A new era in cultured vegetables

Grate
A million carrots (8-10)
Half a large purple cabbage
Throw in some garden fresh herbs, oregano and thyme

Blend
2 pieces of fresh tumeric
Juice of one lemon
Fresh oregano and thyme
2 spoons of ground pink salt or thereabouts 
Half a cup of the grated vegetable mixture
With one large glass of water

Pour the brine over the grated vegetables and mix in  
1 tsp of polybac 8 probiotic powder (used as a starter to establish a universe of exciting microflora quickly)

Pack into a jar, submerge and seal. Wait for one week. 
Inspired by watching Donna Gates YouTube videos on cultured vegetables. 

Complete Urban Farmer #10 PRESERVING

Today's class was on preserving, I guest facilitated our classes adventure into the world of home food preservation.
We talked about dehydrating, sun drying and solar cookers and making live culture food as a way to add value and preserve produce.
We made green cabbage apple and carraway sauerkraut, Kim chi, sour pickled beetroots with Rosemary, and preserved lemons with fresh bay leaves and peppercorns. Everyone had a little jar of kraut and lemons to take home and watch ferment/come into their preserved being.

--
2 small zucchinis grated with the single big hole slicer on the side of my grater
olive oil, salt, lemon juice
chopped mount zero mixed olives-
-
some kind of sauce made in the blender
a parsnip a carrot
lemon sorrel, English spinach and parsely all from garden
lemon juice, olive oil, salt
spoon of apple cider vinegar
handful of sultanas
a few handfuls of red lentil sprouts
a tiny spoon of tahini
--
red lentil sprouts and purple sauerkraut

--
Lettuce from garden
slice of avocado (victorian from farmers market)
slice of cucumber from it's succulent insides (ceres)
tiny strip of purple cabbage sauerkraut (homemade)
one leaf of fresh coriander from garden per leaf
spiralised carrot in centre
a few baby broad beans
-
approx a tsp of umeboshi plum paste
1/2 tsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp macadamia oil (that was the extent of my oil reserves)
-
To eat take a leaf, top with a carrot spiral and some umeboshi sauce, roll up and eat.
This was so good and perfectly what I needed. I sat on the grass between my garden beds with this wonderful plate.

The raw sushi dream?

I wondered if it was possible to pull together something of a raw sushi with the little bits of things I had around, and not only did it happen it was brilliant.
--
the "rice"
2 small parsnips cut finely in a food processor,
a small handful of soaked almonds
a dash of ume su and agave nectar.
Assemblage
sheet of organic nori
half of the parsnip rice mixture (few tablespoons)
a good spoon of purple cabbage sauerkraut
thinly shaved carrots
few slices of avocado
some mung bean sprouts
and two small pieces of garden lettuce
roll up into a roll and cut with a sharp wet knife into small rolls.
This was so delicious and didn't need any kind of sauce because so super flavoursome especially with the sauerkraut. It came to mind that it would be great to run a hands on raw sushi class and eating session, we could make some kraut too. Let me know if you are interested.

Definately need a rainbow

--
greens from garden, including curly lettuce that tasted salty and dandelion greens
grated carrot
purple cabbage sauerkraut
sprinkle of lentil sprouts
nasturtium
dressing of hemp oil, ume su; umeboshi plum vinegar and organic Eden yellow mustard
then I added a scrambled egg on the side (from our chooks)
I was trying to emulate something similar to my favorite salad I was making when I was Avignon (Sud de France) last year. It was simple - beautiful round leaved lettuce, maybe it's called butterhead in English, carrot lacto-ferment (karotten sauerkraut), delicious gomasio!! (that's what the salad I just made now definately lacked) and a dressing of amazing french biologique mustard, ume su and some organic cold pressed oil made out of yellow flowers. It was the best but the ingredients were all locally specific and I guess all food moments are about time and space and being wherever you are enjoying things as they are. I really enjoyed my rainbow salad moment in the last light of the day.

Sometimes you need a rainbow

Late night kraut

I decided not to go to Fermentation Friday this week because I really needed to do the overflowing stacks of dishes and my homework before getting up early to go to school. But funnily enough just before bed, overtired and needing to dream, I found myself slicing cabbage for a late night kraut. I salted it, covered with a plate and weighed it down with my mortar and pestle. I'll pack it into a jar when I wake before I run off to learn things. Fermenting on Friday now seems to have taken on automatic function. It will be interesting to see if I prepare anything else in my sleep.
How good are these cabbage spirals?

Platter of condiments

Jas came over for a late afternoon pancake lunch, see batter below. We made up a nice selection of fermented and fresh things to go on top.
The mash pumpkin has kefir in it and the white/green thing is a pesto made from slightly fermented sunflower seed sprouts, fresh rocket and hemp oil. These okonomiyaki style pancakes are particulary delicious when made really thick and cooked covered on low heat for awhile (and of course some kind of mayonnaise is always a hit).

Sour-Oko

Sourdough okonomiyaki

Sourdough pancake batter made with a mixture of flours (sourgham, white maize and tapioca),
2 eggs from our chooks (not neccessary at all but its me being extra safe that they wont stick to my pan)
himalayan crystal salt
grated carrot and sweet potato, chopped up super fresh green cabbage
Fried with coconut oil, served with mayonnaise and dulse.

Later I made it again and served with coleslaw-sauerkraut (cabbage, carrot, red capscium) and fresh rocket.

The beginnings of something wonderful...

Chita came over to begin her foray into sauerkraut and kim chi making. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we set up a little makeshift kitchen in the backyard overlooking the garden (we ended up moving the table into the sun after this initial shade photo). Im really keen to set up a full outdoor kitchen situation...

Sour-pumpkin pancakes

Sourdough pumpkin pancakes

Using the continuation of the injera batter (made with red sourgham flour and a sourdough culture), i added some white maize flour, salt, lots of grated pumpkin and 2 eggs and then fried them in coconut oil. Lately I have been having trouble with sour-pancakes sticking to the pan (the mixture is holding together but the entire bottom surface is sticking), it happened again this morning, but I decided to see what happened if I added eggs and they flipped like a dream. I was so happy!

We had these pancakes with an platter of vegetable ferments, sprouts, greens and sunflower seed sour cream.

Projects

Pickle stacks

a pickle stack, is when you use one jar of pickles to weigh down another in the process of pickling and that which needs to be weighed down under it's brine. Seen here is a jet of olives on top of a coleslaw-sauerkraut and Kim chi, all in progress.