Johann's Garden

For the past year I have been running a fermentation group over on Facebook.  With the large number of people to share with and learn from, I have been able to compile a list of teas which people have vouched for as effective for brewing kombucha.  This list is intended to inspire the adventurous.  It is not intended to imply that teas not on this list can't work.  If you find an unlisted tea that works well for you then please visit Wild Fermentation Uncensored on Facebook and share your experience with us.  :) Disclaimer: Sometimes a tea is reported as working well by some while not working well for others.  I believe there are a couple of reasons for this...  Kombucha strain used (the exact mix of culture species and their vigor varies) Differing definitions of success; success meaning vigorous scoby growth to some, while simply meaning great flavor to others.  *Assam Tea ( Camellia sinensis )  *Barley Tea ( Hordeum vulgare )...

I have never been one to do things the way people say to. This has shown itself in multiple aspects of my life. For the last seven or eight years now I have been keeping a small flock of Jacob sheep to help with land management while providing meat for the freezer, beautiful sheepskin rugs, and wool. Actually I made a tiny block of cheese this year from some Jacob milk, but that's besides the point! :) For the last few years I have been trying a system where I don't pick who gets to breed with who. All the current season ram lambs (provided they meet breed standards) get a chance to compete for breeding with the ewes before heading off to the freezer in January. For a couple years I didn't even keep a mature ram around, but this past year I changed that as I increased the size of my pasture area.   I have been struggling to find information about this style of management as most breeders hand pick each ram for each group of ewes to be bred. I have been struggling with ...

Check out this fun short video about making sparkling cider and hard cider.  If you've been intimidated by this sort of thing in the past, and thought it was too complicated then this is gonna set you free!  If you like what you see then you should pop on over to the  Wild Fermentation Uncensored  group on Facebook to share in the collective learning and sharing of information on all things fermented.  :) See you there soon!

T here is something liberating about being involved in the harvest of food.  Even if I can't produce enough for a year round supply, it still feels good to harvest an animal that was raised under conditions that were humane and with techniques that contribute minimal stress to the animal.  Setting out to do something like this can be intimidating, but if you take a step back for a realistic look you will remember that people have been around harvesting and eating food for as long as they have been in existence.  The fact that a large part of the human population is now no longer involved with the process of harvesting and processing plants and animals into food does not mean we have lost the capability to do so if we just put forth a bit of effort.  Sheep having a hay day. I honestly do get most of my food from the grocery store.  However, I am fortunate to have access to land where I can raise sheep.  Therefore if I want lamb I do not need to buy it ...

Y esterday I had the opportunity to harvest wapato for the second time.  I have been growing them in tanks for two seasons now.  Last fall I had a small harvest having planted only three small tubers at the beginning of the season.  This year's harvest was more sizable; still not too many meals worth, but if I compare the labor input to harvest ratio I'd say they were quite worthwhile.  Other than occasionally adding some water or manure to the tanks there was really not much work involved.  Also, harvesting was more fun than work.  I just stirred up the muck with a long handled garden tool and then collected the wapatos as they floated to the surface.     To the left is a portion of my wapato harvest next to a few sunchoke tubers.  You'll notice that there is quite a range in sizes.  The large egg sized tubers all came from a larger tank of water that was only lightly populated with wapato this season and the muck they grew in...

Earlier this year I worked at a retail plant nursery where I was able to get lots of free plants off the dump rack.  On one occasion I lucked into a number of ornamental canna plants.  They were being "dumped" because they carried a virus which caused visible streaking on the leaves (not to be confused with the natural desirable streaking of some cultivars).  Viruses are very common in cannas.  I figured I would take them and just grow them for a season to get experience growing cannas as I had not grown them before.  I repotted them in larger pots and grew them on for the season.  Now that the winter is upon us they are going dormant.  I dumped out the first of the five potted plants and cleaned the tubers.  It took a few minutes to remove all the roots which held a lot of potting soil, but once they were all off not too much soil was left to clean off the actual tubers.  I have read very good things about the edibility of canna tubers both ...

It's been about two weeks since I posted about my mint kombucha experiment. I heard it couldn't be done, but I gave it a go anyways. The outcome has been entirely without regret. I've had chance to drink some of my mint-bucha now and it is definitely a full out kombucha with a nice clear taste complete with minty tones. Last night while entertaining a couple of young ladies I told them about kombucha. Neither had heard of it before, but they welcomed my offer to let them have a try. I started out by giving them each a sample of regular kombucha which I had brewed using black tea. Their reactions to it were positive. This was a nice surprise for me as up til that point I had only been able to convince my less adventurous family to try it. None of my immediate family were very excited about it, nor did they seem to enjoy it (My father did confess later that he thought it was good. However, he didn't even finish his small glass of it). So, after my first positi...