throwing the baby out with the bathwater

It's the 1st of September and this is my 100th post.

Is this significant?

(If you're me - not particularly).

Or does the theory of coincidence rely on selectively noticing stuff, 

because you happened to notice something else the other day?

(If you're me - probably).

But sometimes the cosmic latticework does start to twitch,

and things that seem unrelated start to come together.

Okay - so I know you're thinking 

'Enough already with the pickling!!!'

I promise this is it for a while….

(fridge now groaning with fermented delights)*

I genuinely started all this pickling malarkey from the basis of:

• grow cucumbers in hotbed at work every year
• end up with so many that you can't even give them away
• love brine pickled cukes
• am expected to research/experiment with traditional food growing/storage techniques
• pickle some - it's a no-brainer, right?

But as soon as I started reading up on what to do, I stumbled into the world of the new 'hottest thing in nutrition' - lacto-fermentation. This has nothing to do with dairy by the way, the 'lacto' bit refers to the lactobacillus which proliferate during the fermentation of the veggies. The finished products are alive, unlike the store bought ones, which have been pasteurised for shelf life at room temperature. This is pro-biotics but without the expensive branded yoghurt drinky things.

So far, so what?

I know - the last hottest thing was cupcakes and minted pea puree!

But there is a whole pile of research being done into links between gut health and immune responses - including out of control immune responses like allergies. Better brains than mine are applying themselves to this and I'm not saying that it's a retro fix if you've already got severe allergies. But it does seem to make sense that biodiversity is a good thing when it comes to your guts as well as your garden. Inclusion of bacteria rather than exclusion, especially in early life, is being preached…

Now, I've always been in favour of what I would regard as a normal amount of sluttishness in the housekeeping department, and am a long time believer in 'Eat dirt, it's good for you!' (Having said that, I've just been scrubbing the crap off from round the back of the kitchen taps - but that's mostly displacement activity because I'm supposed to be filling in my tax return). Nobody wants to live in squalor, but maybe in our quest for a hyper-clean, pasteurised life we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater…

...glass of bathwater anyone?

* lacto-fermented radishes might just be my new favourite thing in the world ever. All the deep savouriness of a good runny cheese combined with a delicate vegetable pickle. Umami, huh? Who knew?

pickle-tastic

update on batch 2 of my lacto-fermented brine pickles….

pickle-tastic!!!

4% brine

7 day ferment

zingy, tangy and suitably sour

They're in the fridge now

(making friends with Iestyn, the sourdough starter).

I'll spare you from updates on improvements in our gut health,

but I'm excited about their pro-biotic aliveness.

They'll be going in some salsa verde tonight;

we're having roast lamb.

Yummo!!!

Now then - what can i ferment next?

I'm thinking carrots and cauliflower...

pickle update

Update on the first batch of pickles:

Bleeeuurgh - wahaaay too salty!!!!

(But with good flavours developing underneath).

They had to go in the bin…

life's too short to de-salinate a pickle.

Undeterred, I had a quick trawl through the internet for advice about brine strength. 

The first batch was 40g salt to 500ml water - that's 8% brine. 

Batch two is about half that strength.

Watch this space….

pickled snozzcumbers

Last year I was going to pickle cucumbers…

and not just any old pickle,

proper old fashioned brine pickles.

Lacto-fermentation, hell yeah!

Last year I bought Alys Fowler's lovely book,

and read all about how to do it.

Last year the builders arrived at the end of July,

and ripped the kitchen off the back of the house.

But this year…

I'm doing it - look!!!

Cucumbers from the hotbed.

(Siân said they look like the BFG's snozzcumbers).

I love that half the aromatics are from the garden,

including tannin rich vine leaves for pickly crispness.

The previous owners of the house were Italian 

- Grazie Sr Sanna!

We get through loads of brine pickles in this house,

but the store bought ones are pasteurised,

which knocks out all their pro-biotic goodness.

It's Day 3 and there's definitely something happening…

Some bubble-age, a pickly tang in the air,

and a colour change from summer green to gentle olive.

There will be updates 

(for all you pickle fans out there).

xxx

hotbed update

The seeds that I sowed in the hotbed back in March are now ready for transplanting out into the open garden.  There is a bucket full each of kale and cabbage plants, and enough seedling leeks for two decent rows.  I also have about twenty parsley seedlings that I'm hoping are at that 'hard to guess' moment - big enough to make it past the slugs, but small enough that the transplant process won't make them bolt straight into their flowering phase.  I'm sowing more leeks and cabbages straight into the ground but my hotbed babies should produce a much earlier crop.

'Brunswick' cabbages

young brassicas ready for transplant

As you can see the it's still very cosy in there.  Obviously the air temp has caught up somewhat by now, (although you wouldn't believe it listening to the rain hammering on the roof as I type this).  The important point is that the temperature doesn't fall away at night and the glass light protects the plants from being battered by the weather.

mmmmm - toasty!

I've put 6 cucumbers in there - okay, so I have to admit I cheated and started them off in pots on a sunny windowsill. This is my first go at this and I just wasn't sure how long the warmth would last, next year I'll have the confidence to sow in-situ.  I realise this picture makes it look like the Norman Foster glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, but it's just my lil old hotbed.  *smiles with fake modesty* 

cucumbers in the hotbed

The cucumbers are a variety called 'Parisian Pickling' from Real Seeds, which claim to be good as a gherkin/cornichon for pickling but also okay to grow on as small salad cucumbers.  Previous hotbeds have produced big gluts of prickly skinned fruit that no-one was interested in buying - we couldn't even give them away, which seems a bit sad. We get through tons of pickled cucumbers in this house - my favourites are Mrs Elswood's Haimisha and the Ogorki Kwaszone ones from the Polish section in the supermarket.  So it seems like a no-brainer to put the two things together and have a go at pickling my own. I'm getting in touch with my inner granny - maybe I'll start wearing a headscarf tied under my chin too.  Watch this space...