What’s cooking?

Following on the success of my garden basil fermentation, I decided to do the same with my three abundant chive plants. After giving them all a hair cut, I pounded the stems with 3% salt and pushed them into this jar with a little topping of olive oil.
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After almost a week on the counter, it’s got that gorgeous ‘roasted onion’ smell. It’s my hubby’s birthday soon and I’m thinking of saving this till then and letting him have the first go at spreading it on some freshly-baked spelt sourdough focaccia.

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Want to ferment your grains in a simple and easy process? I’ll walk you through it in my series of 3 videos!
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Check my homepage www.ancestralkitchen.com for the first one, which is all about sourdough porridge. That’ll lead you on to another showing you how to make sourdough polenta out of *any* grain and then a third that’ll walk you through my favourite: sourdough polenta bread!
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I’m so happy to get this info out there. And feedback is my lifeblood, so let me know what you think and share the vids with anyone who you think will like them. Thank you!

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The finished carrot root beer! It’s fizzy, thanks to the microbes in the whey I used as a starter and has a really deep flavour (I included molasses and caraway seeds in the mixture).
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@farmandhearth inspired me to make root beer – she demoed it on the Nourishing Traditions cook-up we did for our podcast patrons earlier in the summer. I had never drunk (let alone made) it before then!
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If you have the cookbook Nourishing Traditions, do check out the beverages chapter – it’s a goldmine!

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I grew up with breakfast from a box.
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Now, the breakfasts that I eat at the table with my son look different. This is sourdough millet and sorghum porridge that I made from whole grains. It’s topped with a nice big handful of nuts (soaked and dehydrated) and ground linseed. Then I poured over unpasteurised goat milk kefir.
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The difference food like this has made to my life is incalculable.
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And it tastes amazing.
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We do not have to give up enjoyment to eat for health, community and the planet. Food tastes *better* the more love we put into it.

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The last of our garden beetroot for this year. I am a container-only gardener, so only had space for 8 beetroot. They are precious to us because we have so few! I sautéed them in olive oil (thanks to a nudge from @almostbananas), root first, then later adding onions, the beet greens and caraway seeds.
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Served here with goat from @aziendaagricolapodereruggeri and fat-slathered home-made sourdough spelt bread (recipe on my site in the resources section).
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I had a sitting-in-the-garden dreaming session this morning. I came up with a big plan for next summer, in which I double our beet production to 16! I’m also hoping to get more flowers, because I need their beauty around me and because *bees*! Bokashi – fermented compost – will help me with this plan. I have 2 bucket-fulls fermenting as I type which will hopefully mean I don’t have to buy any new compost come spring.

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One of the things I love about Italy is the aliveness of its food-making traditions.
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This is taleggio. I bought it from a lady at the weekly farmers’ market in my home town. It was the first time I’d tried it. The washed crust is edible and contrasted beautifully with the spongy, light, fragrant middle. This chunk lasted me three suppers – with sliced, room temperature tomatoes and some home-made millet and sorghum sourdough.
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This was made from the milk from animals living close by, by hand, and I bought it from the person whose hands made it, with a real exchange and no plastic wrap in sight.
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This is the way food should be. Are you with me?

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Spelt sourdough, studded with chocolate barley malt and hazelnuts.
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We recently went to visit (and eat with) Flavio, the amazing man that raises the animals we eat on his farm. I wanted to take something. I had a feeling this bread would be a hit, and it was 🙂
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The recipe for it is linked in my profile. If you haven’t got whole malt, you could easily use malt powder or malt syrup….or if it’s crunch you’re looking for, how about swapping out the malt for cacao nibs?
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In other news, my sourdough porridge, polenta and polenta bread videos went out to everyone on my mailing list today. If you’d like to get news from my kitchen, there’s a sign up in my bio.

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This is the land that brings me my food.
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We planned a whole day out to visit @valledelsasso – where our #farmerman, Flavio, takes care of cows, sheep, pigs, ducks, geese and chickens. It’s only a few miles from our home, but with no car, the train and the bus into the hills was quite an adventure!
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We arrived hungry and saw that Flavio had already lit the barbecue! Along with his wonderful meat, I took a sourdough spelt, chocolate barley and sorghum loaf and some ginger beer.

Gabriel played with the other children, Rob borrowed Flavio’s guitar and noodled, I chatted, ate, and wandered around with my camera.
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So grateful for the community I am finding through the food choices I make. So happy to be able to support the people who choose a tough path – to work the land with love.
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It happened to be Rob and my 6th wedding anniversary. I couldn’t have imagined a nicer celebration.
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Going to pop some more pics and another video in my story.

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Hearing fermentation bubbles makes something fizz inside me too! So I decided to dig out the mic and give you the full #rootbeer effect.
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This is a carrot root beer, based on a #nourishingtraditions recipe. I used the frozen whey cubes I posted a pic of a while back – hear how active they are!

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I wanted a supper that felt luxurious, so I fried up two slices of sourdough millet/sorghum polenta in butter. Whilst it was crisping, I sliced a super-ripe Sardinian variety of tomato, bought from Irene at our local market. I popped it in the cast iron pan alongside the polenta and then took an egg (also from Irene) and barely scrambled it in butter.
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Sliding it all onto the plate, I wanted every last drop, so I drizzled the butter remaining in the pan over the top.
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Super-satisfying.

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