Here’s the third installment from our day at Wholesome Valley Farm. After a wonderful lunch, we had the opportunity to take in a couple of workshops. Stephen offered to hang out in the shaded tent outside so the kids could play.
I attended the Lacto-Fermentation class. I had never really thought about making fermented foods before. I was so excited that it was easy.
Karen Geiser was our instructors. She really knows her stuff. She started out showing us how to make pickles.
She used a special Ferment-O Jar. It was super easy and only took about 5 minutes to prep.
Next up was sauerkraut. It was also super easy. She even showed us how to use a regular canning jar for it. No special equipment is required.
Karen also talked about resources and was so excited to see a copy of this new book. She’s 11th on the list for it at the library, not wanting to buy it before she saw it. I think she’ll probably buy it now.
The problem that I have with lacto-fermentation is that you need to keep items in the fridge once the initial fermenting is complete. I don’t have extra fridge space to dedicate to sauerkraut.
After a short break, I brought Nick in and we attended the bread workshop by Tina. We were told it was ok to take photos of the Amish people, but that we should take any close up photos or portraits. So, I don’t have much to show of her.
She explained to us the importance of grinding flour right before it’s made into bread. She then demonstrated her process and talked a lot about using high quality ingredients.
She passed out white flour vs. wheat flour for us to taste and see the difference. Nick loved the brown flour and decided the white flour was icky. Then, he really enjoyed watching the big mixer. This recipe makes 4 loaves of bread!
In between steps, we hears about Dutch Country Grains, their equipment and saw a demonstration of rolling oats. At the end of the day, we each received a sample.
There was a third class at some point, but I never even saw it going on. I’m not sure if it was during or after the two classes I attended, but one can only do so much. After the bread making demo, I headed out with the family to finish up our adventures. Wednesday, I’ll tell you about them in my fourth and final installment about the farm.