Back at the Bench!

For a couple of years now I’ve been dabbling in homemade fermented foods and beverages. After we’d given up milk/casein (the third time around . . .), I was pretty bummed about it and decided we’d give raw cow’s milk a chance. Many milk-intolerant persons seem to do well with raw dairy, some even claim raw dairy healed their leaky gut and cleared them of their food intolerance(s). That’s when I decided to make my first cultured food – raw cow’s milk yogurt.

It was a daunting, yet exciting experiment.

Daunting because it was raw milk. I grew up with pasteurized milk. As a kid, I learned to thoroughly sniff the contents of the carton before each use to make sure the milk didn’t smell “funny.” (The funny thing is, it probably smelled funny from the day we bought it compared with raw milk!)

It was also daunting because I knew the effects milk/casein can have on Big O – excessive mucus production, raging ear infections, tantrums (and who wouldn’t tantrum when their head is stuffed with mucus and ear drums perforate due to the pressure of an infection?!), and, the dreaded constipation leading to the withholding cycle.

Daunting as it was, it was also exciting. Exciting because making raw milk yogurt was a new experiment for me.

I felt like I was back at the lab bench again. I don’t often miss being at the bench, but on occasion I get a little nostalgic about it. I miss seeing beautiful data appearing before my eyes. I miss pouring the perfect sequencing gel that transferred without tearing and produced tight, straight bands. I miss developing unstreaked, unquestionably clear westerns. I miss pulling out centrifuge tubes to find sweet little blobs of nucleic acid. I miss taking micrographs at 2:00 a.m. singing along with Matchbox 20 blaring and waiting anxiously for the film to be developed later that day to find that I captured sharply defined histological features. I was good at the bench and I miss the satisfaction of producing clear data.

This was an experiment at the bench (a.k.a., my kitchen counter) and I hoped I’d be good at it, too.

I read instructions from a variety of sources and came up with my own protocol. I loved that Big O could be involved in making it and sharing in the wonder of microbiology as it transpired in reused baby food jars in our oven. And, like my old days at the bench, the data produced in this kitchen experiment were good. Really good. Cream on top, tart and smooth underneath. Raw milk yogurt perfection!

But, a short while after consuming our first few bites of data, the detrimental effects that milk/casein have on us began to rear their ugly heads. I had a migraine coming on and Big O was coughing at night and started getting congested. I knew before Big O's constipation kicked in that we would not be able to continue with the raw milk, fermented or otherwise.

Disappointed as I was, I had caught the ‘bug’ for growing bugs in my own kitchen and seeing how they transformed foods was fascinating! I believe that consuming live, active cultures as the main source for probiotics in one’s life is very important. With cultured milk products out of our repertoire, I turned to other fermented foods.

First, there was true saurkraut. Again, daunting at first - it is hard, as a former germaphobe, to leave certain certain foods out on the countertop for a several days before consuming them. But, I did it and it was good, too, though future batches saw more finely shredded cabbage and slightly less salt. As for the Os and saurkraut - Little O will devour it and keep asking for more, but Big O is not much of a fan. I still make fresh, raw, lacto-fermented kraut and usually have some in the fridge, but I continued in my search for that fermented food which both Os would enjoy.

I thought pickles would be a nice choice, so we happily planted cucumbers and dill in the spring. Sadly, the dill fizzled shortly after planting and our garden cucumbers were few and far between this summer, so we haven’t tried our hand at lacto-fermented pickles.

Our garden did produce some lovely Daikon radishes and we did shred and ferment a couple of them. Palatable as it was, I think one batch was a little too salty, and neither batch was something that I could envision any of us would be eating on a daily basis.

Knowing how much the boys love homemade “soda” (sparkling water with fruit juice), and the occasional cane sugar soda, I thought I’d try making non-milk kefirs using water grains. In the beginning, it was a little questionable – water kefir grains are quite finicky and I, feeling all scientist-cocky on the tails of my previous fermented food conquests, too quickly dabbled in changing up the water kefir protocol.

One early batch smelled so terrible that I couldn’t even bear to taste a drop. I immediately went back to the recipe that accompanied the water grains and we began making super tasty water kefir! Little O drinks it down like there's no tomorrow. He actually gets very unhappy when none is left in the jar or, even worse, when he sees the full jar but I have to tell him it is not ready yet. I only wish my grains were multiplying more rapidly so I could start a second (and third!) batch and dabble in coconut water and fruit juice kefirs.

The thing about the water kefir is that, deliciously sweet-tart and fizzy as it is, Big O simply does not like it either. I’m beginning to suspect his own intuition tells him to avoid these fermented foods. They certainly do seem to have an adverse effect on him. Any sort of probiotic in his diet – either fermented food/beverage or supplement form – seems to send him down the irritability/constipation/withholding path. Hypothesizing why this is would be whole other post – suffice it to say I’m thinking mercury/candida/GI dysbiosis and we need to take it slowly on the whole probiotic thing for Big O.

