Chelsea Green Blog
Food & Drink
Cheers! A Guide to Making Sparkling Cider
Make some room, Champagne and Prosecco. Sparkling cider is here to stake its claim as the superior bubbly beverage this upcoming holiday season! Crisp and refreshing, this apple-based delicacy serves as the perfect addition to any family dinner or friendly gathering. So raise a glass, and get ready to toast to the wonderful world of…
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How to Make Naturally Fermented Raw Soda
On your way to the store for a soda? Stop right there! Your backyard has plenty of delicious ingredients to make an all-natural soda. Pick and choose your own herbs for a custom, fermented raw soda without all the unhealthy sugars and additives. The following is an excerpt from Wildcrafted Fermentation by Pascal Baudar. It has…
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How to Preserve Olive Fruit Leather in 5 Easy Steps
Autumn olives are quite the berry. No added sugar is required! Give it a try and keep some delicious and nourishing olive fruit leather on hand for whenever you get the craving. The following excerpt is from Wild Flavors: One Chef’s Transformative Year Cooking from Eva’s Farm by Didi Emmons. It has been adapted for the…
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The #1 Health Rule: Eat Real Food
Glyphosate, the world’s most common weedkiller, is everywhere. But there are ways to combat the infiltrator. The best way? Eat well by sticking to the outskirts of the grocery store where items aren’t prepackaged and the list of ingredients is completely pronounceable. The following is an excerpt from Toxic Legacy by Stephanie Seneff. It has…
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Fermenting Apples for Cider
Fermenting apples is a key component of the cider making process. Along with all of the different strategies that go into fermenting apples, there are also traditional and modern methods that makers utilize based on preference and conditions or availability. In Cider Planet, longtime cider maker and author Claude Jolicoeur talks about new and emergent regions…
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How to Build a Wood-Fired Oven at Home
Do you have a love affair with wood-fired pizza? Can’t resist a fresh from the oven loaf of bread? Are always looking for another DIY project? If you said yes, then this one’s for you! Richard Miscovich, bread expert and wood-fired oven builder, offers a few useful tips and general masonry guidelines to help you…
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Lost Nation Cider Pie Recipe
Fall means apples: Walking through orchards picking apples, finding wild apple trees, and best of all…eating apples! We’ve had the privilege of publishing many books with delicious apple recipes over the years but one of our all-time favorites has to be the Lost Nation Cider Pie from Michael Phillips’ The Apple Grower: A Guide for…
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Becoming A True Seed Detective: Mastering the Mission
Did you ever wonder how peas, kale, asparagus, beans, squash, and corn have ended up on our plates? Well, so did Adam Alexander, otherwise known as The Seed Detective. The following is an excerpt from the The Seed Detective by Adam Alexander. It has been adapted for the web. My Seed-Detective Mission Crammed into two…
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The Key to Building A Long-Lasting, Healthy Diet
In reality, a healthy diet isn’t actually a strict one. Having a healthy diet means listening to what our body tells us and implementing a few small lifestyle changes. In his upcoming book The Virus and the Host, Dr. Chris Chlebowski outlines the tools we need to achieve better health and fight against infectious viral…
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The Best Types of Apples for Cider in North America
If you’re a fan of cider, you know that the type of apple used can make or break the flavor. And with all the different brands of cider out there, many kinds of apples from across the world are being utilized to create it. In his new book Cider Planet, author and renowned cider maker…
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7 Mantras of Cider Making
To make the very best cider—whether for yourself, your family, and friends or for market—you first need a deep understanding of the processes involved, and the art and science behind them. Fortunately, The New Cider Maker’s Handbook is here to help. Within the handbook, award-winning cider maker Claude Jolicoeur provides today’s makers with all the tools…
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Styles of Cider: The 4 Main Categories
Looking for the best cider to sip on a crisp fall evening or cold winter night? In the excerpt below, author and fermented beverage expert Claude Jolicoeur describes the four main styles of cider and how to tell the difference between them. The following is an excerpt from the Introduction of Cider Planet by Claude Jolicoeur. It has…
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9 “Berry” Delightful Ways to Enjoy Berries!
