Introduction

[George Wilson]

Greetings all,

I just joined this group last night and wanted to say hi. I have had an interest in fermented foods for a number of years now (about 10 I believe). It started with bread baking (Both commercial yeast based and sourdough based), eventually I discovered cheese making which I have been doing off and on for 6 or 7 years. I am very passionate about cheesemaking and am happy to talk someone's ear off given the change.

I have also played around with home brewing (I make a batch of mead every year- starting about 3 years ago), make my own yogurt and milk kefir. I recently acquired a long ropey (but non-geotrichum) Viili culture and love it- wow. I am currently on the hunt for a geotrichum viili culture. Also on the lookout for other dairy cultures, would not mind finding some additional kefir grain cultures, water kefir, ginger beer plant, some vinegar mothers, etc...

I look forward to interacting with you guys and hope I can contribute.

[Sabina]

Hi George, it's a quiet group these days...but thank you for the introduction.  Sabina

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Sabina

[George Wilson]

Well, group wax and wane in terms of activity I have noticed. Perhaps it will pick back up again in the near future.

[Char Covelesky]

Hi George!  Nice to "meet" you!  I see I am signing on a whole year after you, but I have also been at this fermenting thing for quite a while, and also all it's many facets!  Due to some major heath issues in my old age I have become a now healthy vegan, so it has been a very illuminating and interesting life journey that has included so much more than just diet!  I was diagnosed with diabetes (along with other previous health issues) and it was the wake up call I guess I needed to revamp my entire lifestyle and losing half my body weight instead of relying on pharmaceuticals to treat the symptoms and end up like so many around me with amputated body parts, heart and kidney disease, blindness, etc.  Now I am one of the "weirdo health freaks" I used to mock!  LOL!  Anyway, one of the hardest things in the transition was giving up cheese, but one huge thing I have learned is to never give up!  A good vegan cheese (made with cashews or other nuts and fermented with rejuvelac, liquid from any ferment really, even plant yogurts, miso, or in a real pinch, a probiotic capsule or two), can be virtually indistinguishable from a dairy cheese!  Miyoko Schinner has a book out specializing in many varieties of vegan cheeses that even can slice and melt like the real thing!  The clincher is they are way easier to make than real cheese too!  I guess a purist would mock it, but everyone who has tasted them so far has been totally confounded!  I even made brie!  My only frustration is so far being unable to grow the defining mold on the surface, which she promises to teach in the next installment!  I can't wait!  Ditto for bleu and others!  I believe she is also going to begin selling a line a vegan cheeses by popular demand because the current products just suck!  But this fixed income gramma won't be going that route!  LOL! 
I do LOVE Sandor's books, and any material associated with him, and I'm surprised I just found this board.  Ha ha, board?  Can you tell I've been at this computer stuff a while?  Anyway, I hope to see more action here and hear more about peoples fermentation adventures!  I am currently making a salsa out of foraged nopales, (guess I should find a foraging group too) and gifts of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cilantro from the garden, some onions, celery, garlic, & jalapenos, and cumin & dill seeds and some powdered tumeric, because tumeric goes into everything!  LOL!  I've done variations on this before and it is really good!  Happy culturing! 

[Elizabeth Evans McNabb]

I've been lurking in this group for a long time, but don't do much actual fermenting.  My new husband and I made cucumber pickles recently.  I talked him into letting me try salt brine lactofermentation. He wanted to just do vinegar soaked refrigerator pickles.  But now he won't eat them.

Him:  Look, the liquid is all cloudy.

Me:  Oh, that's just bacteria.

Him:  Ewwwwww.

The pickles are crisp and fresh tasting (but for my taste, need a lot more garlic and dill.)

Elizabeth Evans McNabb

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[Char Covelesky]

Sounds like my DH...a few years ago!  He initially thought it was "weird" and "unsanitary", and he never uttered it, but it was pretty clear what he wanted to say was "disgusting"!  LOL!  Until other family and friends sampled my wares and started saying how good they were and a few mentioned how much they paid for store bought equivalents because of the health benefits, and so on.  Someone told of how they used to get them from a deli with a huge crock they made on site, and so forth.  Well he could care less about the health benefits but the savings part hit home alright, and to save face he had to at least take a bite!  He was smitten, and has since become a proponent of the good bacteria!  LOL! We've been brainwashed, some of us take more time to set straight than others!  Good luck!