Vinter and which is the Producer? Hold curser over for answer.

Being a local foodie, natural food nut, and lifelong champion of the small producer, operator etc….(everyone in my family is self employed and we love it and deal with it),  I steer away as much as possible from large corporations for several reasons–food integrity being the highest reason. You will see Whole Foods brands in my kitchen, but you know it too, I just can’t afford to pay premium for everything. (We’ll talk about olive oil another day)  So we pick and choose, it’s a daily exercise.  I hope you can fill your kitchen and your stomachs with food and drink that lifts your spirits, no matter where it’s from!  Just bless it before you eat!

• homemade food–with high love vibration
• freshness  and ingredient control
• a great supply of probiotics in the diet
• valuable lesson in cultured food for the whole family
  

  Pouring milk, cooled to 111 degrees F, into reusable containers

Let’s get the list of supplies ready:

Milk–the freshest possible! Whole milk tastes best, and if you can get it from healthy pastured cows, the Omega-3 content is much higher than comparable grain-fed cow milk.  If you want 2 quarts of yogurt, buy 2 quarts of milk.  In other words, the amount of milk you choose will make the same amount of yogurt.  Smaller sizes could work just fine as well, for instance, lunch size containers with screw-on lids!

Containers–here’s a great chance to put into perpetual use your stack of yogurt containers that are not ready to be tossed.  Find the correct lids so that a decent seal is made. Wash thoroughly with very hot water and air dry or run through washing machine. Sanitizing is important, but don’t go overboard.  Quart mason jars can also be used.  I have found making the quart size is optimal for temperature stabilization during the culturing process.

Freeze-dried yogurt culture

Yogurt culture: I highly recommend that you purchase a batch of freeze-dried powdered culture from a dairy supplier, such as The Diary Connection.  It contains several strands of lactic acid bacteria that work well together and resemble many commercial yogurts on the market (if you like that).  I have used their yogurt culture for years and am always pleased. They sell two different types–one for a more tart, less firm yogurt, and the other is for a mild tartness and more firmness. Having tried both, I now prefer the more mild version.  Find them at www.dairyconnection.com.  The quantity you can buy is for 100 gallons worth of yogurt, for about $17.00 plus shipping.  Did you get that?  Last time I paid about $6.00 for shipping.  Now, a caveat–you will use more than the perfect divided dose for your small batches, but still a good value.  Store it in the freezer.

Equipment–I like to keep it simple:

• one stainless steel pot to accommodate your quantity. I find working with 1/2 gallon of milk at a time is enough, so try this first. If you want to make several gallons, do it in batches.  I’ll show you below.
• A thermometer that reads to the degree very clearly, and can be suspended into the pot.  Several are sold that can be useful–from $8 and up.  If you have an old one and are unsure of it’s accuracy, put it into a glass of ice water in the freezer and check it in twenty minutes. Is it right around 32 degrees?  Within a few degrees is acceptable for yogurt and other home cheese processes.
• Ice for rapid cooling
• pot or dish for cooling hot milk pot and ice in
• clean knife for measuring culture
• hot water boiling on stove to be put into jars as the heat source for the culturing.
• Well insulated cooler with enough room for all the yogurt containers, plus two more quart jars of hot water.
• newspapers to lay across the top of containers, to minimize heat loss.

Here’s my method:

Heat a half gallon milk in pot over medium, but no warmer.  No scorching here!  Let milk get up to 185 degrees F. Occasionally stir milk with the thermometer itself or sanitized spoon so you get an accurate reading.  Milk will be steaming and a slight skin will be forming.

Swirling milk, cooling in the ice bath

Cool: Once milk is at 185 degrees F, place entire pot into a bath of mostly ice and some water to rapidly cool the milk down to 111 degrees F.  Again, use the thermometer to stir the milk rapidly.  Once at 111 degrees F., lift out of the ice bath, wipe the bottom of the pot with a clean towel, then pour into two waiting quart yogurt containers.  This rapid cooling is credited with making a firmer yogurt.

The powder on the knife is the total amount of culture used for one quart of milk!

