So Good You Could Eat Them – Local Gifts – Sauk City, WI Photographer

Being a small and local business myself, I do my best to support other small businesses and local entreprenuers. And one that I always recommend — as I strongly believe in everything that she does — is our Roots and Shoots CSA farm owner Heidi Accola. In December the growing season in Wisconsin is obviously over but with gift giving time upon us I would like to share with you some other products that Heidi creates in her kitchen (and I photographed them in mine yesterday ) Here they are – handmade soaps:

All Heidi’s soaps and balms feature organic herbs and additives and are gentle on the skin. They are also colored and scented with natural colorants and essential oils. Here are just a few of the yummy ingredients: pure olive oil, beeswax, goat’s milk, carrot juice, oats, egg yolks, cucumbers, pumpkin, sweet potato, lemon, mint, coffee, chocolate… All so good you could it it And they smell delicious, too!

 

These soaps and balms would make a beautiful gift for someone who appreciates local, organic, sustainable products. If you are interested in any of the above give Heidi a call at 608-643-5273.

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What I Love – Kombucha – Learn How To Make It – Prairie du Sac, WI Photographer

Today I would like to share with you how to make kombucha. This is not really a photography related topic, but one very close to my heart, as I used to teach workshops how to make this special drink. And of course I will include some images as well We’ve been drinking kombucha regularly for several years now. I think this is one of the things that helps us stay healthy during the colder months.  It is also one of the best thirst quenchers during hot summers. Kombucha is a naturally fermented drink made of tea, sugar and special culture called “scoby”. Because of the fermentation, it is full of health benefits, probiotics, vitamins, enzymes and more. It is also very easy to make at home at a fraction of the cost of store bought bottle. If you’ve never tried it I encourage you to buy a bottle, and who knows, you might like it so much that you will want to learn how to make your own. This recipe below will help you with that. Besides, with the holiday season just around the corner, home brewed kombucha in a nice bottle makes a great gift as well as a conversation starter Aren’t these pretty?

This is what you will need to make kombucha:

• Large stainless steel pot (at least a gallon or larger). Stainless steel, enamel or glass work well. Aluminum or teflon coated pots are NOT good.
• 12 cups of filtered water
• 1 cup of sugar
• 5 teaspoons of loose tea or 6 tea bags. Plain black or green tea is good. Sometimes I like to experiment with flavored teas but you have to make sure that they don’t contain any oils or artificial flavoring as these are not good for the scoby.
• Scoby and about a cup of previously brewed kombucha as a starter. This might be the most challenging ingredient to obtain… You can get in touch with me as I always have some extra ones or search Craig’s List. You may also grow your own scoby from scratch by using two bottles of plain store bought kombucha. If you choose this method just use less water for your first batch. In kombucha circles your first scoby is called “the mother” and the new ones it produces are “babies”
• a glass gallon jar
• piece of old t-shirt and a rubber band
• plastic straw
• several glass bottles with plastic caps (not metal!) or ceramic flip tops. I use old lemonade or grolsch beer bottles. You can also buy EZ-cap type bottles at a store with beer brewing supplies.

How to make kombucha:

1. Wash the pot and add 12 cups of filtered or spring water and bring to a boil. You’ll need only 8 glasses if you are going to grow your own scoby.
2. When it boils, add 1 cup of sugar, stir it well to dissolve and boil 5 more minutes.
3. Turn off the gas, add tea to water, cover and let cool down to room temperature. I usually do this step in the evening and let it cool overnight.
4. Pour your sweet tea from the pot into a clean glass jar, add your scoby (the mother) and some starter kombucha. If you don’t have a scoby then pour two bottles of PLAIN (not flavored) store bought kombucha. Never add a scoby to hot sweet tea – it will kill it.
5. Cover the jar with cotton cloth and secure with a rubber band.
6. Put the jar in a place where nothing will disturb it and leave it alone for about 5-7 days. You may look and admire how your new baby scoby is growing on the surface, but don’t stir or shake the jar.
7. After 5 days you should see a new scoby on the top and you may start testing your kombucha to check if it is done. Just slide a straw by the side of the scoby and sample. It will have a vinegar smell and semi-sweet taste, like apple cider. It may take from 5 days to two weeks to brew kombucha. It depends on the room temperature, how thick was the scoby and how much starter you used. Always wait long enough so that the baby scoby is at least 1/8in thick. This is how it should look, see the lighter layer on top? This is a new baby

When the kombucha tastes good to you, carefully remove the scoby (mother and baby) put it in a glass container and pour a cup or more of kombucha over to protect it and cover. Now you can make a new batch with it, give the baby to a friend or put in a fridge until you are ready to make more (we usually have two or three gallons brewing at the same time). You can separate the scobies or keep them together. As you can see here,  it turned out I had 4 layers of them. More would be too many, it was time to get rid of the bottom ones.

