cucumber agua fresca

When I went to Mexico many years ago, everywhere I went had large jars of agua fresca sitting around for purchase. At the family home each morning a large jar was made up for drinking throughout the day. I was hooked and for years after returning I made but like many things, for some reason I stopped. This year, after having a bumper crop of cucumbers from the gardens I found myself looking for cucumber recipes of different sorts and ran across one for a cucumber mint agua fresca and boy is it good! The color is a bit weird I must warn you but do not let that stop you from drinking it.
For those that do not know what an agua fresca is, it is basically a natural made, no chemical added Kool-Aid type drink. Fresh fruits are blended to a pulp, drained and simple syrup is added to it. It is then refrigerated and served over lots of ice.It is very refreshing on its own and is excellent when served along side spicy foods. It's also a great way to use up fruits and veggies that you have too much of.

2 pounds cucumbers
1 cup mint leaves
1/4-1/2 cup lemon or lime juice
1/2 cup sugar
water

Trim the ends off the cukes and chop them up into chunks,there is no need to peel them. Strip the mint leaves from the stems. Throw the ingredients into a processor or blender, add a 1/4 cup water and blend into a pulp. You may need to do it in batches. Strain through cheese cloth or fine mesh strainer into a container then add 1/2 cup sugar, the lemon or lime and enough water to make two quarts. Refrigerate and serve over ice.

makin sodie pop

I have been in a soda making kick the last couple of weeks. Today I bottled up some lacto-fermented grape soda, and got ginger ale to fermenting. I then decided to try a little bit of a different type soda since I had all the equipment out and needed something to fill some time this afternoon. Ginger soda is not your only option when making this type of soda. I made the recipe below as well as a batch of experimental flavored peaches and cream soda.. I followed the recipe for making a simple syrup from fruit then added the vanilla until it tasted good to the mixture and added water to equal the proper amount.

Ginger ale

2 to 3 ounces of fresh ginger root

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

3⁄4 cup of sugar

4 quarts of water

1/8 tsp Yeast- bread yeast will work, ale yeast is better

Chop up the ginger root. Simmer ginger, juice, and sugar in 1 quart of water for 45 minutes. Remove from heat and strain. Mix brew with remaining 3 quarts of water. Let it all cool to lukewarm. In a small jar, stir in 1/8 teaspoon of yeast in with 1⁄4 warm water (not hot!.) Let sit 15 minutes then add the yeast solution to your brew. Mix then let sit for 10 minutes. Bottle it up!

Make sure you use clean bottles. Put 2 tablespoons of bleach in a gallon of water. Clean out bottles inside and out, rinse and air dry. To recycle plastic bottles: Pour soda in and twist the caps on tight. Squeeze the bottles and notice how they give. Every few hours, squeeze them and see how they are giving. They will get harder to squeeze. When they no longer give any more, put them in the fridge (1-2 days depending on warmth). If you use glass bottles, put them in the fridge after a day. I have seen many warnings on exploding bottles, both plastic and glass, using this method. I am not sure if it is a common problem or not but do be careful when bottling. Recipe makes 8, 16 ounce bottles.

Here is another variation of this type of soda.

lacto-fermented soda.

part one

part two

part three

okra coffee

I have mentioned  making okra coffee several  times in the past but never have  I explained  why I make it or how easy it is to make.

Anyone that pays any attention to economics knows that prices are on the rise and have been for some time now. Until a  couple months ago we were a long term unemployed couple  beginning to believe that neither of us would ever find work again so everywhere where we could cut spending, we did. Coffee was one of those areas as there are several plants, nuts, and seeds that can make a suitable substitute or used to stretch the real thing.  Of the many things we taste tested, we found the okra to have the best flavor,  be the least amount of work, and  it was something we could grow as a food source for ourselves and the critters  yet still have  plenty  to supplement  our coffee supply.

Anyone that has ever grown  okra  knows what it is like when you miss a couple days of harvesting and it gets away from you. You end up with a giant, tough pod  that is not fit for human consumption. Even a die hard seed saver can  justify saving just so many seeds in a year  so why not  use them  as a different food source?  We plant a lot of okra here on the land  because we like okra and all the critters like okra. But, come the end of the season  when we are sick of fetchin okra every day I leave the pods to grow  and either dry on the plant or pick them once very large and dry  the pods. These trays I obviously picked. The plants were so heavy they were laying on the ground.

Once the pods are dried they will be an olive and brown color and crunchy to the touch. Open them up and  you  will find the seed all  nice a dry as well. Toss the outside to the compost  and roast the seeds until  near blackened. You can do this slowly  on the stove top but be careful as the seeds will pop like corn.  Grind and brew  with same measurements as coffee.  If you  must have your caffeine, mix half and half with coffee and brew.

