Author: Ali

Do you crimp? How about slash?
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I’m awash in the wonder that is pastry. The last month I’ve been honing a spelt sourdough pie crust recipe for the forthcoming @ancestralkitchenpodcast sourdough spelt cookbook. We’ve eaten a lot of pie: sausage, chicken, ground beef…even liver went into one!
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My mum always crimped the edge of her pastry. To make it look nice, yes, but to seal it too. Do you?
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And how about the slashes? I did these with scissors, to get that slight raised effect in the centre. Do we need to slash? Do you? How does it change the pastry and/or the filling?

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If you want to eat ancestrally and have ever heard yourself saying, “I can’t afford it”, this is the @ancestralkitchenpodcast episode for you.
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@farmandhearth and I had so much to say about it that we kept talking over two episodes, today’s release is part one! Thank you to the podcast patrons who helped us, with their own hard-won advice, put this episode together.
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Download this, episode #66, from your podcast app or stream/download from my website. There’s a PDF for you to print out too – check the show notes.
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We’d love to hear what you think!

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Home-grown oats!
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Back in spring, when Silvia at @lebarbarighe sent me some of her naked oats (so I could sprout them for ale), I had the crazy idea of planting some.
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Crazy because I have no garden; no soil…just a collection of pots squeezed together on a patio. Crazy because I no *nothing* about growing grain. Crazy because I knew I would be away for 5 weeks with no-one to care for them.
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But I couldn’t help myself!
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And look at these! They are one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen for ages. I literally can’t stop looking at them and smiling. The experience has given me just a tiny, tiny taste of how my ancestors, who subsisted on oats, whose calendar was built around them – who literally grew up with all their smells, tastes routines and rituals – must have felt.
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I feel joyful and amazed and humbled and connected. ‘Just’ by a grass.
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Next task (if I can bring myself to do it) is to thresh them and get the grain out.

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Struggling with milk kefir?
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Me too! Turns out it wasn’t me…it was my grains. Listen in to hear why.
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How’s your milk kefir? Have you experienced this before?

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You can make rye bread kvass with old rye sourdough and use the same bread for batch after batch. It’s simple, fizzy, delicious and doesn’t need much attention.
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I like it flavoured with fresh mint (which is going crazy in the garden!). If you’re a kvass fan, I’d love to hear how you flavour yours.
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My method is in my profile (it’s the first one under the recipes sections).
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If you are interested in expanding your fermented drinks repertoire, have a listen to @ancestralkitchenpodcast #60 ‘”What Fermented Drinks Can I Make?’

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