Stocking up (and Sprouting 101)

[pepperhead212]

I have to plan in advance, but I like sprouting a lot of things - legumes, for soups and the like, and a some grains, to put in breads. There is a recipe for sprouted wheat bread that has a unique flavor, unlike any other I've made, from just a quarter cup of wheat, sprouted, and added to a basic WW bread.

 

[larry_stewart]

Im taking vegan cooking class where they use the liquid from fermented sprouted wheat as an ingredient. I used to sprout lentils to snack on. The kids loved them. Ill do other things for salads and sandwiches. Perfect winter gardening thing to do.

 

[blissful]

Im taking vegan cooking class where they use the liquid from fermented sprouted wheat as an ingredient. I used to sprout lentils to snack on. The kids loved them. Ill do other things for salads and sandwiches. Perfect winter gardening thing to do.

Are you fermenting vegan cheese? I was just reading up on fermenting the vegan cheeses using the liquids of sprouting. I haven't done any of that, at all. My vegan-ish friends keep telling me, 'you must try it'!

 

[larry_stewart]

Are you fermenting vegan cheese? I was just reading up on fermenting the vegan cheeses using the liquids of sprouting. I haven't done any of that, at all. My vegan-ish friends keep telling me, 'you must try it'!

I've done it in the past. Thats where I learned about " Rejuvelac ( the fermented liquid from the sprouts). It kinda has that fermented, cheese- like smell to it. Its the type of thing that if you found it in your fridge, you're probably think it was something that spilled and had to be thrown out. Some of the cheeses I've made were successful, others not so. The firmer the cheese I try to make, the less successful I am. Cheese sauces are easy, spreadable cheese not so bad. As of now, Its impossible to get the ' stretch' that you have in real cheese, and no matter how much they tell you its melts like real cheese, trust me, it doesn't. It is fun to experiment with.

In the beginning of the quarantine, my wife and I took and online/zoom cheese tasting class. They sent 6 different cheeses, and then she went over each one ,where and how it was made ... The Brie was very good, so was the smoked cheese.

Along with the guy I take the classes with , I also purchased the book " Artisan vegan Cheese". by Miyoko Schinner. She has a line of Vegan cheese in stores, and also is well known in the Vegan Cheese making business.



The store that had the online. tasting class was Riverdel Vegan Cheese In NYC ( Essex Market). I've ordered from them a few times ( after we took the class). Very expensive.

Riverdel | Riverdel, The Original Vegan Cheese Monger

Vegan, Plantbased, Dairy free #eatmorevegancheese #vegancheese #nodairynoproblem

www.riverdelcheese.com

 

[blissful]

We picked up 3 of the 99-cent produce bags today, Each one had a package of 3 heads of romaine and 1 cauliflower. Not much variety. We'll make salads and probably some cauliflower wings from that cauliflower.

 

[taxlady]

Chopped cauliflower is a nice addition to salads.

 

[blissful]

4 tablespoons of seeds, soaked in water, and at 3 days, split into two jars.
Sprouts at 3.5 days.

Sprouts at 7 full days, ready to go in the fridge for the week.

 

[blissful]

We're going through about 3 qts of sprouts/week, 2 qts of broccoli sprouts and 1 of mung bean sprouts.

The reduced produce is keeping us in salads still. I hope the grocery store prices start to be more normal. Right now it is high prices or reduced produce (which is really good prices).

In the reduced area-but in excellent condition, 11 and 1/2 lbs of mushrooms for $18. I'm canning them this morning.
Also-about 36 lbs of blackberries for $36, all in perfect condition, nothing wilty, slimy, molding. I've never seen a sale like this with blackberries before (in my life). We're canning blackberry puree or jam by tonight. After the mushrooms are canned, we'll spend most of the day cooking down the blackberries.

 

[taxlady]

Wow bliss, that's a lot of canning you have to do in a hurry. At least it shouldn't make you uncomfortable to heat up the kitchen with the canners going, like it would in summer.

 

[blissful]

@taxlady canning in winter here in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin, is great. It warms up the whole house. What a bounty! Blackberries and mushrooms are two things we don't grow.

Yeah, I was thinking, I'm so glad I have 2 18-qt roasters, and a pressure canner, and a couple waterbath canners. There's no space around for storage...which I should fix, regarding the canning equipment.