Summer is a great time to enjoy sweet treats, and what’s sweeter than freshly picked berries? We’ve put together some of our ‘berry’ best articles on nature’s sweet summertime treats. RECIPE: Gooseberry Pie Have you ever tasted a gooseberry? These unique, tangy fruits are related to currants, but have a flavor all their own. Though…
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RECIPE: Gooseberry Pie
Have you ever tasted a gooseberry? These unique, tangy fruits are related to currants but have a flavor all their own. Though gooseberries aren’t a common ingredient in pie, they’ll take your dessert to the next level. The following is an excerpt from This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow.…
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4 Dried Tomato Recipes to Enjoy the Harvest Year Round
Have an overabundance of tomatoes? No problem. Preserve your summer harvest and enjoy the taste of the season all year long with these dried tomato recipes! For more recipes using traditional preserving techniques like salt, oil, drying, cold storage, vinegar, and fermentation, read Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning. Tomatoes Dried Naturally Tomatoes Almond oil (or another…
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10 Fascinating Fig Facts
Chances are you’ve heard of fig trees before. Beyond producing fruit, you can find fig trees woven into several different cultures, pieces of art, and works of literature. Given their prominence, you might be wondering what exactly makes these trees so special. Lucky for you, we have the inside scoop on everything fig-related. The following…
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4 Ways to Preserve Your Green Bean Bounty
Harvest season is finally here! If you’re anything like us, you’ve got green beans up the wazoo around this time of year. If you’re looking for a new way to preserve your green bean bounty for the fall and winter months, these four salt-based techniques should help. Here’s to months of delicious green beans ahead!…
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The Promise of Purslane & Salt-Pickled Recipe
Are you quick to grab a shovel at the mere mention of purslane for fear it will overrun your garden? If you nodded your head “yes,” might we suggest taking a second to rethink your attack? This semi-succulent annual not only boasts the highest-yet-measured levels of omega-3 fatty acids (hello, health benefits!) in a plant;…
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Homemade Kvass: Ancient Fermentation
Looking to add another recipe to your fermenting repertoire? Try your hand at Kvass. Bonus: it is the perfect entry-level project. Kvass is an ancient and beloved beverage from Slavic Eastern Europe. While it is basically a low-alcohol beer, it is enjoyed as a soft drink, even by small children. This nourishing beverage calls for…
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Elderflowers and Elderberries
We should just change the name of summer to elderberry season. It’s the perfect time to pick these berries (which aren’t actually berries) and make delicious jams, drinks, and sauces. Cooking or fermenting elderberries is crucial to unlocking their flavor. Once processed, you’ll have an end product with plenty of health benefits as opposed to…
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Relax and Refresh with Country Elderberry Wine
There’s really nothing better than sitting down after a long day with a glass of wine and the sun setting in the distance. Unless of course you foraged for the berries for said wine, crushed them by hand, added in some sugar, water, and citric acid, bottled it up, and waited six months before you…
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How to Make Fermented Farinata: Italian Chickpea Flour Cake
What is Farinata? We’re glad you asked! Farinata is an Italian fried cake made from chickpea flour. Sanor Katz describes it as “a luscious, light, and creamy treat that is almost like a fluffy omelet or soufflé.” The following is an excerpt from Sandor Katz’s Fermentation Journeys by Sandor Ellix Katz. It has been adapted for the…
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Easy Cheeses to Make at Home
Have you always wanted to make cheeses at home, but have never known where to start? Good news! Homemade cheese doesn’t have to be complicated, all you really need is a handful of ingredients and time. The following is an excerpt from Sandor Katz’s Fermentation Journeys by Sandor Ellix Katz. It has been adapted for…
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Say (Vegan) Cheese! Making Spicy Hard Cheese
For the next post in our vegan cheese series we’re trying our hand at spicy hard cheeses! While the base and first few steps of this recipe are very similar to the vegan cheese spread in the last post, there are few extra steps that’ll test your fermentation and cheese-making skills. If this sounds a bit…
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How to Brew Amazing Beer in Vast Quantities
Wouldn’t it be cool if, after some time and practice, you’re known as the Beer Brewing Master? Your friends gather at your house every weekend to try your latest ferment, eyes filled with wonder. Your homebrewing skills unmatched by all. Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods,…
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