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This is a milestone in our house. Fresh liver from a local organic farm. The first we’ve sourced since moving to Italy. My husband ran up a hill for an hour with a slip that explained what he was doing outside the house in his pocket. . It is from a Cinta Senese pig – a variety that is highly prized here. We bought the whole liver – it was huge. It is so delicious, mild, soft and melt in the mouth. . Eating local liver again makes me feel empowered – to be making use of a part of the animal that is usually shunned, to be feeding my two boys serious amounts of vitamins A, D, E and K, to be supporting a local farm who care for these animals.

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This is a milestone in our house. Fresh liver from a local organic farm. The first we’ve sourced since moving to Italy. My husband ran up a hill for an hour with a slip that explained what he was doing outside the house in his pocket.
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It is from a Cinta Senese pig – a variety that is highly prized here. We bought the whole liver – it was huge. It is so delicious, mild, soft and melt in the mouth.
.
Eating local liver again makes me feel empowered – to be making use of a part of the animal that is usually shunned, to be feeding my two boys serious amounts of vitamins A, D, E and K, to be supporting a local farm who care for these animals.

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Baked fermented goat’s milk heaven. That’s what I’d call this cup of gorgeousness I made from @darra.goldstein’s book ‘Beyond the North Wind’ full of the most amazing raw, sour, fermented recipes. I have not bought myself a cook book since I got Nourishing Traditions over 10 years ago. I’m not good with following recipes (I can prove it – I messed this up the first time and curdled the milk) but just sometimes, I get so excited I have to cook by the book. . This is milk that’s baked thick and creamy and then fermented. I like mine sour, so left it overnight next to the warm slow-cooker. When it’s baking you take the skin off and save it and then add it back to the finished dish, Oh my, it was so good. . Thank you for such a beautiful, poetic book Darra. I’m hoping to bake some the barley and rye bread in cabbage leaves next.

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Baked fermented goat’s milk heaven. That’s what I’d call this cup of gorgeousness I made from @darra.goldstein’s book ‘Beyond the North Wind’ full of the most amazing raw, sour, fermented recipes. I have not bought myself a cook book since I got Nourishing Traditions over 10 years ago. I’m not good with following recipes (I can prove it – I messed this up the first time and curdled the milk) but just sometimes, I get so excited I have to cook by the book.
.
This is milk that’s baked thick and creamy and then fermented. I like mine sour, so left it overnight next to the warm slow-cooker. When it’s baking you take the skin off and save it and then add it back to the finished dish, Oh my, it was so good.
.
Thank you for such a beautiful, poetic book Darra. I’m hoping to bake some the barley and rye bread in cabbage leaves next.

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Have you ever cooked with wholegrain (i.e. brown) millet? I didn’t even know you could buy it with the hulls on until I saw it at a healthfood store here in Italy. I got very excited and promptly bought two packets! . Researching told me it’s most often used in Asian cuisine to make dumplings, but it does have a history here in Italy, where millet, often brown, as flour was added to bread mixes. . I love fermenting grains and got exploring. This is what I came up with. Here you see the two grains about to be soaked. I do this for at least a day as the brown millet is hard. Then I drain and rinse and leave to sprout. The tiny tails on the little grains as so cute! Then I food process for a long time with a little starter and leave for another day or two to ferment. It takes on a cheesey funk that is gorgeous. Then I either make porridge with it or bake it into cakes. . I’ll snap some pics the next day or two to show you the outcome. . Can you buy it in your part of the world? Have you used it? What do you do? I’d love to meet another brown millet fermenting geek :-)

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Have you ever cooked with wholegrain (i.e. brown) millet? I didn’t even know you could buy it with the hulls on until I saw it at a healthfood store here in Italy. I got very excited and promptly bought two packets! .
Researching told me it’s most often used in Asian cuisine to make dumplings, but it does have a history here in Italy, where millet, often brown, as flour was added to bread mixes.
.
I love fermenting grains and got exploring. This is what I came up with. Here you see the two grains about to be soaked. I do this for at least a day as the brown millet is hard. Then I drain and rinse and leave to sprout. The tiny tails on the little grains as so cute! Then I food process for a long time with a little starter and leave for another day or two to ferment. It takes on a cheesey funk that is gorgeous. Then I either make porridge with it or bake it into cakes.
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I’ll snap some pics the next day or two to show you the outcome.
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Can you buy it in your part of the world? Have you used it? What do you do? I’d love to meet another brown millet fermenting geek 🙂

