Stinkin' Good!

2" in diameter and smaller.  Little ones I left whole.

If life gives you green tomatoes, make? What life in Bend delivered to me in the garden was green tomatoes too small to fry but perfect for pickles.  Years ago I had eaten a pickled one that had seriously caught my attention. Garlic! Salt! Tangy tingles! Hadn't tasted a pickle so good since.

Normal pickles are made with vinegar. Spectacular pickles are fermented!  That was the key I had missed.

Three heads of garlic for this recipe: Wild Fermentation by
Sandor Katz

Grape or oak leaves for crispness

The only difficult part is waiting for three weeks for them to be really good.  Fortunately, they needed to be checked everyday and sampled to verify their progress. Terrible job, but someone has to do it.






The day they were terrifically finished, I put them in jars for the fridge and to give away.  That was the day of complaints!  Bad smells, I was told, really bad smells, like dog farts.  And we had house guests arriving in two hours.  Not acceptable, I was told. Hooray! These pickles are stinkin' good!  Airing the house is one of the things I get to do today.  Small price to pay.

A two-gallon crock and dried dill weed.

Finished pickles.

Animal or Vegetable?

A large grain is floating close to the
surface next to the tea bag.*

I'm making Kefir.  I bought "grains" and put them in milk.  Most folks know about kefir made with milk, but the water one was new to me. Curiosity put water kefir grains on my order list as well, and I soon found myself the proud mother of grains for milk and water.

  Back lit, the jar of solution shows many grains at the bottom.

One of the Things I get to do today is find out whether these little critters are animals or plants. My reading from the well-known source, Wikipedia, says they are a combination of yeast and bacteria. That makes them closer to animals, but still on the middle of the fence, I think. Either way the kefir milk and the kefir water are both delicious and fabulously good for the body. If you are thinking of getting a useful pet, I recommend you grow some these guys.








*Water Kefir Directions:
Add the grains to a cup of water, one tablespoon sugar and an herbal tea bag.
Cover with a breathable material like cheese cloth or a paper towel since the fermentation process, which takes two to three days at room temperature, requires air.
The resulting liquid smells like sourdough, is slightly sweet, a bit fizzy, and has a 1 or 2% alcohol content.  I ordered my grains from www.kefirlady.com.