November 30, 2012

Cultured Cranberry Relish and Veggie Dippers

Fermenting veggies for serving with a dip, and cranberry relish - for Thanksgiving Day



I posted earlier about wanting to ferment my typical raw cranberry relish I make for Thanksgiving. And I said I wanted to ferment the veggies for a platter with a dip. I put off fermenting them cuz I was afraid of them getting too fermented. Like would the veggies be soggy limp? So I fermented them for about 24hours. They were a hit!

WELL . . . I had two jars of each. So a week later I jarred them up to put in my cool cellar. The veggies were still delish with a crunch and the cranberry was great too.

I just bought more organic cranberries that were on sale and going to make up some more. I'll probably keep doing this till the cranberry season is done. Is that just after Christmas?

I bought organic broccoli, orange cauliflower, celery, cucumber and carrots. I sliced them and put them in a large bowl, along with some slivered fresh garlic. I sprinkled on about 4 Tb sea salt and occasionally stirred to start the veggies juicing. I must have wrote this down somewhere! cuz I'm pretty sure I added some peppercorns and possibly some cloves. And then some liquid whey. Just make sure the veggies are covered with water, which with the salt becomes a brine. There's a glass weight in the jars to keep the veggies submerged.

Pulsing cranberry relish ingredients
CRANBERRY ORANGE APPLE RELISH

4 - 7.5oz containers of cranberries (about 8 cups)
8 tangelo type oranges, skin and all (remove seeds!)
3 apples
1/2 cup sucanat
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup whey
1/2-1 lemon

Pulse all but the whey in a food processor. Don't puree. This mixture filled my 1 1/2 Liter and a 1 Liter Pickle-It containers, with a glass weight, and airlock on top of jar. I squeezed some lemon juice on top of both for extra submerging liquid. You can do this in a regular fido jar or canning jar with a plastic lid. But I have tasted a difference in the foods fermented with the airlocks - better tasting!

Sharing at: Simple Lives Thursday, My Cultured Palate, Beyond the Peel, Real Food Wednesday, Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Pickle Me TooMonday Mania, Prairie Homestead Barn Hop, Farm Girl Blog Fest, Dandelion House, Food Renegade

December and Advent

December is a month of contradictions. We feel both the cold of winter and the warmth of family gatherings. The long darkness of night surrounds us, but the many-colored lights of the season shine around us. The life of nature seems to die, but we focus on the birth of a Child.

Our pottery Advent wreath
The Christian Year begins with Advent which begins 4 Sundays before Christmas. I have four Advent posts that can't be given an actual date since it differs every year. Advent week 1, then Advent week 2, Advent week 3, and Advent week 4. The Christ child candle in the center is lit on Christmas.

Around the 21st we watch for Winter Solstice, the shortest day and the longest night of the year. From this day on, the days will each get longer until mid-summer.

St Lucia is on the 13th - her name "Lucy" meaning "light". St Lucia Day for the Scandinavians, with their dark days, really ushers in the season of lights.

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, goes for 8 days. I pick a night for a family meal and we burn a small menorah and eat a meal with latkes (potato pancakes) served with applesause and sour cream. And we talk about it's story.

It's story reminds us that miracles can still happen. It happened between the Old and New Testament around 175 BCE and is a festival the Jews have added to their calendar (from the original festivals in Lev 23). Jesus was at this festival in John 10:22-42. Hanukkah means "dedication".

See my Hannukah post on it, and my Latke recipe. I can't put these posts on specific dates since the Jewish Calendar is Lunar based and it falls on differing days every year.

The Sunday before Christmas in Eastern Churches, the Genealogy of Jesus (another post) is remembered.

I love my Mary's "Yes" post for this season, an Advent Poem, and don't forget about the real St Nicholas. I got recipe posts as well for the season. 

November 24, 2012

Thanksgiving Velveteen House

My studio with musical instruments. Travis and Gracie are playing accordians. Emery is watching. Monte's got Scout on the piano. I'm sewing PJ's out of fleece since they forgot theirs.