 You may now drink the kombucha straight from the jar but it tastes MUCH better if you first bottle it. Pour kombucha to the brim into glass bottles. You may add some flavoring now: pieces of fresh, frozen or dried fruit, ginger, lemon juice or our favorite – mint sprigs. Cap the bottles and leave at room temperature for 2 to 5 days. This will make kombucha deliciously fizzy. Keep an eye on the bottles though because if you leave them too long they may explode and you’ll have a nice kombucha pattern on you ceiling… This happened once when we added too much fresh apple juice I hope you’ll find these instructions easy enough to experiment in your kitchen and brew your own kombucha at home or at least buy one bottle in a store and try it if you’ve never had it before. Happy brewing!

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What I Love – Soups – Prairie du Sac, WI Photographer

First snow is here! Seems so sudden and unexpected. I don’t feel ready for winter yet… I believe though that everything happens when it’s supposed to so it’s probably a good thing. After a very busy fall season it’s time to slow down, refocus, think, plan for the next year and… cook more You may not know this about me — but besides photography I have a very strong passion for natural, healthy, sustainable living. And cooking is a big part of that. We get as much as we can local, and in season. We cook almost everything from scratch. When I think about it, I actually don’t like spending a lot of time in the kitchen and cooking is definitely not my passion. I do it however because I know that when we eat healthy we stay healthy. When I prepare something it’s either not that time consuming or made in big batches so it lasts for a few days.

Soups are my favorite. Yes, it does take time to clean, chop and prepare everything from scratch but then we can enjoy the results for at least 3 days and freeze any leftovers for later emergency meals. All my soups are made from fresh veggies and always very thick, almost like a stew. This gives me a peace of mind that my kids get their servings of veggies. A bowl of warm, homemade soup is what they eat almost every day after coming home from school.

Living in rural Wisconsin makes it easy to find great sources of fresh, organic food. We’ve been members of a wonderful CSA farm – Roots and Shoots, LLC and this is where we get most of our veggies from, as well as fresh eggs and pastured chickens.

Cool weather is a great season for beets, a very popular vegetable in my native Poland. Here many people don’t know what to do with beets so I thought I would share a Beet Borscht recipe with you. In Poland basically any soup with beets is called borscht, the recipe below is for Ukrainian borscht. It’s a lot of chopping and dicing, but food processor helps and the results are well worth it.

Here is what came in our weekly CSA share (besides lemon and leeks), a perfect combination for borscht. Thank you, Heidi! The recipe follows below.

Borscht ingredients:

• 3-4 beet roots or a bunch with leaves
• 2-3 carrots
• piece of cabbage
• several celery stalks
• 1-2 onions
• 28oz can of tomatoes (crushed or diced, I use our frozen tomatoes that I chopped and cooked in the summer)
• apple
• lemon juice
• some leafy greens (beet greens with stalks , parsley, dill or swiss chard)
• broth or stock and water (half and half)
• salt and pepper, maybe teaspoon of sugar
• bay leaves (4-6 dried)
• marjoram (2 tbs dried)
• allspice (10-15 dried berries)

If you normally don’t use these spices (for me they are a staple for every soup) you may  buy just very little of each from bulk jars at Whole Foods Market or a local coop. Our favorite is Willy Street Coop in Madison. It will cost you just pennies.

Optional ingredients (I always add something from this list, too):

• sweet potato
• leeks (1-3)
• parsnips (1-2)
• piece of celeriac (celery root)
• rutabaga
• turnip
• can of beans (any kind)

Now this is how you make borscht:

• Chop/shred/dice everything (food processor works best)
• Sauté onions and leeks in a big soup pot in some olive oil, covered, on low heat (at least 10 min)
• Add cabbage and sauté some more (covered, at least 10 minutes)
• Add a can of tomatoes and all root veggies (chopped) and sauté covered until all the veggies are a little tender. This is how it will look:

 

• Add enough water and stock (so that everything in the pot is covered and there is still room for remaining veggies), drained beans, herbs/spices, salt and pepper. I always have my own stock that I make from scratch and freeze in quart yogurt containers. But you may use store bought broth or even bullion cubes (make sure they don’t have MSG, though – it’s not good for you).
• Bring to a boil and then simmer on low for about 10 min.
• Add grated apple, chopped stalks and  leaves and juice from half lemon (or the whole one), simmer covered for additional 5 min and it’s done!

You may use a hand held blender several times but it’s not necessary. Borscht tastes delicious with a tablespoon of cream (and looks beautifully pink, too) I’ve heard on NPR that this is one of the most nutritious soups ever! I am not surprised, beets are extremely powerful. I truly hope that this will inspire you and you’ll find the time to try this recipe. Especially if you have had some kind of childhood trauma involving canned beets  I would love to hear back comments from your experiences. Let me know how it goes and if you have any questions – feel free to ask.

Enjoy! And stay warm

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