New Things I've Tried Lately (Fermenting/Preserving)

I feel a kind of fulfillment in my heart when my kitchen is bubbling from different ferments and there are little tasks to do around the kitchen to use up seasonal harvests. Being here in the south has given me a new rhythm to abide by and a very conducive climate to get things bubbling!

I’ve made jam in the summer pretty routinely in the past, but never had success with vinegars or kombucha. They would peter out and I would give up. But this summer I decided to give them another go and had great success! So here are a few things I’ve been tinkering with and preserving since arriving in South Carolina two months ago.

I’d love to hear what you’ve been making too! Fall is around the corner and I’m looking forward to some cider and apple sauce making next.

Not pictured in terms of preserving are bags of frozen fruits. I froze oodles of blueberries we picked as well as sliced peaches and nectarines from our local orchard. I love having these to pull out for cooking into desserts or blending into smoothies later in the year.

Below are items I either canned or fermented, but did leave out the jar of sauerkraut we already made and dug into. We added local carrots and beets to our typical cabbage kraut and it turned out wonderful. I could do a separate post on sauerkraut later this year if you’d be interested!

Happy mid-summer :) what have you been making?!

x Jessie

Peach Vinegar

I had only ever made apple cider vinegar before but my friend shared about this variety and I had to try. It is incredible. By far my favorite vinegar I have ever tasted!

Here is a link to a simple tutorial to try. I used fresh peaches with sugar water I heated then cooled before adding to the peaches. After the fizzing went down from daily stirs in mine it began to smell like vinegar. I let this go several weeks then tested with a PH strip I had on hand for kombucha making, it landed right at 3.0 so I strained it into this bottle (making sure to pass along the mother into the bottle, however) and placed it in my cupboard.

This is amazing in salad dressings or sauces that typically call for apple cider vinegar. Sometimes I simply sip a spoonful or two before a meal to encourage stronger digestion. However you enjoy it you will love its peachy flavor.

Garlic Honey

I have had this simple concoction on my list to make for serval years. After a friend brought me some during a cold this past spring I vowed to make it myself, finally! It’s so simple. You peal a bunch of garlic cloves (I slightly crush mine to jumpstart the allinase enzyme production) and cover with plenty of raw honey.

Let it sit covered for several weeks, or months, giving the garlic a stir to press the cloves down once a day until they no longer float. A small spoonful of this honey with a garlic clove a few times a day when a cold is coming on is such a great immune booster.

See more info here.

Kombucha

This process still amazes me! Scott says this is one of the single handed most valuable food items for me to learn to make, after seeing the price tag on the store-bought kombuchas I favor. Which is surprising seeing how affordable and easy it is to brew!

I purchased my scoby off of Amazon as well as the tea to feed it with regularly. I followed the instructions in the brew kit I received to a tee and it has worked beautifully.

I have made a simple blueberry sauce from fresh blueberries we picked this summer, sugar, and water to flavor with during the second ferment. As well as some of my homemade peach preserves to flavor a second batch too. I currently have my scoby in a hotel in the fridge while I work on enjoying these finished jars (Riley likes a small cup each day too).

I’m about 6 batches in and very excited for apple season so I can try my hand at an apple cider flavor! I’d love to hear any flavors you’ve tried if you’re into brewing as well.

Jams

I’ve been making jam the way my mom did since I was a little girl, washing the jars and filling with piping hot jam to let seal upside down on the counter. This isn’t recommended on any site in America but I hear they still do it overseas. So… don’t do as I do I guess! But this is what I do and it has always been just fine.

I have bottled lemon juice and look up online how much is needed to add for different types of fruit jams to reach the correct acidity when making and add it toward the end of cooking.

Here I have one strawberry rhubarb jar left from when we first arrived in spring, several blueberry jars, a few peach preserves, and some cherry jam that I probably won’t remake because it doesn’t set well without a gel of some kind added.

We love having these on hand! Great for morning toasts but also for layering in crumble bars, using for kombucha flavors, or for filling thumbprint cookies with — especially at the holidays.

Jam making is a therapeutic process for me, I love making a few jars at a time here and there throughout the spring and summer seasons. Usually using a 2:1 ratio for fruit to sugar, sometimes less if the fruit is extra sweet. Always boiling to between 215-220F before jarring and tucking in the cupboard or directly into the fridge to enjoy.