Well, another Velveteen House post. Click here to see a summary post on this subject. Over the years of blogging I'll occasionally do "Velveteen House" posts, a play off the classic children's book Velveteen Rabbit with it's classic nursery room dialogue of "what is real" - here's a bit:

"...You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

... Well our home has been well-loved, lived in, and worn. Lots of wonderful memories bounce from our velveteen house walls. Click here if you want to link to another Velveteen House post that has links to the older posts and shows lots of creativity happening here.

Company is now come and gone. In all, Thanksgiving Day fed 17 adults and 2 munchkins. Wednesday eve brought some good old friends who stayed thru Friday morning. Lots of good friends for thee day. Dawson and Splarah stayed the night and Friday. Travis and Sarah with munchkins and a high school gal stayed till this evening. I'm now going to post a string of photos of the time . . .

Travis capturing himself in one of my garden decors

We all went for a walk. Dawson is kissing Splarah!

Monte and Travis took the munchkins for a walk - this is the remains of a cabin Travis built years ago as a kid.

Gracie and Emery are coloring

Monte's helping Emery with the accordian

Gracie is playing the saw and Emery the recorder

Travis practicing his set for Sunday Worship


Scout's taking apart the jigsaw puzzle we worked on late into the night Thanksgiving

Monte stuck Scout into a box of buttons


Emery's experimenting with a variety of stuff in my egg slicer

Sarah is making a wreath

Monte let some guys cut down dead trees and they are using our fire pit for a hot dog meal

Monte's making a stand for a little tree for Emery to take home and decorate

The munchkins in the PJs I made them crawling all over Grandpa Monte

November 19, 2012

Cultured Condiments

Homemade Cultured (fermented) Condiments


I was wanting to make egg salad (recipe under eggs label - thee best!) and realized I needed more mayo. I make mayo. I'll keep some store-bought around ... for some people ... but I prefer homemade.

Since reading Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions (have I read it all? has anyone read it all? what a resource!!!!!!!) I started making my own ketchup and mayo. I'd been making my own mayo occasionally, and mustard for years, but now culture it. By letting them ferment a bit with the addition of liquid whey (draining the liquid from my homemade yogurt or dairy kefir) their nutrients are boosted with more enzymes and vitamins (and dare I say 'organisms'? - like probiotic) and it helps preserve them for a long time.


MAYONNAISE
Have all the ingredients at room temp.

3 egg yolks or 1 whole egg and 1 yolk
Definitely use washed organic eggs, or better yet, pastured eggs.
I use my own chickens eggs which are fed organic non-GMO grains.
1 tsp dijon mustard (my homemade!)
1 1/2 Tb raw apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
1 Tb whey (not powdered)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Making mayo in a food processor
Combine all but the oil in either a blender or food processor. With it running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and the mixture will thicken. Jar up and leave the jar with the lid on, on the counter for 7 to 12 hours to culture, and then refrigerate. This keeps for many weeks!

I love the flavor of extra virgin olive oil. If you don't, experiment with other oils. You can find all kinds of suggestions online. Unless you buy organic mayo, you are getting GMO soybean oil, etc.

For ketchup I use tomato paste and the vinegar and whey and spicing. There's lots of recipes out there. I use Sally's. And same goes for mustard. For years I've been using a mixture of dark brown and light golden mustard seeds.

Homemade mustard is fabulous. I'll often take it to gatherings, along with some cheese and homemade sourdough crackers (I've got cracker recipes posted).

I like mixing some mayo and ketchup together, equal proportions, for a quick kind of Thousand Island salad dressing.

November 17, 2012

Greenhouse Gardening

View of herb bed looking at greenhouse outside inside greenhouse windows ;^)


Monte and me designed a new greenhouse outside the south windows of my indoor greenhouse. Confused? Off our dining room is a greenhouse. Instead of going directly outside out the back door, you first walk thru a greenhouse, then out another door to our Pergola (which is this blog header pic).

For years, in the summer, on the outside south facing windows of the greenhouse, we've planted tomatoes. At 8000 feet elevation we have about 90 days of frost free growing period, and many nights go down to 55 degrees or less. All this does not bode well for growing tomatoes. Like the book title $64 Tomato (fun book), every year I wonder why I even take the time to grow tomatoes! Tomato plants, all summer-long in walls-of-water, is about my only way. Tho now my son made me a rock spiral bed and the rocks warm the soil quite nicely for tomatoes, in which I grow 60-days-to-maturity determinate tomatoes.

