Month: October 2021

The beginnings of a fermented gingerbread about to go down for a 2-plus month fermentation. And I couldn’t be more excited!
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I mixed this dough up alongside @elliemarkovitch (using Zoom, across an ocean!). She did hers with rye whereas here I used local spelt flour along with chestnut honey from @thecreatorscastle.
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Thanks to Annie at @kitchencounterculture for the nudge. I’d been researching long-fermented flour recipes for a while, having gone down a rabbit hole when I heard that Pain d’Epices was originally fermented for 3 months. When I saw her posting about a @sandorkraut inspired fermented gingerbread, I knew I had to get doing it.
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This dough is now on the bottom shelf of a cupboard downstairs in my apartment. Our flat is on a hill, cut into the Tuscan soil, so it tends to stay the coolest down there.
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Will I be able to resist getting it out and checking/sniffing it between now and December? Probably not. But that’s half the fun, isn’t it?!
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Some pics of the process in my stories.

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I’ve known they were coming for a while, yet still, as we rounded the corner to the local farmers’ market last night, my heart skipped a beat upon seeing the chestnut lady setting up stall!
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I knew we only had 30 Euros in our pockets. And I knew that had to cover all our veg needs, yet, like a kid at Christmas, I really wanted to get some nuts to roast and some flour to bake with!
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Rob dug into every pocket he had looking for change whilst I tried to work out exactly *just* how many what greens we needed for the week.
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Down to the last few cents, we managed it, coming home with not only lots of kale and broccoli, but also a bag of marroni (think chestnuts but bigger) flour and a couple of handfuls of the nuts to score and roast in the oven.
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These nuts are from a region of Tuscany called Mugello, which Wikipedia tells me is the heart of Tuscan chestnuts. I feed so grateful that it’s here on my doorstep and that there are people who are willing to take it upon themselves to steward and nurture the land and its produce.
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I’m on to making some Castagnaccio with this flour. It’s an age-old Tuscan chestnut cake. I’ll be demoing it and talking all about chestnuts in the live Zoom cook-up @farmandhearth and I are doing for our podcast patrons on November 12th. If you’re interested, go to @ancestralkitchenpodcast to check out how to become a patron and join us.

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Putting a little oats into a sourdough does something magical to the crust. It gets a little thicker and a little crunchier. This makes it even harder to resist slicing fresh from the oven. Look at it…could you?!!
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This is a sourdough spelt with leftover porridge added to the dough. There are a lot of bread recipes on my site. Click through from my profile if you want to have a go.

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Biome-enhancing biotics aren’t just about the well-known *pro*biotics. Listen in to today’s podcast episode to hear all about the whole range of biotics, including prebiotics, probiotics, paraprobiotics and postbiotics.
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Andrea and I give practical examples of how we include all of these in our day, we talk about whether we think completely ‘healing’ a biome is possible, we share the latest research on dead probiotics and we talk about how to get started with the good bugs!
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The podcast is on your app as @ancestralkitchenpodcast or you can stream the episodes from my site; the link is in my profile.

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There’s a story I sometimes forget to share. But it inspires every thing I do in the kitchen. Thank you @timelesscookery for prompting me to talk through it.
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The fourth link in my profile is to a video I recorded last week.
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In it, you’ll hear about:
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– my 140lkb (65kg) weight loss
– restoring my menstrual cycle naturally, after 5 years with no periods
– turning to the raw milk weston price baby formula after not being able to breast-feed and being threatened with child protection for doing so
– my son’s life-saving bowel operation
– the journey to heal him, post-op and how that’s healed me too.
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There are some clips of the interview in my story.

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Lardo: Have you tried it? I am completely in love with this cured pork fat and have been wanting to have a go at it myself for ages.

The fat’s from @valledelsasso and the herbs are partially from the garden. Traditionally, lardo is cured in marble basins. I don’t have one of those! All the alternative methods I read said to put it in a plastic bag. I was not keen on that…I don’t want this beautiful fat sitting next to plastic for 3-6 months (lardo takes that long).
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So, after the cure was on (check my story for the ingredients), I decided to wrap it in wax paper. I then covered it (the process requires darkness) and put it in the meat drawer of my fridge. The best lardo is weighted. After some thought, I decided the best option was to fill three empty olive oil bottles with water and rest them on top of it!
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All rather home-spun. But I think it’ll work 🙂
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Now I have to wait. Till 2022! That’s far and away the hardest part.

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You know when you hear about what someone’s building and you think, man, I’m glad they are doing that…it’s so important and I’d love to be part of it?
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That’s what I felt when @kobofermentary let me know about the fermentation school @kirstenkshockey and @mereleighfood were creating.
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It’s a B corporation. If you don’t know what that means, I assure you it’s pretty cool. It’s founded and led by women. Its aim is to raise everyone up.
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And how much, in these times, we need raising up; how much we need to get our voices out further and wider, to pass on the message of ancient food wisdom, to get peoples hands in bowls on on chopping boards. This message has the power to change the world.
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My course on the Scottish oat fermentation, Sowans (check out my story highlight if you’ve missed me posting about this gorgeous ferment) went up on @thefermentationschool yesterday. It’s $40. If you want to play with this delicious porridge and drinking-producing ferment, it’s a great idea to purchase it in the next two weeks (the pre-sale period) because you’ll *also* get free access to my course on the Turkish fermented millet drink, Boza.
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I’ve got a Sowans on the go at the moment. I love it so much I make it every week. I’m looking forward to seeing others bringing it to life in their kitchens 🙂
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The link to the course is in my profile.

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Pizza can *really* be this good. Local spelt flour sourdough, mixed by my 7 year-old, long fermented, topped with pesto made from garden basil and Italian almonds and liberally sprinkled with local onions and olive oil.
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There is no guilt; just bliss 🙂
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The recipe for the base is in my profile.

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