Keep in mind, this is not coffee,doesn't taste like coffee in the sense we are used to, and there is no caffeine in it. There is  one type of plant in  the USA that does have caffeine and can serve as a coffee substitute and that is in the holly family. It is however  a really economical, easy way to stretch what coffee you do have or  a nice un-caffeinated hot beverage on those cold afternoon.

lacto fermented soda-part 3

After a week of sitting on the counter  fermenting, we finally bottled up the soda the other day.  Taste your soda daily before bottling. When the flavor  suits you it is time to bottle it up. The longer it sits, the less sweet it will be. When filling the bottles strain and funnel into your bottles. Fill to about two inches below the rim. Your soda is then ready to cap.If you are not using a capper and conventional glass bottles, this  process is the same.

 This was the first time that we have used anything close to conventional for bottling the soda. A friend of ours brews his own beer but is going to go to using a kegerator rather than  filling individual bottles. He has donated me the use of his capper, caps  and  3 cases of recycled glass bottles.

The  capping unit  is a counter model colonna capper.  It has an  adjustable shelf on which to set the bottles then you simply  set the cap on top and pull the handle. You can feel when the seal is made. Then all you do is lift the handle, tilt the bottle and remove.

Once the soda is capped allow  it to sit on the counter for a few more days  to continue carbonating.  Chill in fridge and serve over ice. It is a refreshingly. nice soda  that has a  little ZING  to it. Our next batch  will be sassafras  flavored soda and I can't wait to try it as I really enjoy anything made of it. I have recently run across a fermented grapefruit soda that cuts many of the steps out of it. I am hoping to try that recipe  after our next town trip when I can pick up a grapefruit or two.

lacto fermented soda-part 2

Once the culture for the soda is made, it is time to make the syrup. The recipe I learned with was ginger beer but a syrup can be made from any number of things, the choice is entirely up to you. No matter what flavor you make the syrup is made pretty much the same.

Here are the second steps of the process in video format.

you will need a one gallon, preferably glass container to mix your soda in

syrup recipe

 in a kettle combine

2 qts water

2 1/2 oz of fresh grated ginger (bout the size of a thumb)

Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.Shut off heat.

add

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

Stir until dissolved. Strain through cheese cloth into the gallon jar. Add 6 cups of water to jar and let cool until room temperature. Strain 1 cup of starter and add to syrup mixture. Fill remainder of jar with water Stir . Cover with cheesecloth and let sit on counter for 3 days up to 10 days. Stir twice daily. The longer you ferment it the more alcohol it will make and less sweet it will be. There will be bubbles on top of your soda.

Bottle your soda into any container that will close tight. ( glass soda resealable bottles, old soda plastic bottles etc. The smaller the jar the better it will retain its fizz) Fill bottle to about 2 inches from top, cap tightly and allow to continue to ferment for 3 more days. Chill and serve. Fruit sodas will most likely need to be chilled after a day or two as they ferment more rapidly.

The first few times I made our soda, I made it in any container that sealed and it worked. Just recently however I acquired a couple cases of beer bottles, a capper and several thousands caps. When I bottle the batch I currently have  going I will make a post on that system. Its pretty neat and can't wait to try it.

lacto fermented soda-part 1

Soda in the old fashioned sense is nothing like  the high fructose laden, fake colored and flavored, modified, preserved crap known as soda today. It was in fact  a medicinal type of drink that dates back  to drinking mineral waters. The drinking of either natural or artificial mineral water was considered a healthy practice and thus was sold in  pharmacies across the country. The pharmacists selling the water then began to add medicinal and flavorful herbs to the unflavored mineral water and soda was born. They used birch bark, dandelion, sarsaparilla, and fruit extracts. Early American pharmacies with  soda fountains became a popular part of culture. Over time, customers  wanted to take their "health" drinks home with them and a soft drink bottling industry grew from consumer demand. From there we buggered it all up and completely lost our way  as it seems we have done with most things in this country. 

Some where along the path of time, people figured out that through fermentation  carbon dioxide was produced, bubbles were born and all this could replace the mineral water that had nature given bubbles . Of course modern mechanization has changed all that but  over time some folks have kept the traditions alive and some of us are continuing to  learn them and then  passing it on to others.

As with near all things there are several variations of making lacto- fermented sodas. I do not know if one or another is any easier,  better flavored or anything else but I do know this method has worked for us and is currently the method we use to make our soda.  At some point I may run across something that is easier or that suits us better but in the mean time this  recipe works nicely.

