Launching Raw Maine: The Way Food Should Be
Current mood: excited
If you have spent much time with me you probably know I am as passionate about Raw & Living Foods and the Miracles they offer as I am about Tattooing. So... in my precious spare time, I have decided to launch a Raw Potluck to help support and create more raw community here in Maine. Here is more info if you'd like to join me!
Raw Maine: The Way Food Should Be!
Raw Maine: The Way Food Should Be! the Maiden Voyage (June Meeting) Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 5:00PM
It is time for the Greater Portland Area to have its own raw meetup! Summer is coming and with all the lush abundance of the farmer's markets we have plenty of raw bounty to enjoy together. Lets create a place to share raw vegan food with each other, share our stories, experience and raw miracles and perhaps an informative DVD or two.
We'll be meeting on the 3rd (usually) Sunday of the month at 5PM in Yarmouth Maine (just 10-15 minutes north of Portland off of I 295 between exits 15
Kombucha: the Gift that Keeps On Giving!
Current mood: grateful
Category: Life
This year on the Spring Equinox I received a vital and content kombucha SCOBY from my dear friend and conspiratorial comRAde Daniel Vitalis. SCOBY is an acronym for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast. It is clinically known as a zoogleal mat. A few years before I had received another SCOBY from some other folks but unfortunately due to being sweetened with honey from her inception she died and I walked away from homemade kombucha for a while. Now nearly 2 months later with multiple batches under my belt and Baby Mamas off to new homes, I am feeling ready to share what I have learned and how to make a very kind and loving Kombucha brew.
First off there are a few basic rules with Kombucha that are important to follow...
Always use a variety of real tea (aka camellia sinensis) Black, Green, White or Oolong are all acceptable. Herbals teas often have constituents which can mutate or kill the SCOBY, therefore never use an herbal infusion to make your batch. Herbs can be added later to fermented kombucha once it has been poured off from the SCOBY and decanted.
Always use a form of cane sugar. Honey is unacceptable as its antimicrobial properties will kill and/or mutate the SCOBY. Agave & Maple syrup do not work nearly as well and tend to be too "gummy" for the batch.
ALWAYS keep it really clean! Cleanliness is next to Godliness when it comes to fermentation in general. WASH YOUR HANDS!!!! (HOWEVER RINSE WELL TOO! SCOBYs hate antibacterial soap because even trace amounts will kill them)
Always use a container with a wide mouth. SCOBYs like room to spread out and grow the more surface area they have in relation to the height of the liquid the happier they are, tall thin containers are not good choices
PREPARATION I like to start this process in the evening a few hours before bedtime so the brew can cool enough to be safe for the SCOBY.
Unless you already have one, either online or at your local ConsuMART buy a 2 gallon glass jar. Kombucha is happiest in glass, it is easiest to sterilize and it will not leach anything like plastic, metal or ceramic vessels will.
Wash the new container throughly with hot soapy water, rinse and swirl a 10% bleach solution through it, rinse very well with boiling water and let dry completely, check to confirm there is no trace of bleach odor left.
Clear a corner in your kitchen that out of direct sunlight where your colony can grow undisturbed.
With VERY clean hands (using non latex gloves is not a bad idea) put your SCOBY and starter kombucha liquid (1 pint or so) into the clean jar an cover with a clean tea towel and secure with a big rubber band. The SCOBY should lay flat with the creamy smooth side up.
Fill a large pot (I use a 16 quart stock pot as I make 2 batches at a time) with filtered water and put on flame to boil.
To heating water add about 1 cup of Organic Cane Sugar for 6 quarts of water and bring to a boil. A few comments about sugar: you may find that most recipes call for way more sugar than I am suggesting sometimes even as much as 1 cup of sugar for 1 mere half liter of liquid. Daniel noted that he had found that his SCOBYs were quite content on far less tea and sugar than recipes called for. I think she likes to work for it a bit and just like a child with too much sugar Kombucha's personality is way more wired and over the top when she has too much of it, whereas the batches I have been making have a very kind and gentle quality to them and I find I can drink 6-8 ounces without feeling like I am ready to go postal. Personally I like using organic turbinado the most I have also used organic sucanat as well, however I find the batch tends to appear somewhat cloudier than it does with the turbinado. Avoid any sugars that have been herbally prepared as something about it caused my Kombucha's Mama's Mama (her grandmama) to die within 3 days of using that kind of sugar.
