FLOWER POT KITCHEN: HOMEMADE APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

22 Sept 2018

HOMEMADE APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

BREAKING THE RULES

What a serendipity outcome when we were actually trying to make cider! Well maybe not after more research we discovered that this was actually a 50/50 certainty! We did not want to use a campden tablet which if you do not will give you a 50/50 lottery that you will either end up with dry cider or apple cider vinegar! One of them is a certainty! I can't take all the credit for this awesome homemade apple cider vinegar with the mother as my foraging, self sufficient, preserving, canning and great cooking friend was the keeper of the demijohns and because we were too busy to decant the cider on the due day and we moved the demijohn to a cooler climate half way through the cider making process we ended up completely by accident or as I'm sure a experienced cider maker will disagree due to our gung ho approach, with a brilliant ten gallons of Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar. How happy are we as this a daily ingredient in our kitchens.

Garden Apple Cider Vinegar

9 months matured

Gung Ho Method!

1 batch garden apples juiced or pressed

pulp left behind is important

Yield 1gallon per demijohn

1 sterilised fermentation bucket

1/2 tsp pectin enzyme per 5 ltr or 1.32 gallons

Pray for natural yeast...

Place your pressed clear apple juice in your fermenting bucket, add 1/2 tsp of pectin enzyme per 5ltr of apple juice, cover and leave to ferment for 24 hrs. Whisk the apple juice to aerate creating some frothing on top, leave covered to ferment for a further five days, now this is working with the natural yeast in the air and in the juice, this is not dissimilar to a sour dough ferment where the wild yeast is your ferment, I have had a sourdough ferment that's only been alive for a few years now we're as Boudian bakery in San Francisco America is 162 years old!

Decant from the fermentation bucket into your demijohns and place the bubble air release lock on. Place the demijohns for around four months in a place with a steady temperature of 15 degrees, as cider is a autumn joy this is quite easy, however we placed our demijohns in the airing cupboard which was a little higher in temperature then realising our error moved the demijohns to a cooler place, not a great move for cider, but a great move for apple cider vinegar!

Old fashioned apples from a wonderful old old tree around 150 years old. I've never before had the privilege to pick or hold apples from a tree this old and these apples are magnificent, so large and fairy tale in appearance, these are classed as cooking apples but believe me these beautiful red cooking apples from many days gone by are so sweet and sour balanced I felt these were better than most modern eating apples today.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.