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If you want to bake sourdough but aren’t, what is the biggest thing that’s stopping you? . I have spent a lot of the last year and a half teaching myself sourdough, focusing on wholegrains and local flour. It has brought me so much. And I want to pass that on. . So, if you’re struggling to bake it, tell me where you are having problems; what you’re struggling with. I’ll take that and try to figure out how I can mix it with my own skills and turn out something that’ll help people move on. . In addition, if you want to help me out, please feel free to share/re-post this. The more people I can reach, the better I’ll get at figuring out how to get more beautiful loaves out there. A big THANK YOU!

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If you want to bake sourdough but aren’t, what is the biggest thing that’s stopping you?
.
I have spent a lot of the last year and a half teaching myself sourdough, focusing on wholegrains and local flour. It has brought me so much. And I want to pass that on.
.
So, if you’re struggling to bake it, tell me where you are having problems; what you’re struggling with. I’ll take that and try to figure out how I can mix it with my own skills and turn out something that’ll help people move on.
.
In addition, if you want to help me out, please feel free to share/re-post this. The more people I can reach, the better I’ll get at figuring out how to get more beautiful loaves out there. A big THANK YOU!

… Read More

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I am totally in love with the recent podcast series ‘Cereal’ from @farmerama_radio. Yesterday I listened to episode 5, about sourdough and bakers who are championing local flour, community projects and real bread. . Two threads from it are filling my thoughts right now: . 1 – Removing commodity from our food system at every level. . This makes me want to ask, how can we get more people making sourdough at home? I think the *making* is the key, as when you start doing that you are naturally led to questions such as ‘where does my flour come from?’ . 2 – Around 1/3 of bread in the UK ends up in the bin. . This astounds me. I moved from the UK to Italy recently – a country that has an incredibly rich history in its ‘cucina povera’ of making stale bread taste a.m.a.z.i.n.g. in thousands of ways. I am reading a book by a local food author/historian which includes recipes like this right now. It might not solve all this problem, but we need to get people cooking with old bread. . Can you tell how fired up I am?! I am so passionate about local food and there’s nowhere I feel that more than in my bread-making. If you’ve any thoughts, experiences or advice to share, I’d welcome it. I’d also really recommend listening to the Farmerama podcast. . And, yes, almost forgot, I posted a picture here. This is today’s local spelt flour loaf. I am totally in love with not scoring my bread. Look at the beauty of that burst!

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I am totally in love with the recent podcast series ‘Cereal’ from @farmerama_radio. Yesterday I listened to episode 5, about sourdough and bakers who are championing local flour, community projects and real bread.
.
Two threads from it are filling my thoughts right now:
.
1 – Removing commodity from our food system at every level.
.
This makes me want to ask, how can we get more people making sourdough at home? I think the *making* is the key, as when you start doing that you are naturally led to questions such as ‘where does my flour come from?’
.
2 – Around 1/3 of bread in the UK ends up in the bin.
.
This astounds me. I moved from the UK to Italy recently – a country that has an incredibly rich history in its ‘cucina povera’ of making stale bread taste a.m.a.z.i.n.g. in thousands of ways. I am reading a book by a local food author/historian which includes recipes like this right now. It might not solve all this problem, but we need to get people cooking with old bread.
.
Can you tell how fired up I am?! I am so passionate about local food and there’s nowhere I feel that more than in my bread-making. If you’ve any thoughts, experiences or advice to share, I’d welcome it. I’d also really recommend listening to the Farmerama podcast.
.
And, yes, almost forgot, I posted a picture here. This is today’s local spelt flour loaf. I am totally in love with not scoring my bread. Look at the beauty of that burst!