Bring your sugar water solution to a rolling boil, turn off flame and let come off the boil then add your tea. For white and green teas let it cool a little longer, for black tea add your tea as soon as you take it off the flame. If using bags just tie them all together and steep I generally use 8-10 teabags for the 6 quart batch. For loose tea I use about 4-6 heaping teaspoons per 6 quarts. You have two options with loose tea, ideally you will put the loose tea into the pot, and let it expand and infuse through the whole area and then when the brew is to your liking pour it off through a strainer to cool overnight in another closed container, or for a simpler approach (the one I more often use) put the tea it into a large strainer that you can submerge into the hot liquid, so that it still has room to expand, but the tea will not get loose into the batch. Timing varies depending on the kind of tea you use: for white tea steep it for 2-3 minutes, green tea between 2-5 minutes, and black tea 3-5 minutes (longer if you wish) A few comments about tea: Personally I prefer the gentleness of the white teas the most, followed by green tea. I do not tend to use black teas at all as I think the higher caffeine levels and tannins make for a more aggressive brew. I have especially enjoyed using Silver Rain White Tea as well as Haiku Teas particularly the Kukicha Twig Tea.
At desired strength of brew: remove tea (bags or loose); cover pot and leave to cool overnight.
In the morning, uncover your waiting SCOBY & kombucha starter liquid and gently pour your cooled tea solution into the jar. Recover with your tea towel secured with a large rubber band (or a few smaller ones linked together to form one large one). Put back into its shaded corner and leave to ferment for the next week or so.
After a week has past you can check your kombucha to see if it is fermented to your liking, I use a very clean pyrex measuring cup with a handle and ladle out a little tea to taste for maturation. A mature batch WILL have a new SCOBY which has formed on the surface of the brew. She will be cream colored and glossy on the top and about between at least half to one centimeter thick (when I used honey in the previous incarnation, the SCOBY would get monsterously thick and if I stood near it I would start to wheeze from the spores in the air). If your SCOBY has not formed yet, patience young grasshopper, it is not ready.
When the brew has matured the way you want it to be, remove the towel and using that very clean pyrex cup with a handle draw off your batch and pour into waiting clean bottles or jars cap and refrigerate. Leave the SCOBY and about 1 pint for the next batch to start.
The bottled batch will keep out of the fridge and will continue to ferment more. The longer it ferments the less sweet it becomes and more vinegary the flavor. It will also become more carbonated with time. I like using 1 quart glass juice bottles as they are easy to acquire as well as clean and the wider mouth makes adding herbs very easy too.
If you desire this is the time to add flavors and medicinal herbs to your bottled brew. I especially like to add lime juice to my brew right after I have bottled it. I find it rounds and mellows the flavor and adds a refreshing "kick" to the mix. I have found that the juice of between a half or whole lime per quart is perfect, or 1-2 keylimes per quart.
SOME OTHER HERBAL OPTIONS MIGHT INCLUDE (to name but a few)...
fresh dandelion flowers picked from your unsprayed lawn I think that these cold fermenting infusions have a special synergy, as the herbs not only infuse into the brew but also interact with the alchemical process of fermentation thus drawing out aspects of the herbs and roots that might not be as available otherwise. You can follow your intuition about what your body needs specifically and infuse brews custom made for you.
At this point you can either separate your newly formed SCOBY from your older mother and start an additional batch, or leave them together. When you do separate them, remember to be very very careful to keep everything clean (I use a clean pirex pie plate to hold the SCOBY while I am separating them and preparing everything) and WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE YOU TOUCH YOUR SCOBY! Once you've made a batch or two you'll have at least 1 additional SCOBY to share. SCOBYs travel well in 1 quart mason jars topped off with fermented kombucha brew (about 2-3 cups) leave enough head room for the SCOBY to breathe and remember to burp the lid if you are going to keep it in the jar for more than a day. Extra SCOBYs can be: shared; composted; blended and used as a face mask and/or used for other fermentation experiments.
