Corn, Kombucha, Crochet, Capicola and Cactus back. Part 1

So what’s been happening?

Kombucha

As part of my commitment to trying to live as sustainably and waste free as possible, I’d explored and seen a lot of discussion around the traps about something called Kombucha, or fermented sweet tea. I was a little negative and hesitant as my only experience with fermented products (apart from beer and bread) was kaffir and I hated it. I read a post from Tammy at Gippsland Unwrapped about making Kombucha for everyday drinking and also for fermenting for a longer time to create vinegar for home use (cleaning etc) and I was hooked. I had to give this Kombucha thing a go! Tammy very graciously offered me a SCOBY to use as a starter for creating my fermented tea, and the lovely people at String & Salt in Warragul were gracious enough to act as our exchange point. I really love it when like minded people and businesses can work together and create a hub of support so we can share and learn new things.

So this is what a SCOBY looks like.

It’s weird. I’m not going to go into explaining all about it, you can get that detail by visiting Tammy’s site at Gippsland Unwrapped , you may even pick up some great tips about living without waste while you are there.

I did some extra googling to try and get my head around the steps involved in turning this weird beast into a usable product and I was amazed at how easy it seems to be.

First up I made a batch of sweet black tea,

Let it cool, then added the SCOBY,

covered the concoction and while I’m still quite unprepared for what the outcome will be, set it in a dark spot to do its’s thing. Milton the Monster anyone?

It appears to be behaving, I dipped my finger in and I am quite excited about the end result. In a couple of days I’ll decide if I do a second fermentation or not. Interesting indeed.

Corn

Last seasons corn harvest was stored differently than previous years. Rather than remove husks, de-silk, blanche, cool, wrap, I simply removed the silks, wrapped the husks back around the cobs, wrapped them well in foil and bunged them into the freezer.

  Always the sceptic, I cooked some the other night expecting to be disappointed. I certainly won’t waste my time doing the blanching process again. The corn was great, almost as good as freshly picked. Olive oil, freshly cracked black pepper, mmmmm….

Capicola

For my first attempt at processing some charcuterie, I decided on Capicola. I apologise in advance for those who disagree with my spelling, but there as many versions of spelling this meat as there are of how to process it, so I’m sticking to Capicola. A cured meat product made from the pork neck. I stupidly (so the store told me) selected in store pick up rather than posting of the collagen skin (even though I’d paid postage) so the neck was sitting in the salt brine longer than I had anticipated. Let’s just put that down to experience.

 After salting the pork was rinsed with in red wine while I prepared the other ‘bits’.I made a rub of cracked black pepper, chilli, sweet paprika, fennel, salt and I’m sure something else….. and rubbed it over the pork.

Emergency situation at hand as far as the wraps went so I improvised by buying some fake salami skins, soaked them, cut them open into a flat piece and used them to wrap the pork. Not real happy about having to do that but we will see what develops.

I wrapped the pork in the skins then put it into elastic net ready to hang and hopefully cure into a delicious cut. It is a little late in the season to be doing this but I’m game.

Well, seeing as it taken me 3 hours with internet and photo issues to get this far, I’m breaking this post into 2 parts. Hopefully tomorrow night will be more successful.