As soon as I get more batches of water kefir going, I’ll start dabbling in flavoring them with fruit and/or fruit juices to see if I can get a combination going that Big O will like.

Recently, I received a lovely kombucha scoby from a good friend and have started my first batch of kombucha. Big O has liked the commercial kombuchas in the past, and seemed to enjoy my friend’s kombucha sample she gave us when she gave us the scoby. A few more days and we’ll be tasting our first batch of kombucha home-brew!

Another (I suspect) successful experiment - we seem to have avoided mold growth and our baby scoby is coming along quite nicely. What's adorable is that the baby, which I expected to develop as a disc on top of the mother, is growing in the hexagonal shape of the brewing vessel! How fun is that?

Our Own Sauce

One evening, not long ago, Big O was helping cook supper when he looked at the label on a jar of spaghetti sauce (for GF spaghetti, of course. . .) and declared to me that if we had the items pictured on that label, that we could make our own sauce. I told him that we definitely could and that I hoped we would be able to make our own sauce from the tomatoes, garlic, basil, and onions that are growing in our own back yard. (Mushrooms - yeah, I'm gonna leave those to the experts and buy them at the store!)

He's been avidly watching the progress of our garden. He and Little O have enjoyed some sweet peas right off the vine lately. A small handful of pea pods a day for a while. They've also sampled the basil on numerous occasions, and harvested a few cucumbers and a couple of daikon radishes. (They weren't too keen on the daikon radish - I'll be curious to see what these radishes taste like after fermenting for a while.)

Not long ago, tomatoes began to appear on our tomato plants, small and green at first. Some of the pear tomatoes began to ripen, turning yellow and bursting with juicy flavor. The mariglobe and jubilee tomatoes were still green, but getting larger every day. Big O saw these bigger, rounder green tomatoes begin to take on a little bit of and orangy-red hue and got very excited. He exclaimed that soon we'd be able to make our own sauce!

Last night, I was watering the garden after the Os had gone to sleep and I picked our first three marglobe heirloom tomatoes. I should've waited to let the boys pick them, but I just couldn't wait! They looked so inviting and delicious! There are dozens (if not hundreds?) more plump tomatoes in various shades of green, yellow, and reddish-orangish-pink, so the boys will have plenty to pick, too.

Though the smaller tomato did not last long, I've managed to hold back from devouring the other two just yet. Another day or two on the vine might have been in order (I always get overly-eager with the first few ripe tomatoes of the season!), so they'll be on the window sill for a short spell.

We've still got plenty of fresh basil growing. As for the garlic and onion. . . I am pretty sure we planted these way too late in the spring - and I'm not sure how productive these will turn out to be. But maybe I can get some organic, local (as in, within Altadena!) garlic and onion by swapping some of our home grown goods within our neighborhood produce exchange group.

Of course, unlike what Big O saw on the label of the jar of sauce, we'll need a few more than two tomatoes. My prediction is that we'll be making our homemade sauce for gluten-free spaghetti by month's end . . . if we can manage to not gobble up all the tomatoes straight from the vine!

Dabbling in self-sustainability. . .

Last year, we started backyard gardening. It was more of an experiment, with our primary focus on providing the Os with a fun, outdoor learning experience. Whatever produce we were able to harvest would have been CF icing on the GF/CF/SF/EF cake. Thanks to poor location choice for planting many of the seedlings and seeds and most frustratingly, our local zucchini bandits, we did not get any real harvest from our garden last summer. You can read more about our 2008 gardening adventures in the April 10 edition of the Orange Cat.

In the course of the past year, I have become intrigued with the concept of urban farming and have realized the significance of working toward being more self-sustainable. I'm not interested in urban farming as a money-making endeavor, though that is an intriguing idea. It's hardly feasible in our yard which is mostly shaded by very old (but beautiful!) oak trees for a good potion of the day. There are only a few patches of our yard that receive, at best, six to eight hours of sunlight on any given day. Not to mention my novice gardening skills.

This summer, we are using the backyard garden as a fun and natural learning experiment again. But, we are expanding on that experiment to include more focus on actually generating fruits and vegetables to help reduce our dependence on produce from other parts of the country and from other countries. Thanks to the climate in Southern California, I expect we'll be able to enjoy some fall and winter crops as well.

To date, we have already enjoyed about 4 or 5 strawberries from our strawberry plant from the farmers' market. Some day, I hope to create a little in-ground strawberry patch and have a larger harvest of one of the Os' favorite fruits. We've also enjoyed one salad with a couple of handfuls of mesculin mix from the back yard garden and some dandelion greens.

It's still early in the season, but our observations to date indicate that we may be on the right track for a successful harvest this year. If we can stave off the zucchini bandits and other four-legged thieves, we might even have enough harvest to share some with our neighbors and to preserve some to enjoy later in the year.