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I am extending the #ancestralcookup to cover the whole of April. If you want to join in, it’s a beef and barley stew, and there are tonnes of options for you to use what you can get hold of in your part of the world. . The template recipe is linked in my profile here. Check that out, cook it up and then post a pic and let me know how your version turned out. It’s a fun way for both me and you to feel part of a community of awesome homecooks who love nutrient-dense foods. . We are lunching on it again today. Because I really love crunch, I got my 6-year old to be in charge of frying up chucks of my sourdough bread in lard to top it. It was yum!

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I am extending the #ancestralcookup to cover the whole of April. If you want to join in, it’s a beef and barley stew, and there are tonnes of options for you to use what you can get hold of in your part of the world.
.
The template recipe is linked in my profile here. Check that out, cook it up and then post a pic and let me know how your version turned out. It’s a fun way for both me and you to feel part of a community of awesome homecooks who love nutrient-dense foods.
.
We are lunching on it again today. Because I really love crunch, I got my 6-year old to be in charge of frying up chucks of my sourdough bread in lard to top it. It was yum!

… Read More

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Breakfast is the one meal we don’t usually eat together as a family. Both my hubby and I practise intermittent fasting: I go from 6pm until 10am not eating and he does 6pm till 11.30am. There’s no way my little boy can do that, so he usually eats earlier. Habits are good to break and Sundays we usually have a ‘special’ breakfast together. . Today it was fermented spelt porridge. I soaked the spelt berries for 24 hours with some whey, then let them sprout. When they had tails, I blended them with a little more whey. I then left them overnight to ferment. We cooked them up with this morning. My hubby added goat kefir, apple and soaked/dehydrated walnuts. My son had banana, miso (yes, I know, with banana – he’s bonkers :-)) and cashews. I had ground flax seed, walnuts, miso and a spoon of peanut butter. We all added copious coconut oil. . Eating together, consciously, makes the start of a special day even specialer. Easter love to everyone who got (and didn’t get!) this far into my ramblings!

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Breakfast is the one meal we don’t usually eat together as a family. Both my hubby and I practise intermittent fasting: I go from 6pm until 10am not eating and he does 6pm till 11.30am. There’s no way my little boy can do that, so he usually eats earlier. Habits are good to break and Sundays we usually have a ‘special’ breakfast together.
.
Today it was fermented spelt porridge. I soaked the spelt berries for 24 hours with some whey, then let them sprout. When they had tails, I blended them with a little more whey. I then left them overnight to ferment. We cooked them up with this morning. My hubby added goat kefir, apple and soaked/dehydrated walnuts. My son had banana, miso (yes, I know, with banana – he’s bonkers :-)) and cashews. I had ground flax seed, walnuts, miso and a spoon of peanut butter. We all added copious coconut oil.
.
Eating together, consciously, makes the start of a special day even specialer. Easter love to everyone who got (and didn’t get!) this far into my ramblings!

… Read More

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Yes, they’re banana skins! Cool, weird, amazing, hey? I’m making #bananaskinvinegar. It’s tucked away nicely now in my fermenting nook; going to be there a couple of months, I think. Thank you @mark_diacono for the idea. I used honey, not maple syrup. And @soilassociation I’m carrying on saving my skins to make the banana skin curry soon.

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Yes, they’re banana skins! Cool, weird, amazing, hey? I’m making #bananaskinvinegar. It’s tucked away nicely now in my fermenting nook; going to be there a couple of months, I think. Thank you @mark_diacono for the idea. I used honey, not maple syrup. And @soilassociation I’m carrying on saving my skins to make the banana skin curry soon.

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There is still time for you to join me in the #ancestralcookup. We are making beef and barley stew together! At mine, we are enjoying it again for lunch – with home-made soda bread, goat’s butter and some sauerkraut. Check out the link in my bio for all the details of how to join in – I’d love to cook with you :-)

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There is still time for you to join me in the #ancestralcookup. We are making beef and barley stew together! At mine, we are enjoying it again for lunch – with home-made soda bread, goat’s butter and some sauerkraut. Check out the link in my bio for all the details of how to join in – I’d love to cook with you 🙂

… Read More