Outside greenhouse has 4 doors that can open and an automatic arm opener for the little above window


We bought a roll of greenhouse plastic and stapled it both inside and outside of our greenhouse frame - hoping for more insulation. Monte made doors to access the inside growing space. From past experience of putting plastic over the bed at the end of the summer, we knew it 'cooks' inside. So I researched and bought a window that has an automatic arm opener - no electricity. Pretty snazzy!

Automatic arm opener to release excess heat
I've got some lettucy transplants and herbs in there, and seeds started for more, as well as radishes. Roof water can water it when available. Last year I did something like this but not very accessible, so let it do it's own thing, till come February we noticed fairly large lettuce growing, so then we made it easier to get into and didn't have to buy lettucy salad makings (nor snap peas) till . . . this fall - between it and the summer planted outside gardens.


Kale, Chard, Spinach, Lettuce varieties, Herbs and radishes inside outside greenhouse.







Thompson Seedless grape clusters inside greenhouse




My 'inside' greenhouse still has grape clusters hanging down. We already harvested a bunch of clusters - freezing them in ziplock bags. We're leaving these to eat and dry. We've found it's fun to just go and eat the hanging "raisins". Guests love it!



Old glass window cold frame












A past winter we tried a simple cold frame. It worked great . . . till the voles found it about late February. We strung lights thru it to heat it some. I think water jugs would heat a cold frame too, tho taking up space. But if you're not around to crack open the window frames it can get quite hot in there on sunny days pretty much 'cooking' the veggies!

Nice winter harvest from cold frame




I've tried growing salady things in my inside greenhouse over winter and have decided it's too labor intensive to water and not worth it. I do keep herbs and my large potted plants for outside summer deck decor overwinter in the greenhouse. Some year I might try hydroponic growing in there. I've got heat coils and grow lights. What I do use it for primarily tho is my early seed starts for planting outside in the spring - which I begin in January-February. With my short cool growing season it's how I get a head start. Like I start broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, chinese cabbage, leeks, flowers . . .


My inside greenhouse right now
Spring plantings in the greenhouse

November 15, 2012

Thanksgiving Tree Chart, and Ferments to add to the Menu

Well ... It's the week before Thanksgiving ... and all thru the house ... I'm planning the Thanksgiving menu, and Dawson is fixing our leaky kitchen faucet - actually going to replace it. Too often lately I've been finding the kitchen counter flooded, and this morning realized it leaks under the sink too.

I was going to just put a link to what I posted several years ago, but decided I'd copy and paste some of it here and write more. I like the Thanksgiving Tree idea, but where I usually put it is now covered in framed photographs. The first year I didn't put it up, one of our guests all of a sudden asked, "Where's the Thanksgiving Tree? I've been thinking all week about what leaves I want to fill out and put on the tree!". I'd figured, like my "First's of Spring" chart I've posted on before - by now, it's so ingrained, we automatically think about it - that I didn't need the Thanksgiving Tree chart either. Wrong! And now with Grandkids, it's going to remain as an ongoing tradition. I'll probably put it - the bare-branched tree drawing on paper - on the refrigerator door with colored markers nearby, as I ended up doing that year after Kristen's remark!



November Tradition for gratitude thoughts

I often got frustrated at the Thanksgiving table when I asked what people were thankful for. Usually someone would say something silly and then everyone else would. So that's when, on a large piece of paper, I started drawing a tree, with lots of branches and no leaves, to hang on the wall. I cut a variety of leaves from colored construction paper, leaving them sit on a counter with a pen and glue stick. If this is done a week or so before Thanksgiving everyone who comes to our house could write something they're thankful for on a leaf and glue it on the tree. Then by Thanksgiving, we've had time to think beyond tangibles like food, family, God, friends, pets etc to firemen, police, doctors ...
and then beyond to intangibles like Truth, Love, Integrity ...


Two gals had heard me talk about it at MOPS years ago and brought examples of their trees. One drew the tree skeleton and they'd ripped brown paper bag pieces and glued them on, filling in the tree. Pieces were loose and it looked like bark. Another gal had gathered lots of colored aspen leaves and color copied them to cut out for the leaves - reminding me of an old one of mine, still in the garage, on cardboard with real aspen leaves we'd pressed dry.

