Produce Production Line into September

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Loads of stuff coming through, what to do with it all? and how to store it for the lean winter months

A few things on the go;
- Dried/Roasted tomatoes in oil (hope it works)
- Tom Soup (the best)
- Grape Juice (wonderful)
- Brine Lacto Fermented Pickles (immune system bolster)
- GNuts (pig lazy)

First up roasted/Dried toms
Had a think about what I would ‘actually’ like to eat and as I like sun dried toms thought I would have a go.
Salted them overnight then put a few trays in the oven when I had it on and left them in there, draining the excess water as I went

First batches of tom soup on the go, any spare gets frozen. Doing it in one soup bowl size blocks

Grapes are quite small but sweet

a few first bunches into the juicer

As you can see lots of pulp n foam but boy tastes wonderfully sweet. Drank it all during one day!!
Mega nice

Quick blog break for a few last gazania blooms

Ok so fancy a bit of LIVE Lacto-Fermentation pickled veg? of course you do ; )
So here we are, mostly all my stuff
Cabbage, Courgette, Peppers, Cucumber, kohlrabi n onion, some carrots and some greens of parsley, basil and dill.
Got the trusty food processor out

So this is using just the juices/water from the veg, abit of water and some salt. The idea is that the lactic acid produced under the brine pickles the veg and the good live bacteria get going in the first couple of weeks.
I start with a grape vine leaf in the bottom (tannins in the leaf keep it crunchy apparently) . Using about two tablespoons of salt per large jar, bit of peppercorns n mustard seed. mixing up a handful and bit of each in a big bowl and add a layer, push it down n add a bit of salt per layer n tiny bit of water over the salt.

Then using grape vine leaves to top it off

n fold them over to keep the veg under the brine.
The top leaf might show a bit of rot but can be discarded.

a nice mix of colours

and there we go, it will either work or it wont.
If it does it will have load of beneficial live bacteria aiding the flora in the gut, vitamin B n Niacin and aid the immune system.
I have heard it said that 95% of the immune system is in the gut.

Quick blog break, whats GNuts up too, hmmm not much

Stripping of the tomatoe plants last leafs but plenty of toms to come

and still loads to come in the small polly

Heres the finished dried toms in oil

The frozen soups and blanched beans go into small freezer bags.

Gnuts last night, this is where she sleeps

Will let you know in a couple of weeks if my pickled veg is working : )

• 9 Sep, 2014
• 8 likes

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