Category Archives: Food

Food Fermentation Basics

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I used to think that the tradition of fermenting food was just a way to preserve food.
I didn’t realize that it also increases the bioavailability of nutrients and provides friendly bacteria that help balance the gut and support a healthy immune system.

I tired once, in my early twenties, to make saurkraut.  I used a large crock and left the cabbage salt mix outside.  I was a little uneasy with the results and they found their way back to mother earth without touching my digestive system.

More recently I became interested in the process of fermentation when I read about the tooth decay diet.  They suggested fermenting grains as well as vegetables.  I thought I’d give it a try.  I was particularly interested in making pickled watermelon rinds, since I had quite a few watermelon volunteers (Yes, only in Phoenix are you still harvesting watermelon in November and December.)

The supplies are rather easy to get.  I ordered mine from Amazon.  First you need to have a container where you can ferment the vegetables in the absence of oxygen.  A glass mason jar with food grade plastic cap and a bubble airlock with a stopper do nicely. I ordered my items separately which ended up costing about $45 dollars.  The caps were the big ticket item ($28).  I choose reCaps, because I could verify that they were BPA & Phthalates-free. Fermentation basics - jar, reCap lid, stopper and airlockIf you are price sensitive you may want to try this beginners kit which is only $25 and essentially has the same items.  I didn’t opt for the beginners kit myself, because, although it was food grade, I couldn’t find information about BPA and Phthalates.  However, the brew doesn’t normally touch the cap anyway and I wasn’t really impressed by the reCaps I used.

The fermentation process does best when it is warm.  If you want you can monitor the temperature with a Thermometer.  Since it is beginning to get chilly in Phoenix, I used a Heating Pad when it was getting below 65 degrees Fahrenheit.  Most heating pads these days have an auto off function, the one I used is a rarity.  It stays on until turned off manually.

The airlock comes in three pieces.  The main body, a plastic How to use the bubble airlockinsert and the plastic cap.  Remove the plastic cap and the insert.  Then fill the main body with water about 3/4 of the way full.  There is a “fill line” if your eyes are good and you can see it.  Then drop the insert back in and place the cap in position. See picture to the right.

Extra gas coming up from the fermentation vessel with push the insert up a little and release gas to the space above the water.  The extra gas then leaves through the pin holes in the plastic cap.  This device allows the carbon dioxide to leave and prevents any oxygen from entering, allowing the mixture to ferment anaerobically.

Now for the fun.  What can you ferment?  Anything vegetable and then some!  I started with watermelon rinds and green beans.  Here are my recipes:

Old-Fashioned Pickled Watermelon Rinds (no sugar)

Old-Fashioned Pickled Green Beans (no sugar)

Your purchase using the following links supports TESLI.  Thanks!




Malva as Food

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Young cheeseweed plant (Malva parviflora)

Young cheeseweed plant (Malva parviflora) Phoenix, AZ Dec 2014

Malva parviflora, (aka mallow, cheeseweed, and even pigweed by some) is one of my favorite plants.  It is a common weed.  It was abundant in all of my gardens in the Bay Area and now I find it loves the Phoenix desert as well.  Here it seems to have a specific season.  It avoids the hot summer, but sprouts like clockwork once it cools down.

Today I harvested a bunch to use as a pot herb in making a bone broth.  Malva isn’t a particularly exciting herb to eat, but it is packed with nutrients.  In Traditional European cooking it is not uncommon for vegetables to be cooked in water with or without meat to make a hearty broth.  Once cooked, the vegetables are discarded and the nutrient rich broth retained. Malva seemed a perfect plant for this: there is lots and lots of it around;  it is nutrient rich; and the plant itself isn’t that exciting to eat.

Freshly harvested Malva parviflora (cheeseweed)My plan to make a broth started last month.  I bought a couple organic Turkeys over the Thanksgiving holiday, one of them a Heritage Bird.  Since bones tend to store heavy metals, in particular lead, I was excited to get the cleanest birds I could so that I could prepare a bone broth.  Bone broths are rich in calcium, magnesium, and all the other minerals and nutrients essential for strong bones and teeth.

I reserved the bones after cleaning the carcass of the meat in November.  Today, I pulled them out of the freezer and put them in a pressure cooker.  I covered the bones with water (about 3/4 of a gallon) and then filled the cooker up with as many Malva plants as I could jam in (they will cook down to nothing).  It rained last night, so the Malva pulled easily out of the ground roots and all.  The roots are just as good as the tops, so all I did was rinse them off and put them in the pot whole.  Young Malva Parviflora cheeseweed

I cook my bone broth more than other people.  I intend to have the bones so soft they can be eaten without a crunch.  For a chicken carcass this takes about two hours in the pressure cooker.  The turkey bones are a little bigger, so the cooking time is about  three hours.  Most of the bones are soft with that, but the long bones need longer.

