Ahhh! The do it yourself lifestyle

I have been fantasizing lately about the rural life style. I have a friend who started raising a few free range chickens about a year ago. They are getting eggs now and I have been one of her best customers. The eggs are a lot better tasting than store bought eggs. They even look different with orange colored yolks. They are antibiotic and steroid free. My friend told me that store bought eggs are on average two weeks old before they ever hit the stores. She talked about how much fun it is to watch the chickens run around the yard chasing bugs and just doing what chickens do. I live in a fairly nice subdivision so chickens are out of the question for me. I can just hear a neighbor bitching about chickens pecking her squash and tomatoes.

My friend told me recently that she and her husband had just purchased two piglets. (Oh boy! Bacon and eggs!) They will raise them for several months and then have them turned into bacon, ham, etc. Again no steroids! No antibiotics!

All of this plus reading the book, Made By Hand, by Mark Frauenfelder have encouraged me to try some things myself. Mark talks about making yogurt. I went on line and found a wealth of information re: making yogurt so I am going to try it this week. I personally don’t care for yogurt but my wife eats it every day. I think that it tastes like spoiled ice cream mixed with a little chicken shit for flavor but everyone to their own tastes I guess. I have never tasted chicken shit by the way but my imagination sometimes gets the best of me.

There is also an article about making sauerkraut in Mark’s book. My German grandmother used to make sauerkraut. Again, I went on line and read about how to make it. There were numerous articles about it. Requirements are a stone crock, cabbage, a rock, salt, and a round board to fit over the top of the crock. Ma Nature supplies the rest of the ingredients. It sounded simple enough to me and we do have a stone crock big enough to make five Lbs. so I am going to give that a try also.

I will keep everyone posted about my adventures in wild fermentation as these projects are attempted.