GULP: A REVIEW.
"Those who know the human gut intimately see beauty, not only in its sophistication but in its inner landscapes and architecture." - Mary RoachMy obsession with fermentation, and the effects of fermentation, have beget infinite curiosities over the years (approximately). But perhaps none have been more persistent than my interest in the workings of the human body––digestion specifically. How does it work? Why doesn't our stomach digest itself? Do I really need to chew? What happens to food before and beyond the gullet? So when a book appeared that explained said curiosities––to those of us who don't read Doctor––I saved my pennies and bought it.Then I learned and laughed. A lot and aloud. What Mary Roach has done with her latest work "Gulp" is a taken a mostly taboo subject––the alimentary canal and all it's fascinating goings on––and turned it into entertainment. In this book, Roach explores such themes as chewing, swallowing, digesting, and, ahem - the science behind the behind - then renders them riveting. In fact, "Gulp" is some of the most sophisticated and well-researched toilet humor I've ever experienced.The reader finds themselves thinking differently about saliva, gastric acids, etc., or the reader finds themselves thinking at all about saliva, gastric acid, etc.. You follow the history of each of these extremely fine-tuned inner workings in a book that is equal parts science and hilarity. Could Jonah actually have survived in that whale? How DO they get cell phones into prisons? What important medical advances has our cultural revulsion to feces inhibited? The answers to these questions and many more can be found in the pages of "Gulp"––found and thoroughly enjoyed.- Jesse.
NEW FERMENTATION SHIRTS: A GIVEAWAY!
We have new FERMENT shirts in our online store! To celebrate, we are giving away a Fermentation Package - one of our new shirts and a copy of Jesse's book, Bringing Wine Home.All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and we will select a winner next weekend. Tell us about your favorite fermented food, or a story about a weird experimentation in pickling....it doesn't matter, we will be selecting the winner at random. Deadline for entering will be Saturday, September 21 at NOON central time.Also, we tried doing this yesterday through Facebook and everything went terribly wrong.... apparently this is NOT allowed unless you pay lots of money to Facebook. Oops. So, apologies to everyone who entered yesterday!- Hannah.***COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED***
The randomly selected winner is:
PJ!
Please email us your information at roughdraftfarmstead@gmail.com
Thanks everybody for all the awesome comments and stories!
SUN-DRIED TOMATO KRAUT RECIPE. YEP.
I am perpetually looking for alternatives to canning tomatoes. Not that I don't love me some tomato soup come wintertime, just that I wish canned tomatoes still had the life they had before we canned them. Fresh food is what I miss most in winter––heavily cooked tomatoes simply don't quite fill that void like, say, a kraut or kimchi. And of the many tomato ferments I've read about, I've been underwhelmed. So I've been tinkering.
Sun-Dried Tomato Kraut RecipeIngredients:1 small (organically grown) cabbage1 or 2 large tomatoes (organically grown, and heirloom preferably)Sea saltMake half a quart of kraut (chop, salt, massage and stuff one small cabbage into a quart mason jar with some garlic and hot pepper if desired). Plenty of liquid should have formed, enough to at least cover the cabbage. Top the rest of the jar within an inch of the top with thick slices of tomatoes and make sure everything is submerged (add lightly salted water if needed). Weight the tomatoes down with a bag of water (or however you can keep the solids submerged). Leave covered with a cloth (to keep bugs out) for a few days to ferment on a plate for spillover (as you would kraut). Strain and remove contents (cabbage and all) after five to ten days and sun-dry. Once dried, chop and mix together.What you have is more seasoning than substance, but this bit of dried kraut/tomato can be mixed into soups or pastas, salads or vinaigrettes. The flavor is bright and acidic and should be a little salty. Think of it as potentized tomato that you can simply add to the water in which you cook rice, or a spice you can throw into your meal or just eat as a healthy little snack. The sky's the limit.Variations:I've fermented and dried the tomatoes without cabbage, and I've also cold-smoked the sun-dried tomatoes (for flavor). I think the drying is the key here. I love the flavor the sun adds, but I also like the texture. In fact, alongside many of my fermentation experiments this year, I've simply sun-dried many tomatoes without fermenting them, and I look forward to having these lively little treats around all winter. Oh, and tomato wine. That's a great fermented tomato variation as well––especially for cooking wine.Tips for sun drying:Most sun-dried tomatoes are not actually sun-dried. They are oven-dried or dehydrated in a dehydrator. We are lucky to have a greenhouse to sun dry them in, placed on wax paper or a non-galvanized grate for two sunny days, brought inside at night. You can dry them without a greenhouse, but it takes a few very sunny days, sometimes a whole week covered with cheese cloth and brought inside at night to avoid dew. Otherwise, use the dehydrator or an oven at 150 degrees or less until dry (several hours). Remember, however, truly sun-dried tomatoes always taste best!- Jesse.
A DAY IN PHOTOS: BERRY WINE.
This past weekend, Jesse spent three hours harvesting blueberries and wild blackberries. On Monday, with the help of visiting friends, we made the years first batch of berry wine....and it is already bubbling and smelling good!