Add Culture: Without further ado, get your bottle of culture out of the freezer and take a knife to dip out just the smallest amount. If you are making the one quart size, see my picture of how much I use.  This amount would approximate 1/400 of the amount in the brand new bottle of culture! It’s a little challenging to measure this. I have had great success with the amount shown.  If you want to make small, lunch sized containers, start with the quart, add culture, stir slowly for a minute, then pour into smaller containers.  Sprinkle this little amount onto the surface of the milk–and don’t bother to stir–just put on the lids and take the containers to your cooler.

Cooler with yogurts and hot water, newspaper, ready for a nap

Incubate: The cooler need not be anything fancy, just keep it clean.  Place containers in the bottom.  While you’ve been busy with the warming and cooling of the milk, water has been heating in a kettle.  Pour it into two waiting glass mason jars, or spaghetti jars, put on the lids and place into the cooler, placing the heat sources on either end of the cooler.   The cooler shouldn’t be huge if you are just doing a few containers. Find a good size to match, for the sake keeping the heat.  Put the lid on the cooler if you are going to make another batch.  Once you’ve added all containers, lay a section of the newspaper on the yogurt containers, shut the lid, and keep you cooler in the house!

The goal at this stage is to maintain the milk temperature at about 95 degrees F.  I don’t bother checking if I have the above system in place.

Wait at least 8 hours, or up to 24 hours.  I like to wait a long time for a bit more firmness and flavor.  I make up to 3 gallons at a time and we eat it over the next few weeks.  I’ve never really had the yogurt go bad–it’s the contamination of dirty  procedure that will make a batch go bad.

Yes, you can some flavoring or honey or other sweeteners before you add the culture.  Try it and report back, I’d love to hear your stories and take your questions!

This is our version of a polenta dinner–served as a creamy gruel, with a red sauce, dark green vegetable, and some type of pork sausage. Hits all the food groups and the tastebuds.

One of my quick meal concessions is using one of the delicious and inexpensive Red/Spaghetti/Marinara sauces that comes in a jar. Buy em on sale. Stock up. Add a little extra this or that depending on the meal.  But not today. The vegetable crisper was overflowing with almost-giving-up produce and I could just taste the chunky tomato sauce before it was made So I went searching, i.e. cleaning out the vege bin, namely:

1/2 Large Red Onion

4 Very Sorry Roma Tomatoes, trimmed & chopped

2 Farmer’s Market tomatoes that I forgot about that ended up in the fridge, also chopped

About 3/4 cup shredded carrots with some beets thrown in(left overs from making sauerkraut)

I sauteed all of that (onions of course first….) starting with olive oil.

Added 3 large cloves garlic and one “ice-cube-sized” portion of the summer’s frozen pesto, some chopped waning parsley,

And one small handful from the bag of chopped peppers out of the freezer (green, red, yellow, poblano, anaheim).

Splash of the bottle of wine that I opened to drink.

Red pepper flakes, oregano to taste, salt, pepper.

Simmer simmer simmer until the consistency is what you want….

Note: this is a quick assembly. Not too much thinking is required or desired. Be quick and spontaneous. Each time you make it will reflect your mood and your ingredients. Savor the variety and your creativity. Celebrate the simple ones, honor the complex ones. Now on to the rest of the meal:

Husband, cute eh?

Meanwhile, because it was my dear husband’s night to cook, he made the polenta–

into 6 cups boiling water (in your heaviest bottomed pot)

goes 2 Cups yellow corn grits

Cook about 20 minutes. Stirring every 2 or 3 minutes over very low. Adding water to make sure it’s all cooked.

Add 1 cup or more, romano cheese, or your favorite hard italian cheese, grated finely

4 tablespoons butter and olive oil combined.

Salt to taste, if any at all.

Serve with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, and ladle the Hijacked marinara over it.

Cook up some pork sausage and chop into bit sized pieces–there are many available at the grocer–spicy italian, provolone & red pepper, etc….

Cook collards or brocolli, drizzeled with a bit of olive oil and serve on the side.

Get a comfortable red wine in your glass; some good music on Pandora. Try not to overeat.

Leftovers:  Eat leftovers for lunch at work, or eat the polenta with eggs for breakfast. Use the remainder of the sauce over toasted bread, or with other grains or add beans for a stew. Work smarter not harder.