The Farm Kitchen

My kitchen is never clean. Not in the way that you may think. Yes, things are wiped and all that, but if you look carefully, you will see things bubbling, steaming, working, growing, fermenting, in every corner of the room. I leave my crockpot out to throw things into as I harvest them. I have a gallon jar of Kombucha fermenting all the time, sometimes two!

My cast iron frying pans are never put away. You never know when you have to throw something together for the kids. And there is nothing worse than pulling out a pan and having it be slightly rusted from not being totally dry when  put away.

Then there is the wormbin. Yes, I have thousands of red wigglers growing and thriving on my counter. I cant say that it is tiny, the thing is 2 ft square and at least two feet high. Good thing they compost quietly and with no odor, or guests would never come into the house.

How about the stove? It is a restaurant style, with 6 burners and a huge griddle. I have to keep the griddle clean because it is impossible to clean otherwise (that and it’s gross not to), but the stove itself is stainless steel. Whomever thought of making anything shiny silver, is a dolt, in my opinion. It is never shiny or beautiful for more than a day after you take the time to shine and buff it. Lame

Today, I am going to make kombucha. This is a fermented drink that tastes sort of like sweet apple cider. I make it 3 quarts at a time, and it never lasts long around here. In fact, when served ice cold, it is the first thing anyone asks to drink. Kombucha  does have a little alcohol in it, less than the equivalent of 1 beer in a gallon of kombucha, but it is something you should know.

Here is how I make it:

3 quarts cold water

1 cup sugar

6 black tea bags

1 SCOBY pad

½ cup Kombucha starter

In large pot, combine water and sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat. Turn off heat, add the teabags and cover tightly

Steep 15 minutes

Remove the tea bags

Cover tightly to keep impurities from falling into the pan

Cool the tea to room temperature

Place the scoby into a gallon sized glass jar

Pour the Kombucha starter over the SCOBY

Pour the cooled tea into the jar

Cover jar with a coffee filter and hold it in place with elastic band.

Let sit until it smells like apple cider vinegar. It takes about 7-10 days in our house.

Pour the finished Kombucha off into a clean jar to use and keep about ½ cup in gallon jar along with the SCOBY, to start another batch.

The scoby can be peeled apart and shared after each batch of Kombucha is made.

Back in the day, I made kombucha for a customer who also bought my raw milk.   Once a week, I would carefully drive down the mountain, with coolers full of milk, kefir and kombucha. It was quite an exchange. I was sort of like the milkman, only I delivered eggs, milk, and other cool foods.

Fermented foods are so important to our diets. I am surely preaching to the choir, but I truly believe that there are good bacteria in them that our bodies really need, in order to digest whole foods like we should. 

So there you have it. My kitchen may seem quiet, but it is actually hard at work, making healthy things for our family. You have to appreciate that.