The mushrooms are in jars and pressure canning now, 45 minutes. The two roasters are full, really full of blackberries. Once they cook into liquid, we should be able to get them into one roaster, and just cook to evaporate excess moisture to make it thicker.

I might make some low sugar jam or puree with the blackberries but I also want some 'syrup' w/no sugar, for me to use. Blackberries and raspberries are especially good for healing sore throats and mouth sores, should we need that. I would add the syrup to water and sip on that all day.

 

[taxlady]

The mention of blackberries got me wondering again. The only blackberries I have eaten were some that I picked wild. But, I eventually figured out that they probably weren't blackberries, but look like them. The plants, however, were not bushes or canes. They were tiny subshrubs that didn't get over a foot high. They completely covered an abandoned field or meadow. I went down an internet rabbit hole today trying to figure out what they actually were. They were probably Northern dewberries. Have you ever tasted dewberries? If so, how much do they taste like blackberries. I found the dewberries less tasty and less interesting tasting than raspberries.

Rubus flagellaris - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[blissful]

I haven't tried dew berries. If you like them sweetened and they are free, then I'd capitalize on that.

There are dozens if not hundreds of kinds of berries, and the sweetest ones are the more well known cultivated ones.

Off the top of my head, currants are very sour but not sweet but delicious when sweetened. Amla is indian gooseberries, astringent. Honey berries (we're growing these), watermelon berries, saskatoon berries, mulberries (wild), highbush cranberries (we use to grow)...there are so many kinds.

 

[taxlady]

I haven't tried dew berries. If you like them sweetened and they are free, then I'd capitalize on that.

There are dozens if not hundreds of kinds of berries, and the sweetest ones are the more well known cultivated ones.

Off the top of my head, currants are very sour but not sweet but delicious when sweetened. Amla is indian gooseberries, astringent. Honey berries (we're growing these), watermelon berries, saskatoon berries, mulberries (wild), highbush cranberries (we use to grow)...there are so many kinds.

The dewberries were actually quite sweet. They were free for the labour, so we ate a lot of them. They were good, but not nearly as good as the raspberries or the wild strawberries. I was asking more out of curiosity, to get an idea of what blackberries are like. I haven't lived where I can find the dewberries growing wild in about 40 years. I have always avoided paying grocery store prices for blackberries because, I didn't think they were all that great. But, I now realize that I haven't tried blackberries.

 

[blissful]

When cooked blackberries are bright red like raspberries, very pretty, they taste similar to raspberries. Raspberries are sweet and tangy. The blackberries I have here are not very sweet and not as tangy as raspberries. Similar but not exactly. They could be interchangeable in recipes.

We've put one roaster of cooked berries through the oxo food mill to remove the seeds. The other roaster isn't quite ready for that.

 

[taxlady]

So, what I had was definitely not blackberries. They were very dark purple when cooked and didn't taste like raspberries. Blackberries sound better.

 

[blissful]

I finished canning late last night, 36 jars (8 oz and 12 oz) of blackberry puree/jam. What a long day, but, that will keep us in blackberries for a while! I'm looking forward to blackberry jam on pancakes, toast, on cake and I tried a couple of tablespoons of it in a big cup of hot herbal tea, delicious.

 

[larry_stewart]

Lentil sprouts at about 3 days.
I tried a few other sprouts but they didnt work out. They've been laying around my house for like 10 years so Im guessing they just were too old. ( Cress, Cabbage and turnip) . Ive always had luck with lentils. I used to make them when my kids were little and they would snack on them.

 

[taxlady]

Larry, do you just use regular, store bought lentils for sprouting?

 

[larry_stewart]

Larry, do you just use regular, store bought lentils for sprouting?

Yep. Simple as that. Just a few table spoons in the jar. Soak over night, drain, then water aand drain a few times daily. For me 3 or 4 days are perfect for the lentils. After that , the sprouted part gets a little too long and tough for me. feels like your eating a bug with long legs.

 

[dragnlaw]

Yep. Simple as that. Just a few table spoons in the jar. Soak over night, drain, then water aand drain a few times daily. For me 3 or 4 days are perfect for the lentils. After that , the sprouted part gets a little too long and tough for me. feels like your eating a bug with long legs.

Blech... enough to turn this old dragn off! I was the shame of the class and me Mom, I wouldn't eat bugs. It was part of our flying, catching classes... I failed. Great at flying, but I learned to flame early and would just catch and toast them mid air.