It's shaping up to be a houseful for Thanksgiving: sons and families, and friends. Looking forward to friends coming from afar, over the rivers and thru the woods ... and yes, to Grandmother's House they'll go. I'm a grandma now!

Me scooping stuffing out of cooked turkey



I do a very traditional Thanksgiving meal. Since stuffing is one of my favorite dishes, I stuff my turkey for that taste contribution to the stuffing. The day before: I brine the turkey, and I cut up a loaf of homemade bread in small cubes to occasionally stir and let dry in a large bowl. First thing Thanksgiving morning I melt a cube of butter in a skillet and saute a chopped large onion and a few stalks of celery. In my mortar bowl I put a few Tb of home dried sage and thyme and oregano, and with the pestle I grind them fine to add to the bread cubes along with several tsp salt and pepper. I also start cooking the turkey organs and neck for broth - both to moisten the stuffing and to have later for the gravy. So once I've added the sauted onion and celery to the seasoned bread and stir to moisten, adding broth if needed, I pack both the turkey neck and body cavity. Then skewer and tie closed, tying in the wings and legs close to the body too. 

I cook my turkey covered the whole time - then there's no need to baste. It sits on a rack in the pan. I put the pan in a preheated 450 degree oven and immediately lower the temp to 325 degrees. Since I always do large stuffed birds, I always cook them 18 minutes per pound. They've always cooked through (stuffing should be at least 165 degrees) and browned well. We remove the bird to a cutting board. I make a paste of about 1/3-1/2 cup flour and water to start cooking the gravy in the same pan the turkey came out of. I'll add broth and potato water to the pan drippings for making a great gravy. This'll need to simmmer at least 30 minutes to rid any raw flour taste, and it'll need salt.

When you invite guests you have to let them bring food. So I let them do what they want with green beans, sweet potatoes and pies. I'll start cooking the potatoes just before the turkey is done. I save all the drained potato water. I let butter melt into the potatoes. The potato water will be used for mashing the potatoes (since I add in lots of butter, I don't use milk) and adding to the gravy. Sometimes I make rolls, or else let a guest bring some. My favorite pie is mystery pecan, so usually make a couple of them the day before.

I often make a fresh cranberry relish with a whole orange (someone will often bring traditional canned cranberry sauce), but this year I'm going to try a fermented version of the relish. And I'm wanting a veggie tray with dip for earlier in the afternoon snack. SO ... today I'm doing to make up the cranberry relish and start veggies fermenting as well. I've got cucumbers, carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli. I'll start tasting them all in a couple days to see if I want to refrigerate to slow the process or let them keep on fermenting till Thanksgiving. I'll take pics and post ... so check in later for a report!

One year I wrote 'gratitude' instead of 'thanks' on the tree chart. It's just something I'd been pondering ... It's an 'at the heart level' thing. Gratitude could change the world!

Linked to: Or So She Says, Food Renegade, Six Sisters Stuff, Frugally Sustainable, Farm Girl Blog Fest, Dandelion House, Simple Lives Thursday, My Cultured Palate, Beyond the Peel, Traditional Tuesday, Pickle Me Too, Whole New Mom, Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday Real Food Wednesday, Monday Mania, Melt In Your Mouth Mondays

November 14, 2012

Our Anniversary

Just letting you know this date is Monte's and my anniversary. We were married in 1975. We are still best friends. We love each other more now than ever.

Our daughter and husband sent us some flowers -


November 6, 2012

Monte's Art

I posted this earlier, but am posting it again and adding two new drawings he just finished.
____________________

Monte is writing a book - The Secret of Singing Springs. It's in the editing and formatting stage. He's just finishing up the art work. Monte's got his own unique style. Some of his techniques come from his many years of geologic mapping. I told him I'd like to post one of his pictures, so here it is ...


Elk Fighting

The book's beginnings came from treasure hunts Monte used to set up around our property for our kids and friends, utilizing orienteering skills. Now it's evolved into more of the areas surrounding us where they've played, built forts, and hiked. Some local history, including my family's history, has been included in the book now too.

He'd want me to add that our first date was us sitting on a mountainside sketching. Monte sketches more photographically real. Like on that date he only got 1/10th of a tree we now have hanging in a hand-carved frame he made. I sketched probably ten things that date.




