My neighbor Rita was telling me about these blue Butterfly Pea flowers she ordered in the mail. They are said to have all kinds of miraculous healing and health supporting properties. Plus it dyes your food or drink a lovely shade of dark purple so that’s fun. Rita gave me a jar of dried flowers … Continue reading Purple Sourdough & Margaritas
Fermentation
Fermented Sodas Galore plus a Tepache Update
After three days of fermenting, my tepache was very bubbly. It’s amazing that all of that came from naturally occurring yeast! So I decided it was time to strain and bottle it. I set a strainer over a pot and poured the liquid through it. I had to try it, of course. Whew! Was it … Continue reading Fermented Sodas Galore plus a Tepache Update
Tepache: a Fermented Pineapple Drink
It’s been a while since I’ve been on here to share with you. Boy hasn’t life gone a little crazy in the last couple months?! My neighbor Lisa sent me a video a couple days ago that got me inspired to try a new fermenting project. I wanted to share it with you because it … Continue reading Tepache: a Fermented Pineapple Drink
Beer Bottling and Instapot Beef Stew
I checked the potential alcohol on our beer today and found it to be at 1%. To find the alcohol by volume you subtract your final reading from your initial so ours is at 5% ABV. Witbier should fall between 4.5 and 5.5% so it's ready to bottle! First I needed to skim off some … Continue reading Beer Bottling and Instapot Beef Stew
A Birthday Brew
Oliver is always curious about what I'm brewing up in the kitchen. This has been a big wine making year for me. I've made nearly a dozen different types. He was dying to try out the process for himself, which then led to a lot of questions about how beer is made and if the … Continue reading A Birthday Brew
Apple Hoarding
There's an apple tree in the park by our house in Michigan that I always begin to check on each spring. It gets to be covered in lush white flowers in early June. I patiently visit each summer trip to check on the tree's progress as these flowers turn to small fruits then slowly get … Continue reading Apple Hoarding
A new kind of ferment: Water Kefir
Introducing the Xavier middle schoolers to fermentation reinvigorated my own interest in it. I got a great book from the library: Home Fermentation by Katherine Green. I've been trying all kinds of new things from this including fermented chia seed jam, sprouting seeds and water kefir. I wanted to share this last one with you. … Continue reading A new kind of ferment: Water Kefir
Tree Tapping & Fermentation Fun
This school year, I have found a new way to connect my two areas of expertise: education and farming. Because of my connection to the Montessori department at Xavier, I was asked if we might serve as the farm for the middle schoolers at the lab school to visit each month. Maria Montessori thought that … Continue reading Tree Tapping & Fermentation Fun
A Wine-Making Mood
I'm not sure why but I have been in a wine-making mood of late. I've got things brewing all over the place. The smell of fermentation is beginning to take over my kitchen. When we were in Michigan last, I brought home a bag of apples and a bunch of wild mint I'd collected in … Continue reading A Wine-Making Mood
Mulberry Experiments
Mulberry trees are one of those local plants many people love to hate. When they grow over your driveway, I can understand the distress they cause when those lush dark berries stain every surface they fall on. Fortunately, we have a large mulberry tree at the edge of our back field, where the berries just … Continue reading Mulberry Experiments
Phillips Farm Batavia, LLC 