NOW with your batch bottled and infusing, and your SCOBYs waiting in their jars it is time to start the process all over again. You will develop a rhythm that will work for you. I find that I like to make batches every 10 days or so and usually do them on alternating Mondays and Thursdays. Well tended kombucha SCOBYs will remain content and in stasis for a good while if left undisturbed, so if a weekly or biweekly rhythm is too frequent, then you could shift to every 3 weeks or even monthly and even time it with the new or full moons. This post may make this seem like a complicated process, but in reality it is quite simple and easy, as long as everything remains CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN you will find the effort insignificant for the amazing rewards ongoing batches of home-brewed Kombucha will give you. Here are a few more useful Kombucha Links Kombucha Balancing Act Original Kombucha on Yahoo Groups World Wide Kombucha Exchange Kombucha Tribe Kombucha Center
No time to be Quiet about Largest US Beef Recall In History
Current mood: distraught
Eh yeah Marge, time to be horrified... On feb 17th the largest recall of USDA beef was implemented. I share because I think it is crucial that we are aware of what is happening to our food in this country. Even if you don't personally eat beef, I imagine that you, like me, love many people who do. I agree with Oscar's freshtopia article and his subsequent comments that this is about more than vegetarian vs others, this is about our government and our food source and the ways that gross violations of basic standards are repeatedly ignored. Whether you are a meat eater or a vegetarian, it is important to take this seriously for the sake of everyone's health and safety. Please take a moment to check out the videos and the freshtopia link below, and if you feel so compelled please spread the word to others, so that our school age children are safe from tainted beef!
My friend Sade did this on her blog and like a lemming going for the big drink I just had to follow...
1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): Henry Volvo
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Chocolate Dansko
3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Blue Pug (yeah sounds really authentic)
4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): Elizabeth Boston
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name) Mooje
6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Red Sake
7. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): John Merrill
8. STRIPPER NAME (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Jasmine Halvah (not really my favorite candy but a well loved one none the less, Ylang Ylang Cacao sounds more like a Star Wars name)
10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your 5th grade teacher's last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Ritchie Rochester
Holy Mole Batman! Raw Hot Cacao
Current mood: zoomy
Category: zoomy Food and Restaurants
In Vitamix (or other good blender) mix: 1/2 C soaked & drained raw cashews 1 young thai coconut Juice of 1/2 lemon 1T well soaked & irish moss (I keep a well rinsed covered jar of it soaking in my fridge for when the occasion strikes) dark agave to taste 2 T raw cacao powder 1 t vanilla extract (or vanilla bean for the purists) good dash ground chipotle peppers dash cayenne pinch of salt For "hot cocoa" blend in Vitamix until it is frothy & warm serves at least two (unless you have a burning desire to fly to the moon, shovel the driveway and get your laundry done too all in 5 minutes)
Note: I added about 1/4 cup soaked macadamia nuts to this as well but the flavor was overpowering so I wouldn't add them next time. I also threw in 1 piece of the carob bliss squares I blogged about earlier this is definitely unnecessary as well.
Protect our Leafy Greens from the Clumsy Iron Boot of the USDA!
Current mood: anxious
Since this is such an important issue and it really needs to be addressed ASAP I am posting this and urging you to follow the instructions at http://cornucopia.org/index.php/protect-fresh-leafy-greens-and-family-farms/more-362 to submit comments about this issue.
Bottom line, as a result of the e-coli spinach scare the USDA wants to regulate leafy green farming policies in a very restrictive way that will impact small & medium farms especially ones that grow diverse crops.
To do this online follow these instructions 1) To submit online: Go to www.regulations.gov In the middle of the screen, you will see "Search Documents." In Step 1, choose "Documents with an open comments period" In Step 2, choose "Department of Agriculture" In Step 3, choose "PROPOSED RULES" In Step 4, choose "Docket ID" and then type in "AMS-FV-07-0090" Hit "Submit." Next, you will see a column titled "Comments, add/due by." Click on the tiny tan dialogue icon, and you are now ready to submit your information and your comment.
This is what I wrote:
As a US citizen who frequently purchases organic leafy green produce from local sources, I am deeply concerned about the proposed regulations in AMS-FV-07-0090. Our small and medium scale local farms are a valuable resource to our state and contribute to our growing local economy.
The costly and overly burdensome regulations for small- and medium-scale growers could drive these farmers out of business which could cause significant financial harm to our rural state. As a consumer of leafy greens and a supporter of environmentally sustainable, local food systems, I urge the USDA to not support one-size-fits-all requirements that would dictate to farmers how to grow their vegetables, especially when such guidelines are not evidence based and are written by and for large-scale operations, not small local farms for whom these regulations would be prohibitive to their sustainability.
