Of Moldy Cabbage and Russian Mushrooms

Okay...so I suppose I should probably do a blog post on this...blog. That is what this thing is for right?

And since the whole idea for me to start a blog was so that I could post all this strange (but rather cool) food stuff that I am experimenting in, I thought the first post could be about that.

So...so far all I have done is make sauerkraut in one of these massive crocks (that are incredibly heavy empty, let alone filled with cabbage, water and salt. O.O). It's pretty cool actually. Looks like something you'd find in a wigwam...or...something.

Anyways! Lesson learned...the little ring around the top of it that looks like you're supposed to put something into...it has a purpose. Yeah...and I didn't realize until too late that you're supposed to put water in it to prevent the cabbage (or we could call it baby sauerkraut ^_^) from growing mold. So...Sauerkraut: Test 1= (we won't say "Fail") Not as successful as we had hoped for.

I'll try again after I get back from my trip in a couple of weeks. And this time...I'll put water in the rim.

Okay! Next thing I have done is this super, oober...strange mushroom thing. It's a Kombucha Mushroom that comes from Russia (Fermentation is...or at least was at one point...massive over there). It's also called a SCOBY, which is an acronym for something...but I can't remember at the moment. It's just a flat, slimy disc that you put into black, sweet tea and put up in your cabinet to forget about for the next month until it's time to drink the tea. It's actually pretty cool if you can just forget about the fact that you are drinking tea that's sat in a jar for a month or more. One of the cooler parts is that a new mushroom grows on the top of the jar if you leave it alone...it's one of those "living foods".

THIS I have done successfully so far. I made one batch of the tea and it was actually pretty good except for the vinegar taste that is normal for the first batch since you have to use vinegar to start everything right. The second batch won't taste like that....thankfully.

We have done kefir for a long while already, so I suppose I can add that to the list of fermented foods that we have going right now.
Other than that...I haven't gotten into it all as much as I need to, yet. Hopefully I can do that in a couple of weeks and get some pictures of what I'm doing and stuff.

Fun and interesting stuff going on.
Over and out for now.