ceojr1963's Profile
Cocoa butter
I bought a pound of raw cocoa butter from Nutsonline. I got it along with an order of several other things just today. One big round piece that is solid and nice smelling, It was double wrapped.
Making Creme Fraiche
morwen, I'll have to agree with you the second batch which I started this afternoon using a 1/4 cup of the mother batch as a culture, has thickened in about 6 hours. The mother culture is in the fridge to chill and ripen as per the instructions I was following.
Very cool, One more thing I can add to my recipe list.
Buttermilk - True or False?
I used to make my own butter using heavy cream poured into a glass jar and shaken till the butter fat starts rolling around inside. It can make your arms tired but the butter is very sweet and clean tasting. The left over liquid is buttermilk, it can sour if left out at room temp. for a while, but not like it did in the days before modern processing.
The reason why our milk when it goes bad is horrible is because of the killing of the natural bacteria through pasteurization, they would sour the milk and make it still usable. Today they are gone and the milk goes bad becoming only good for the compost heap.
Finding a source for raw milk can solve some of this for you. If you can't get that then making do is all you have left.
Need To Make Creme Fraiche...
I am thinking you made the same thing. Sour Creams found in stores are much more tart than creme fraiche, at least from what I have heard. If you have been making what you call sour cream, it can also pass for creme fraiche, because the recipe is the same.
Making cheese has been one of my projects for years, I just never got around to do until now.
Making Creme Fraiche
Just in case it was because Ultra stopped the enzymes from working, and normal didn't, I added more Buttermilk than the recipe called for. Double.
Now 5 hours later, the cream is starting to thicken and has a tangy taste, but not as sharp as the buttermilk.
I'll let you know what happens next.
Experiment suggestion for bean growers
Likely you won't find a taste difference. The point to growing the three plants in the same general space is that they grow at different levels, and harvesting each will not distrub the others. Beans used were of a vining species and needed support anyway. It is a form of intensive growing where you plant without using as much spaceing between plants. Something you can do when you use hills or raised beds.
Can I bury my kitchen waste in the garden rather than composting in a bin?
Start a composting worm bed. Youtube has some great videos explaining how to start them, http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22worm+composting%22&search_type=&aq=f
As to your unused section of beds, you can either grow things there that you give as gifts to nieghbors, or friends. Or you can grow covercrops that fix nitrogen. Buckwheat, is good and offers local bees something to snack on. Be sure to cut it before the seeds set to long. If you are going to let it stay fallow, being a raised bed I would at least lay down a layer of mulch, so that the sun does not leach out the nutrients in the soil.
Reuse of soil in containers
The best way to compost if you are limited on space, and even if you have space is to use worms. Red wigglers being the best for this. You can go to you tube and type in "worm composting" and get several videos of how to make a small scale worm bed.
I grew white wroms for a tropical fish breeding business I had about a decade ago. Growing worms in the house is not that hard. Most vermiculture folks have worm beds somehwere in their gardens.
It'll be a compact way to get rid of your vegie scraps from cooking as well.
Can you reuse potting soil post-blight?
You might be able to bake the soil. An hour in a 250 degree oven. If you have a lot of the soil, might just be better to find a grassy knoll somewhere and pitch it on.
So you want to grow figs?
Thanks for the information. I was wanting to add figs to my garden this year. I was out in the wilds of town one day a few years ago and found a fig tree with ripe figs on it, so ripe they were almost falling off. Before then I had never had a fresh fig. I would guess from reading on the site you mentioned that they were a light colored fig as these weren't of dark color. I ate just about every one that I could reach, I was above them on a wall, with no way to climb down to the tree, I was picking them off the top of it.
I feel in love with the taste of them fresh. Likely not something that I can keep on hand all year long, so I will have to learn how to grow several different kinds that mature at different times, if that is possible.
Is it crazy to start tomato plants (from seeds) now?
It is better than wild turkey without it. There are a few knockoffs out there now, which aren't as good. It is best chilled or over ice, but ice melts to fast in the glass, so best to chill it.
Thanks for asking.
Surplus of Buttermilk
I drink buttermilk a lot, I like bulgarian buttermilk because it is thicker. But when I am down to my last pint, I add about a tablespoon of ground cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons sugar, mix it up (shake the jug) wait about 24 hours and shake it up and pour some into a glass. It makes a nice sweet drink. My Dad told me it was an old german recipe, I have not gone about looking it up to see if it is or not. He worked for a german farmer about 50 years ago, and was treated to it.
Making Creme Fraiche
All the recipes I have read or watched, tell you not to use Ultra Pasteurized cream. My problem is in my area it is hard to get plain single Pasteurized cream.
What would the result be if I did use the Ultra Pasteurized cream? Would I need to add more Culture ( in this case Butter Milk ) than I would for the the original recipe, or will that still not work?
Thanks for any help.
Curb Salt Use - Yay or nay?
I still crave salt, even though most of my salt intake is sea salt. The minerals that Ground salt has in it, might have been leached out over time. Sea Salt is still filled with minerals found in the ocean water, the amounts are very small, and varies from salt source to salt source.
