Hello Mother

This year has been the year of ferments and cures.  We fermented pickles, squash, dilly beans, mead, wine, and now we are vinegar making.  After several weeks of feeding, B now has an established and happy vinegar mother.  Our goal is to utilize our wild grape wine, and age it into something similar to a balsamic vinegar.  The flavor of the starter is already both sweet and rich.  We may even get a small oak barrel to age it in.

I love that B is fearless and willing to try anything.  Foremost he is an information junkie, and researches thoroughly to find the best ways to tackle new adventures.  An important thing when homesteading, is trial and error.  I have to say the process is a lot of fun!

I think the vinegar might just be a great accompaniment to our home-cured meat project.  After a few days of using it, our pancetta turned out delightful.  It has a sweet, salty and peppery taste on its own, then becomes quite salty when cooked.  It is perfect for soup or pasta bases.  We are in the process of getting a whole pig for the freezer from a local farm.  B plans on expanding our charcuterie, a term he has grown quite fond of saying, into other areas; coppa, prosciutto etc :)  The more we find that we can do, and what we will utilize will aid us in decisions as to what animal expansions we may do in future.  I think that the most surprising thing that we have found out is really how easy so many of these things are.  Similar to cooking, creating anything from scratch is not necessarily hard to do, it merely takes time and patience.  A great lesson; good things come to those who wait.