November 4, 2012

Ginger Ale

I just posted about all my food pets needing feeding. I ended the post talking about a new pet I'll be keeping, thus maintaining, thus feeding - Home brewed Ginger Ale. Monte loves this, especially with meals. Guests have really liked it too. So it's a keeper.

Ginger Bug for Ginger Ale





GINGER ALE
First I make a ginger bug.
Scrub a fresh ginger chunk, no need to peel, and store in a baggy in the fridge.

Put some water about 2/3 full in a quart jar. Add- 
1 Tb of fresh grated ginger and
1 Tb of sugar

Stir vigorously to incorporate air and dissolve the sugar. Either rubber-band the top with a napkin or something breathable. I might even start doing it in one of my Pickl-It Jars (another past post).

Continual Brew Kombucha crock, Dairy Kefir, and my brewing Ginger Ale to the left on warm mat in back of my pantry





Keep this in a warm spot.
Every 24 hours add another-
1 Tb sugar and
1Tb fresh grated ginger
Stir well

I have a seed starting heat mat on a shelf at the back of my pantry that my Kombucha and Dairy Kefir sit on, and now my brewing ginger. By 3-7 days (mine's usually ready in 4 days) you'll hear it bubbling when you're stirring. This is your bug, or starter, for ginger ale.

1 Cup of the ginger bug will make 1 gallon of ginger ale. The rest of the bug can store in the fridge for the next batch. You might as well make a gallon (or more) -

1 1/2 Cups sugar
1/3 packed cup of fresh grated ginger
1 Cup of the bug
1/3 cup lemon juice (usually 2 lemons)
Enough water to fill for 1 gallon of beverage

Either boil the sugar in some of the water to dissolve. Remove and add ginger, cool and add the rest. Or just stir well till sugar is dissolved.

I don't have a gallon jar (ah, I should be using my 3 Liter Pickl-It - next time) so I use two 1/2 gallon jars. This time I loosely put on the white plastic lids rather than the rubber-banded cloth lid. They'll need to be tightened and shook, or stirred well, every 12 hours.

Start tasting about day 3 to see if bubbling with carbonation and if sweet enough. It can brew longer, but it's usually ready to strain off and bottle. More starter and sugar could be added to a batch not brewing, or just a bit more sugar.

If you want carbonation, bottle to within 2" of top. Cap. Leave at room temp or warmer for 3-5 days to build up carbonation. It will also get less sweet. When to your liking chill till ready to serve. Chilling slows fermentation. I store the extra in my cellar.



Our Cellar- Ginger Ale, Moroccan Lemons, Dairy Kefir cheese in olive oil, Kombucha, Fermented Salsa


Poured from stored jar in cellar and it really fizzed!







NOTE added 11/11 - I know I said to let sit at room temp after bottling for more carbonation, but I've been straining each 1/2 gallon that's brewed about 3 days with the bug into 1/2 gallon jars and storing in my cellar, which is consistently about 48 degrees. When I bring up a bottle to pour into my fridge container it is VERY fizzy!

3/11/13 Note - I'm still making ginger soda, dairy kefir, and kombucha as shown above. BUT I'm often adding turmeric root, which looks related to ginger, to the ginger soda brew. Click here to see that post.








This post Linked to: Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Traditional Tuesday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Monday Mania

Feeding My Pets - Food Pets!

My Pantry




We've narrowed down our pets! Monte and me are empty nesters. When kids come home, they come home with more people, more family. But we've no longer got dogs to feed, cats to feed, rabbit to feed . . . I did get baby chicks last Spring, so I do now have chickens to feed, again. We built a new coop close to the house and they are my "girls" to visit daily - to get eggs. They don't need food and water nor coop maintenance but maybe twice a week, if need be.

My Chicken Coup




But I've taken on lots of" food pets" that need feeding! I saw this term in a bread book. I'm trying to re-find the exact phrase - it's probably in the Levain chapter. I've been known as the great bread maker. I wrote a book almost 20 years ago that people have been using for years - the bread making part having been very helpful. But I'm rarely making bread that way any more. I'm still trying to master the art of true sourdough bread (Monte and the boys have liked all my experimentation). I've had a successful rye sourdough starter for years and years, but it doesn't work for good bread - makes the best pancakes and great crepes. Sourdough starters are pets that have to be regularly fed. Luckily they can be refrigerated when not needing them.