Like I mentioned else where in this thread, I don't always crave salt, it is not something that I pour on foods.
A Chef knows that you don't salt some things till the last of the cooking process. It is not salted then cooked, that will make things taste salty after cooking. Let the flavors blend first, then add salt later.
What I don't want happening is them changing the flavor of the foods that I do buy at the grocery store. If they lower the content a bit at a time they can train your taste buds to not notice it so much and reduce the levels.
Charles.
Curb Salt Use - Yay or nay?
Try for not eating foods that are heavily processed, cook as much with fresh vegies as possible. Watch your own salt intake.
Myself I have always loved salt. Used to love rock salt as a kid, and can't figure out why my salt intake can be really high and I don't have high blood pressure, or any noticable illness because of it. There are days that I just crave salt, and others that I don't. I don't salt many foods, I use several no-salt recipes adding in herbs for the zesty tastes.
But generally speaking, in times past salt was a way to kill the germs that made food go bad. Bacteria is killed by salt. So going totally no salt might not be good for foods either, because spoilage can ramp back up. We just need to watch what we eat.
I am always afraid, the health police will start down a road of banning everything they can think of that is bad for humans, After all, we do produce a lot of CO2 when we breath.
People should police themselves, not Gov't rules, people should speak up and tell the product makers they like less salt, by not buying, or by changing brands, or mail to the companies. Making Gov't rules can get us into further danger and get messy too.
Charles.
RI company recalling 1.2M pounds of salami
I wonder what they can do with all that food, They recall all of it. But not all of it is bad, it just goes to who that we are not as secure in our food sources as we think we are.
Charles.
Arkansas makes it into the real world.
For those of you that might ever make it to Arkansas, we aren't as backward food wise as someone might think. About 14 months ago I was dying to try Ashley's in the Capital hotel. I passed by the windows everyday walking down Markham going to and from a Homeless feeding station that I was doing work at. I am on a limited income, but I do go out to places when my "saving for a great place to try new fund" reachs the point that I can have a nice meal and leave a nice tip stage. I like to have that at about $150 just to on the safe side. I don't always spend that kind of money, but it is a goal to treat myself if need be. I call it my Vacation in town fund as well.
Finally I walked in and asked to see a menu, just to see what kind of pricing and meals I would be looking at. I don't buy the first time I go in, I just look around, and window shop, it makes the experience all the more refreshing. They were friendly and I chatted for a bit.
Two days later I came in early They are open At 6 Am, or did back then. I was the only one in there, That is a nice feeling. Tell yourself, you are a king and this is your place, it helps with the experience. I met Cliff my waiter, he was willing to chat. I told him that as a local author I liked to go out everytime I had enough money saved up to enjoy myself. That my father was an Executive Chef before I was born, so I have been trained very well, though I don't have a piece of paper proving it. After getting some of the Chef's special yogurt he was thinking about using in a recipe, I felt like family.
I have had many breakfasts, and several lunches there. When my "saving for a great to try new fund" hits it's 150 dollar mark, I have gone back to Ashley's instead of going elsewhere.
One day while just stopping in to chat and warm up, the walk had been cold that morning. Todd another morning waiter, treated me on the house to coffee and pastries. It felt like waking up in Heaven and having the first meal.
Sadly I have not been back for a while Almost 9 months, other places have been getting my fund money, but they haven't been places to eat for myself.
Just thought you'd like to see something of the great wide good places here abouts.
Cheers,
Charles.
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Ashley's Restaurant - Capital Hotel
111 West Markham Street, Little Rock, AR 72201
Is it crazy to start tomato plants (from seeds) now?
One of the things that I have found with tomatoes is that if you can give them loads of room for root developement you can have fruit faster in the season and stronger longer.
Start the seeds, as the plant grows and has gotten to a stem length of 6 inchs, repot them and snip the leaves until all you have left is the terminal bud at the tip. cover all the stem until it looks like all that is showing is about an inch of top. the Old wax 2 quart jugs of juice or milk work to help bury the stem. Tomatoes can form roots anywhere along the stem, if they were left to lay down outside or covered they would root.
When the plant in your qt milk jug is 6 to 8 inches tall, Lay it in a trench in the ground or in a long planter pot, being careful to get as much of the roots and stem under earth. Snipping the leaves until you only have a few small ones and the terminal bud sticking up out of the soil. Outside, put a bit of paper bag around the stem to ward off cutworms. Inside you might still do that to get a straighter plant.
Cover the thrench with mulch, even inside in your pot, it'll help keep moisture in the soil. I have never had any problems with this method. I first saw it on an old Victory Garden episode about 20 years ago or so. The first fruit set is usually about 6 inches off the group. Outside in Arkansas, my plants can get 10 feet tall before frost.
With the light levels and temps you say you have, I don't think you should have any problems growing them even in the winter months. I have been gardening for over 35 years, I started when I was 11.
For inside there are several bushing types, I have used them outside in Edible Landscaping.
Cheers,
Charles.
