Kombucha and dehydrating veggies

 This is our quart of kombucha just fermenting away.  It will turn into vinegar if you let it go long enough.  Which is what happens when you forget about it...LOL.  If you are interested in making kombucha which is tangy sweet with lots of probiotics, you need to get a scoby.  The scoby, also called mother, is the fungus looking thing at the top of the jar.  I ordered mine from one place where it had been dehydrated but even after they sent me a second one I just couldnt get it to do anything so I ordered this one off of Ebay.  Kind of strange to get it in the mail.  It came hydrated in its own kombucha liquid.  To make it you take some boiled water (chlorine is a no-no), add sugar and steep some tea (with no additives).  I used green tea but you can also use black and white teas.  The scoby will tint.  If you use white sugar and white tea the scoby will be whiter and the liquid will be clearer too.  After you have it fermenting a couple of days up to a week another baby will form on top of the mother.  I usually compost the mother and use the baby for the next batch. 

On to dehydrating.  To begin I cut up all the veggies into 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch slices and spread them out on the racks.  Here are mushrooms.  I bought them on sale at Publix when they had buy one get one free deal going on.

 Also at Publix they had buy one get one free on celery so I dehydrated them too.  I even used the leaves.  They will add a lot of flavor to your soups and stews.

Here is the same batch after dehydrating. 

Here is my dehydrator looking in from the front.  It has five racks.

And here are some onions I dehydrated.  It is amazing how little space they take up after they are dehydrated.  I put them in jars and store them in my cupboard.  I also did some peppers and carrots.  To rehydrate just throw a small amount into your soup.  For the mushrooms we use them on pizzas so to rehydrate them we put them in some hot water and let them sit for 5-10 minutes.  Dehydrating is a wonderful thing I have found and so glad I bought the dehydrator.  It has freed up space in my freezer and fridge and now things arent going bad before I use them.  I'll have to remember to take a pic of the finished jars so you can see how much I actually did.  I'm still experimenting with it.  Next on the agenda is to dehydrate some sourdough starter.  Will let you know how that turns out...

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Sourdough experiments

Well I ordered my kombucha culture a while ago and when it didnt do anything I wrote to the company and told them what I did and how it didnt do anything.  They nicely emailed me back and said that they would be sending out a new kombucha that day and gave me some more suggestions on how to make it work.  When I opened the package not only was there the kombucha culture in there but they had also included a sourdough starter as well.  Score!  Just was looking into starting my own and there it was for FREE!  So I started the kombucha - it's still in my closet the warmest spot in my airconditioned house and still not doing anything but I have hope...  I started the sourdough and it's working!!!!! So cool to not to have to use yeast.  So I made two loaves of sourdough bread.  They rose nicely and looked good but when I opened the oven they were pretty flat.  Kinda disappointing but they tasted really good.  Froze one loaf and kept the other one out for eating with our eggs.  DH only had one complaint though...said it was a little sour...hmmm.  Told him to put some apple butter on it.  Sad face turned into a happy face!  Ohh it tastes good with this on it.  Of course the wife is always right about sweet things... lol.  So I told him if he ground some more wheat for me I would make some more bread and pour off the hooch...strange name for the watery stuff that rises to the top of the starter.

Friday I was in the mood to experiment a little bit more with my sourdough so I made lemon blueberry squares.   Kinda flat again but tasted really good like a blueberry buckle sorta.  DH liked those.  And yes I poured off the hooch before making them.

Today I decided to try to make zucchini bread with the sourdough.  It's in the oven right now.  Smells really good.  Afraid to look though....it's probably flat.  Anyone know how to get it to raise more?  My sourdough has lots and lots of bubbles...Any help would be appreciated!

Talk to ya later!

Denise

More eggs please

The girls are up to 5 eggs today so only 3 more have to start laying.  I guess our talk a week ago got through to them lol.  My lavender jelly did actually set up!  I'm so proud of myself, I actually got jelly to work.  I had it on toast this morning (homemade wheat bread) and it tasted so good.  DH got out the papaya salsa last night and really liked it.  He ate 1/2 pint of it. ;) 

We got our dehydrator the other day.  It's an Excaliber.  Cant wait to try it.  You can even do yogurt in it.  Need to try that out.  I was going to buy a yogurt maker but if I can use the dehydrator that will not only save me money but also space in my kitchen. 

I started our first batch of kombucha today.  Will have to let you know how it turns out. 

It's all good!

Denise