My Ferments




I'm taking a hiatus from my fruit and veggie ferments. What's not in smaller jars in the fridge, I've put them in the cool cellar. We're still getting used to eating these, serving these. Need to remember to put a jar on the table and serve up little bits as a meal's side dish. Also seeing what we like best. They are great on sandwiches. I'm starting to use them lots in a wrap - whether a lettuce wrap, pita, crepe, or meat roll up. Once I've used up what I've got, I know I'll be making more kimchi this winter. Once cranberries start coming into the store big-time here soon, I'm doing a relish/chutney ferment (whichever you'd want to call it). I'll probably do a pineapple one soon too. And definitely a grated zucchini poblano chili one again very soon . . . LOVE! I'm putting these in my "pet" category, tho I don't have to truly be doing something with them much once they start their ferment, other than regularly checking on them and that they're submerged.

Vacuum sealed ferments ready to put in the cool cellar. I don't vacuum seal anymore (note at end).

My Dehydrator drying soaked nuts




And maybe too, soaking nuts before dehydrating, and soaking flours and concocting and drying cereals and things, are not truly pets. It's just that I'm doing them weekly and they take planning ahead and more messing-with-time. Like am I going to soak to sprout and then dry and grind into flour? Or soak flour and make the recipe? I've done posts on lots of this stuff if you look at my labels and read as to the health benefits.

Soaked and dried 'cold' cereal - still tweaking recipe for chocolate one - Monte wants it more chocolaty!



My Water Kefir with molasses and mineral drops




Every 48-60 hours I'm refeeding my water kefir and dairy kefir. I don't mess with second ferments on the water kefir as others do, like my son Travis. I primarily mix chia seeds and a pinch of stevia in the dairy kefir for eating with my morning fruit, shredded coconut, and soaked and dried cereal, and sometimes my soaked and dried nuts (eat them moreso later in the day as a snack). But I do have extra dairy kefir for salad dressing (I've finally got a favorite - cross between Ranch and Caeser - I'll post recipe sometime). I'll occasionally strain off the whey for use in ferments, using the very strained kefir as a cheese - either mixing with seasonings as a spread or even adding with virgin olive oil as a kind of shelf-storage way of preserving it.


Ginger Ale, Dairy Kefir, and Continual Brew Kombucha on heat mat (only in the Fall Fruit-Fly season does the kombucha need a rubber-banded cloth cover). NOTE:! I no longer brew all these close together - contamination! my kefir suffered the most!



Five days after I've replenished the strong sweetened black tea for my Kombucha, I start tapping off some from my continual brew crock, to taste. When the weather is hot, it's often ready to totally tap off, jar, and re-feed in five days, no matter it sits on a seed starting warming mat. In winter it brews longer - more like every 6-7 days. I taste for the between state of not too sweet and not too vinegary. I'll occasionally buy one at the store to see if I'm still up to par - SO expensive, when I'm making it for peanuts (where'd that phrase come from?). I don't mess much with second ferments of kombucha either - liking the original a lot. I jar up all that'll come out of the crock tap till it stops, then dump on top of the scoby the cooled room temp strong sweetened black tea - 1 1/2 gallons. So that's about what we drink each week of Kombucha.

Besides making wine, I've got a new brew I'm regularly making . . . Ginger Ale. Monte loves it with his meal! It's also good mixed with kombucha or water kefir. I'll do that recipe alone in a post rather than adding it to this one. And occasionally I make Beet Kvass.

Enough on my pets!

Note 10/20/2015: I did the vacuum sealing my first year. But ferments are alive and most of them popped the seal as they aged. I find just capping them well and storing in a fridge or cool cellar, they keep well - just make sure of submerged ingredients! Also, trying to vacuum seal will often pull out some of your brine - you want all your brine!


Linked to Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Simple Lives Thursday, My Cultured Palate, Beyond the Peel, Pickle Me Too, Whole New Mom, Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Dandelion House, Farm Girl Farm Fest, Fill Those Jars, Prairie Homestead Barnhop, Monday Mania, Melt In Your Mouth Mondays
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