What do I do with the bone broth?  Well, I’ve been dreaming about good hot and sour soup.  I’ll use this broth as the stock for one of my favorite soups.  In anticipation of this I made the broth with about a tablespoon of white pepper (the ingredient that makes the soup “hot”).  I’ll add vinegar (for the sour) and then egg (to make the egg flower).  Other traditional ingredients are tofu, stripes of meat, and tree ear fungus.

The Perfect Food Plan

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For years I’ve asked myself whatharvest from november 2014 phoenix arizona would be the perfect diet for me.  (I’ll clarify, right off the bat, that when I speak of “diet” I am referring to the sum total of the foods one eats, not some caloric restriction food plan.)  I’ve have spent years tweaking my food and have found that the way I eat has evolved as I’ve watched how I feel and how my body reacts when eating certain ways.  While I have reasons for all the food choices I make, I also know that each individual is different and needs a different food plan.  Anyone that advocates a one size fits all diet is bound to catch people short.

My most important goal in eating is optimizing my physical health and avoiding lethargy, upset stomach, and headaches.  I know other people choose diets based on spiritual reasons (vegan or vegetarian) or simply on taste or convenience.   Some people, when they don’t feel good, use drugs (coffee, tea, chocolate, ibuprofen) to make themselves feel better.  This actually doesn’t work very well and long term their health just deteriorates.  I prefer to ensure good health with good diet.

When I was a teenager I had headaches daily.  This was in part due to stress.  However, my way of eating contributed to it strongly.  Finally, in my mid twenties I found the perfect food.  It made me not have headaches and I always had energy.  For about a year 75-85% of my diet was nothing but blue corn flakes, soy milk and raisins. I felt great! I eventually, outgrew the plan and that food combo, unfortunately, doesn’t suit me anymore.

These days I’ve settled on a plan that is omnivorous in order to maximize my feeling of well-being, but still I think their may be a change needed.  I don’t always feel great after every meal and I have a lot of cravings.  The cravings are stress induced in part, but I think there may also be a physiological component.   Since I read about the tooth decay diet I’ve been considering changing my food plan.  To protect teeth a diet that limits grains and focuses on vegetables, dairy, and meat is recommended.  (When I say meat, I mean the flesh of animals that swim, fly, and/or walk.)

Food plans are another thing that must be designed based on inner direction.  I get information about food choices from outside sources, but the final word is my own inner experience.  A quick analysis of what I’ve been eating for the past year reveals that I consistently choose meals that are 48% carbohydrate, 14% protein, and 35% fat.  I was surprised to learn how low in protein my diet was.  I always feel like I am eating a lot of protein.  I also thought I was higher on the fats and lower on the carbohydrates.

A typical day looks like this:

Breakfast:  1 cup rice with 1/2 T coconut of flaxseed oil.  A bowl of homemade lentil soup or chili con carne.  1/4 pound raw carrots.

Lunch: Salad:  4 ounces of Kale or other dark greens, 2 ounces of feta cheese, apple or handful of raisins, 1 avocado.  maybe 1 ounce corn chips

Next Meal:  3 ounces figs, 2- 3 ounces sliced cheese

Dinner:  2 slices homemade banana custard rice bread with 2 cups yogurt.

My breakfast was always the same and the rest of the day could vary more.  My goal would be to balance some protein with whatever I was having at each meal.  That’s why I thought I was eating so much protein.

I think my reservations with increasing protein is that I ultimately would like to not have to contribute to the killing of animals or the slavery of animals (milk production).  And while I’m on the topic, milk production can only be possible if a animal has a baby and those babies find themselves transformed into meat at some point.  So, to me, eating dairy may be less ethical than just eating meat.  And this is from someone that has raised and slaughtered animals and kept a few milk goats.  Although, my milk goats were pygmies and their babies were sold as pets and not food.  But I digress,

Anyway, I am a curious sort of person and after reading the tooth decay diet I tried reducing my carbohydrate intake.  This worked for a couple of days then it slipped back up.  Yesterday I started a more concentrated effort.  My plan is to increase my protein to 21%, my fat to 52% and keep the carbohydrates at 27%, roughly.

In my looking around at diets on the web I stumbled onto Dr. Mercola’s nutritional typing and his nutrition plan for beginners, intermediate, advanced souls.  His information seems to be pretty good and at least worthy of contemplation.  The free nutrition typing test he offers relies mainly on self-reported reactions to food and meals.  This is exactly how one needs to be evaluating a plan designed for optimal wellness.  He groups people into three categories: protein types, carbohydrate types and mixed types (which of course is me).  The protein people do best with 40% protein, 30% carb and 30% fat (but that can vary -see his site).  The carbohydrate people (about 15% of the population) are happier with 60% carbs, 15% fat, and 25% protein.  And the mixed people are somewhere in between.  (Mixed types get to use trial and error to figure out the optimal plan.)

What I noticed is that in all instances the protein was higher than what I was eating and substantially higher than the recommended daily allowances.  I’m curious if the change will reduce my cravings.  So far I’m having less trouble with cravings.  Perhaps I’ve outgrown my “perfect” breakfast of beans and rice.  It worked for many years.  More will be revealed.  I welcome your thoughts.