A couple things to keep in mind before making the culture or the soda are It is definitely not a soda we are accustomed too.It smells like alcohol, but doesn't taste much of it. The lacto-fermentation process does indeed make an alcohol however it is a minuscule amount unless of course you over ferment.This is not a sweet, syrupy concoction. Though the recipe and the culture both contain fair amounts of sugar, the fermentation process eats most of it leaving you with a very mildly sweet drink.Fruit sodas ferment quickly and will turn into a wine cooler rapidly although I must admit mixed with a fruit juice they are pretty tasty.

Making the soda is a rather long drawn out ordeal. It is a simple process yet as often seems the case with most things old fashioned it takes forever to go from preparation to  edible or in this case drinkable. From start to finish this can be a two week or more process to get your first batch of soda. This is  basically a two step process. First is making the actual starter culture itself.

For those that learn better by seeing things done here are two good videos on  making your starter culture.

Starter culture

In a quart jar add
2 tbsp diced fresh ginger
2 tsp sugar
3 cups water(non chlorinated)
Stir ingredients and cover with cheese cloth and a rubber band. Sit container on counter. Each day stir the culture at least 2x. At one of two stir time, the culture must be fed. At the  desired feeding time add 2 tsp fresh diced ginger and 2 tsp sugar. Continue for one week.Culture should have a few bubbles on the top. At this point the culture can be topped and put in the fridge indefinitely.  A few days before using, pull the culture out of the fridge, measure out two tbsp of ginger throw the remaining culture away. Add  3 cups water 2 tbsp sugar and feed for a few days before making your next batch  of  soda.

alternative coffee(like) brews

I enjoy experimenting with things and one of my latest phases of experiments has been in finding a suitable and economical replacement for coffee if the need arises. I enjoy the caffeine that coffee has however my enjoyment from anything more than one than that first cuppa day is from the hot drink aspect of things rather than a caffeine kick. I really enjoy a hot beverage in the afternoon hours during the winter and i truly don't need the added caffeine at 4 pm.

Why dont i grow coffee you ask? I simply do not have the patience to sit n watch it grow for a couple years and then have it produce one lousy bean nor do we have the space to grow such plants. Besides, caffeine isnt something all together good for us and it is a rather expensive habit to have. I figure why not find something that could either serve as a good drink on its own or use it to supplement coffee supplies should we no longer to be able to afford to buy it.

Now keep in mind fake coffee has no caffeine but at the same time remember there are very few native American plants that do contain caffeine.Also remember that any alternative coffee is not going to be the same as the real thing.

my experiments thus far and my thoughts on each

okra
Okra was my first experimental brew that i made. We had had many many days of rain and some of my okra got out of control and much of it snapped off due to heavy rains. It was not to the point of being able to dry them for seed purposes but eating them was not in the best interest of our teeth. I remembered reading somewhere that okra seed had been used as a substitute for coffee and my experiments thus began.

It was better than i expected and was definitely drinkable. It takes a fair bit of seed to make any considerable amount of grounds.(5 gallon bucket of pods made about 3 pots of coffee). It would be really good to mix half and half with coffee grounds to stretch the coffee. You need more of the okra seed to make a cup of coffee, plain and at coffee measurements it was pretty weak.
It was very easy to make and i actually enjoyed drinking something resembling coffee at 5 pm and knowing i could sleep later on..I will be making this again when okra gets out of hand or at the end of a season and i am letting the okra go to seed .

rice
Next up was rice coffee. I had read that in countries where they grow rice it is often used as a substitute because real coffee was not affordable to them.

This brew was very good. Very nice taste and somehow almost coffee like.It so far has been the easiest to prepare which is a bonus if ya really need a fix and quick. It however it is not economical in any way shape or form. 1/2 cup of rice for a pot of coffee is probably more costly than actual coffee. Perhaps if you live in the Philippines and grow rice it would be cost effective but here it sure isn't.

acorns
Acorns were a staple food to the Native Americans way back when and they are a staple for us at the homestead. We have been using them in many of our foods for the last couple of years now. One thing i had never tried with them was making a coffee until today.

I will probably never choose to make this one again. It was very mild in flavor almost lacking but with the overall taste of tannin water. Just not something i would choose to drink if i had anything else on hand . Acorns are also a whole lot of work to make edible to begin with so unless you use them on a regular basis and have them on hand, not feasible for a quick fix.


I am not sure what I will try next in my experiment on the coffee. I know I enjoy chicory but that is rarely found around here without planting it yourself and why bother testing something you know you like. I do believe I have read you can grind and parch corn and it supposed to be "just like coffee.". If anyone has heard of strange brews but is scared to try them on their own let me know and I will give them a go and report back with my thoughts.

a few photos of my brews