When elderberry season is here I want to make ALL the elderberry things. Elderberry syrup is a standard every year for keeping our immune system healthy. Some years if I have a large elderberry haul I’ll made elderberry mead or elderberry soda. But this year I wanted something a little more simple. Ever since I…
Ferment
Fermenting is a traditional way of preserving foods that creates a delicious and gut healthy end product. Making lacto-fermented veggies is a great way to use up excess veggies from your garden. I’m also big on making fermented drinks such as kombucha, water kefir, and natural sodas. And of course there’s mead (honey wine) and other homebrews that bring us happiness and joy!
Spruce Beer Homebrew Recipe (made with spruce tips)
Homebrewing is one of my favorite things to do, but I especially love it when I can incorporate foraged ingredients. I came across some nice big spruce tips recently, and when I saw them I immediately knew what I was going to make with them: spruce beer! Homemade spruce beer has been something that I’ve…
Dandelion Mead Recipe (Dandelion Wine Made With Honey)
Dandelion wine is an old school recipe that has been around for centuries. The yellow petals have a honey-like flavor and they make a delicious wine! I prefer to make dandelion mead, as I feel like it is even more flavorful that way. Mead is simply wine that is made with honey instead of sugar….
Fermented Root Beer: Homemade Soda Made With A Ginger Bug
{This post is sponsored by Mountain Rose Herbs} I wasn’t allowed to drink much soda pop growing up (thanks Mom!), but I did have the occasional root beer when we went out to eat. It was always my favorite with its distinctive flavor that was so different than the regular boring colas. Little did I…
Fermented Apple Ginger Beer (Made with a Ginger Bug)
Fall is the season for apples, and apples and ginger go together spectacularly. Ever since I first made a ginger bug, I knew that I wanted to make ginger beer with it, as that’s its traditional use. But then I got the great idea to make fermented apple ginger beer, and I knew that was…
Fermented Elderberry Soda with Ginger and Honey (Made with Wild Yeast)
Elderberry season is always an exciting time. I love watching the local elderberry trees come into flower in the summer, then slowly start producing berries as fall approaches. Fall is by far my favorite season, so this is the beginning of wonderful things to come in my mind! Elderberries are amazing for the immune system,…
Kombucha Soap: Natural Face Bar Recipe
Most of us in the fermenting world know all about kombucha, whether we’ve made it ourselves or just purchase it at our local health food store. What I’ve only recently learned is that kombucha is also great for the skin and makes a wonderful soap! It’s also the perfect way to use up any extra…
Blackberry Mead: One Gallon Recipe
Hot summer days mean one thing to me: blackberries are ripening! It’s usually sometime in August that we start foraging for blackberries, and I always make sure to reserve some for making a gallon (or two or three) of blackberry mead. Of course blackberry cobbler and crisp will also be made, and they are delicious,…
How to Preserve Zucchini: Ferment, Dehydrate, Freeze, and Can
Some summers are zucchini summers, and we are in the midst of one right now! While last year most of our summer squash plants got eaten by squash bugs, this year we have so many zucchini that we don’t know what to do with all of them. We’ve given them away, fed them to the…
Fermented Sweet Potato Kvass
Fermenting foods is one of my favorite pastimes, and I’ve been especially fond of naturally fermented sodas recently. This fermented turmeric soda I made recently really got me hooked! They are so easy to make and can be flavored any way you like, plus they are actually good for you. I had heard of sweet…
