Seizing the day or rather opportunity is a vital part of homesteading be it urban or rural.
Not so much having the skill which enables you to take advantage of whatever opps comes your way, but rather having a means to acquire the knowledge along with the desire a.k.a elbow grease.
Could I make vinegar before this opp came ?
Nope.
Did I have the desire ?
Not so much but this was an easy do. No special equipment and I already had the supplies.
Now what am I going to do with one and half gallons of Apple Cider Vinegar ?
Earlier this month as a member of PW I helped out with K.P. duty for November's monthly 20/30 club dinner for my church . While there the head cook & bottle washer was pouring out one of the jugs of cider left by the Kiwanis a week earlier from a pancake fundraising breakfast. Seams that the abandoned 14 gallons of cider was starting to turn hard.
What can I say. It physically pains me to see a resource go to waste. At the very least I could water my raised beds with it. Instead I decided to add to our pantry and perhaps use as possible gift giving. More the latter since I had forgotten to come up with this years Christmas gift back in June.
The jugs were bought @ a tag sale years ago by DH for future wine making adventures. He spent a dollar each for these half gallon clear ones. I used a discard sheer curtain that is 100% cotton instead of cheese cloth and rubber bands scavenged from pharmacy deliveries @ my old job to fashion debris barriers.
These will rest in the cellar under the stairs away from light for 8 weeks. Then I'll strain out whatever scum there is & re bottled in quart mason jars.
Of course this new windfall now means I have to find ways to use my homemade Apple Cider Vinegar. Not to mention learning how to tritrate (test for acidity) the vinegar.
Well, I have a 3 more weeks to gather the knowledge ... and the desire.
~~ pelenaka ~~
P.S. anyone out there asking what happened to the other gallons of cider that weren't poured down the drain or fashioned into vinegar ?
Yeah, say it with me ... Hard Cider.
Funny thing is that making hard cider wasn't even on mind until the rest of the kitchen crew all began recounting tales of fathers & grandfathers all brewing hard cider.
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We make hard cider and brew our own beer, too. It's a lot of fun, and we like the result a lot more than anything we've ever found at the store ;).
ReplyDeleteI'll look forward to hearing more about your adventures in vinegar making. I haven't tried that, yet.
Hmm I'll have to pick your mind about the hard cider we have brewing in the kitchen ... we had great plans for home brewing but unfortunetly we suffer from a case of " the sugar".
ReplyDeleteFunny if I had known that I'd have hyperglecemic issues later in life I'd have drank more, but then I'd diabetic all that much sooner. Funny how life works out huh?