Temperature-mental Ferments

After an explosive start, you might have expected a lot from my sourdough starter. However, the starter not only slowed down, but now seems downright dormant.

It could be operator error, but I blame the temperature in our house. Our oil heater broke, leaving us at the mercy of limited electric heat. Since the outside temperature has dropped back into the fifties, the temperature inside is several degrees cooler than normal. Whenever I’m tempted to complain about the cold—which is often—I remind myself that the heater was working when we got snow right before Easter. Things could have been worse.

On the bright side, the hose on our dryer vent is broken, and I keep forgetting to buy a new one. Whenever I run the dryer, it creates a warm, moist, spa-like atmosphere in the downstairs. It’s like our own little jungle. I even put my peace lily in the bathroom/laundry room to enhance the effect and soak up a little of the humidity. (I recently read this article on the 17 Best Houseplants for Your Bathroom. Spathiphyllum is on the list, so why not?)

I also overflowed a birthday cake in the oven Wednesday (yes, the second birthday in a week), which gave me a good excuse to run the self-clean on my oven. So, for at least a couple of hours, the kitchen was warm.

If it seems like I’m grasping hard for bright sides, it’s because I am. I feel gratitude is an essential part of life, and God is graciously giving me lots of opportunities to practice that attitude.

All that to say, fermentations are temperamental about temperature, so I’m not surprised if some of mine aren’t performing at their best.

The apple-scrap vinegar is an exception to that. At two weeks and three days, I was satisfied it had fermented enough. I strained out the apple scraps and bottled it. If the bottle doesn’t look fancy, that’s because it used to hold store-bought vinegar. It’s full of the homemade stuff, now, and I’m pretty satisfied with that.

The kvass still doesn’t taste like something I want to drink. The saltiness has decreased to a point of semi-drinkability, though, and I could detect the barest hint of carbonation. I decided to move on to step two. I strained out the carrots, orange peels and ginger, then placed them back in the jar with a cup of the kvass to start another fermentation. It will be weaker than the first, but that may be a good thing. I filled the jar with water, covered it with a coffee filter, and placed it back in the cupboard.

That left me about five cups of kvass, so I decided to put that through a second fermentation. I sweetened each jar with about a teaspoon of raw honey from my last honey harvest. The honey was well crystallized, but that won’t hurt anything. I sealed the jars and set them, yes, into a cupboard, to ferment for another day or three. I’ll check back and let you know how it turns out.

With my vinegar done and bottled, I have a half-gallon jar free for another culture. I’m already pondering more kvass. Should I try a fruit kvass or go way, way old school and make some out of rye bread? Send me your thoughts.

Have a good weekend!