I've always found rainbows to be a sign of hope and possibility. A special message from the universe that I am in the right place at the right time. What a double blessing to see not one but two rainbows in less than a week! This was taken on All Soul's Day Thursday November 1st in the Hannaford parking lot. This one was taken on Tuesday November 6th from the back door at Sanctuary in Portland.
BestoPesto 1 scant cup brazil nuts soaked overnight and drained 1 big bunch fresh basil 1-2 T organic extra virgin olive oil 1-2 t balsamic vinegar himalayan salt/real salt/or sea salt to taste In food processor chop nuts till coarse paste Add basil & salt keep processing Pour in olive oil and balsamic vinegar Process until it is a good green paste
In large bowl destem and rip into bite sized pieces 2-3 bunches of very fresh kale (mine was red Kale from the local farmers market, you can use lacinato as it is generally less tough than the standard stuff at the market) Continue to squeeze and massage kale to soften. Add all of the pesto and hand mix thoroughly. Place in large covered container and chill.
To serve Mix good handful of kale salad with a good handful of mixed sprouts Hand crush 1-3 heirloom tomatoes over top and mix together Optional additions: Sauerkraut (photo has pink kraut I just made with red, green, savoy & nappa cabbage & caraway seeds) 1T hemp butter (also seen in photo, hand mixed till thoroughly blended) Raw Salsa
Of late with the glorious bounty from the local farmer's market I have been especially creative with food. I am so excited about my maiden voyage with Kosher Dills! I have a huge 15 liter German ceramic fermenting crock on my counter with 10 pounds of small local organic cukes, 1 pound of local organic garlic, 6 bunches of local organic dill, a handful of grape leaves from the church parking lot where the farmer's market takes place, locally milled sea salt (3 T salt for every liter of H2O), filtered water from my well, and nasturtium seed pods harvested from the amazing plants growing everywhere in my garden.
A few of my amazing nasturtiums!
Amazing Fresh Peach Pie Crumble I don't have any pictures to share of this one, gosh darn was it yum yum yummy! I used local tree ripe peaches from the farmer's market that were so fragile they'd practically bruise if you looked at them the wrong way and boy howdy were they amazing!
Filling Cut into chunks and remove the pits from a good bunch of fresh peaches place into bowl with fitted cover and gently toss them with juice of 1/2 large lime, a pinch of good salt (sea salt, real salt, Himalayan pink salt), and a dash of agave syrup (or honey or maple syrup) to bring out flavors, cover and leave in fridge overnight.
Crust In food processor chop 2 parts raw walnuts and pinch of salt , add 1 part dates, 1 part red flame raisins process till well mixed (scraping down sides as needed), add 1/2 part shredded coconut and process till mixed. Press into pie plate to make crust, spoon marinated peach and sauce into pie, top with more of the crust mixture crumbled onto the top. If you felt so inclined you could also make a cashew or macadamia vanilla creme as an additional topping for sheer decadance.
Pele's Delight Spicy Tomato Soup I made this for dinner tonight and it was glorious, though a tad spicier than I had intended in Vitamix (or other high powered blender or food processor) blend 1.5 quite ripe avocados 2-3 cups local organic heirloom tomatoes both yellow and red cut into chunks 1 very ripe and deep red organic sweet bell pepper (seeds removed) 1 local organic shallot 4 medium/small cloves of garlic 1/2 bunch of cilantro 2 cups Cashew Mylk Kefir (make cashew milk, add kefir grains let ferment 24-48 hours in warm dark space, refrigerate when well fermented.) juice of 1/2 large lime (or juice of 1 small one) .5-1 t of pink salt 1 T sun-dried tomato powder (optional, you could use soaked sun-dried tomatos instead or not at all, I liked the extra tomato flavor it adds) good dash of cinnamon good dash of chipotle powder ample dash of cayenne pepper (to taste) Blend until good and creamy
I poured some into my bowl, added 2 zucchini pumpkin seed flax crackers and swirled a about 1T of homemade tahini basil dressing It was tres yum!
I hope this post inspires you to check out your own localFarmer's Market Imho there is nothing more delightful than produce picked the morning you buy it from the person who grew it, except of course growing your own!
excited
grateful
This year on the Spring Equinox I received a vital and content kombucha SCOBY from my dear friend and conspiratorial comRAde 
distraught
silly
anxious
hopeful
amused
