While everyone is freaking out about the possibility of Hurricane Sandy, (and you can count me amongst those who’ve been filling empty half-gallon glass milk jugs with filtered water for the past couple of days) I am definitely feeling fine about the possibility of losing the power that keeps my perishables cool and safe for consumption.
The cheeses I have have all definitely undergone the fermentation process and will be more than fine (probably happier) sitting at a cool room temperature.
Any milk and cream will be made into kefir, creme fraiche or sour cream if the lights go out.
Juices will become water kefir, or allowed to ferment into vinegar.
Squash is fine at room temp, and all of my other veggies can easily become pickles, ferments or kimchis, with no processing, heating or refrigeration necessary. Just add water and salt!
Fruits we can’t eat will be made into fruit vinegars or fruit wine or used to flavor water or milk kefir via secondary fermentation.
And all of this can be done by candlelight or flashlight with again, no heat or cold. All you need is elbow grease and a little bit of faith that the storm will soon be over.
Sara @ The Cozy Herbivore says
I was introduced to your blog by Tenaya’s post about Techmunch, and I’m so very glad! What a great concept. I’m such a sucker for lacto-fermentation and to have a Philly-based blog dedicated to all things fermented… well, that just takes the cake (pickle?)!
Did you end up doing any pickling last night? Lose power? I went into a bit of a hurricane-panic myself and roasted pretty much every root vegetable we had in the fridge. Thankfully we didn’t sustain any damage or even lose power– delicious leftovers!
Kudos also for the Les Mis reference at the end of this post. So nice to “meet” you!
Amanda says
Hi Sara,
Thanks so much for coming by! I love your blog (and all the things that you bring to the Food Swap)! I’m in the process of getting up a big ol’ backlog of posts, there will be a whole bunch of new stuff this week, probably post-dated to when they were written to avoid putting 30 posts in one day.
I did pickle some carrots, radishes and mini-peppers last night and I made a quick sauerkraut even though we didn’t lose power. I also went a little bit crazy with baking, which I hardly ever do. By the looks of Twitter, I wasn’t alone.
Feeling so sad for people in NY and NJ right now. Hard to believe there’s all that devastation when we felt nothing at all.
Enjoy your feast of leftovers! Look forward to seeing you soon!
Sarah says
Oh, hey, guess what song is stuck in my head now. #eponineftw
Excellent site!
Rachel @ 6512 and growing says
Love this ode to ferments!
I like that when I’ve been away from home for more than 2 weeks, I can come home to a fridge full of fresh, ready to eat ferments. Yogurt and kimchi for dinner, anyone?
Amanda says
Thanks, Rachel. Totally agree! We’ve gotten to be lazy around here. Dinner is now a question of what kind of grain will accompany the many fermented vegetables, fruits or condiments we have available!