Homebrew:CIDER

Yesterday I wrote about homebrewing your own beer, but that is not all that can be home "brewed". Cider has been around for ages, and was actually a much more popular drink in ages past than beer. "Hard" Cider is cider that has had fermentation occur to make it alcoholic. Beer became more popular with the discovery of hops and other methods for preserving it so that it could be transported. But apples grow all over the place.


Who remembers the stories of Johnny Appleseed from when they were younger? What most people think of are the great apples that are available year round at grocery stores nowadays. Well, if you put those thoughts towards Johnny Appleseed, you would be wrong. He planted mostly small hard apples, that stored well, but were much better for cider than for eating. Just think of it, spreading alcohol instead of fruit? They wouldn't teach that in schools!



Cider is very easy to make, but for the die-hard cider enthusiast, it could have some major expenses. In order to make cider, all you need to do is crush apples, and drink the juice. Voilá! Cider. To make this cider "Hard", it just needs to ferment in a barrel for a few weeks where the free yeast in the air will ferment the sugar in the cider making it alcoholic. In order to speed it up and get reproducable results, we have the option to use packaged beer or wine yeast.



When I say there could be expenses, I mean equipment. Everywhere I have lived, I have been able to find orchards where you could get bushels of overripe or blemished skin apples relatively inexpensively. In order to increase your yield and the speed which you can make cider, you would want a fruit press. If you can get the crusher with the press, even better. Crushing the fruit will increase your yield by a goodly amount. The cider presses available run from $150 (maybe) and up, but they do quickly reduce the amount of time it takes to make cider from fresh fruit.

Always remember, that cider is not always made from apples. Pear Cider, aka "Perry", is very common and enthused about in Europe and small areas around the country here. Same process, different fruit.

If you have extra cider, or you let it go too long, hey, apple cider vinegar has lots of health benefits and works well for a lot of cooking purposes as well. Before it gets to that point, you could distill it to "Apple Jack" or apple brandy. (LEGAL NOTE: same as beer, I make no claims about the legality of this. Verify that for yourself.)

If you have a chance, I highly recommend Hard Cider. Its got a good taste, with a relatively low alcohol content, and you get your fruit every time you drink some! Gotta love it!

Homebrew:BEER

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" -- Benjamin Franklin

Over the past few years, micro-breweries and speciality breweries have boomed across the country. Gone are the days of there being just a few national beer companies selling watered down horse-urine. (My apologies to those of you who do like this stuff...) I admit like different types/brands/etc of beer. Stouts/Ales/Lagers/Pilsners, I love most of them! Spicy/Fruity/Nutty, yuppers! It always seemed that I frustrated the servers when I would go out drinking because I never got the same thing twice. This of course lead me to the idea of making my own beer. Why not? If I make something that is disgusting, well, its my own fault (and it works GREAT in composters), but at the same time, if I make something amazing, then I can feel extremely proud of it.

How to homebrew... there are many books and online references available that will teach you the mechanics of brewing your own beer (I list a few at the end). But I know a lot of people that will ask, "Why should I make my own when there are so many types available for me?" Well, let me attempt to answer that for you. Making beer at home gives you a number of benefits that you can not get through buying beer at the store.

1) You can control the ingredients. You know everything that is going into that and you can make sure that there are no chemicals or preservatives in your brew. There are an extraordinary number of health benefits from beer, just look it up!
2) You can get recipes for "common" beers online and then tweek them to make them suit yourself, or you can make up your own recipes. This gives the brewer the control to make exactly what they want and what they like.
3) You can grow all of the ingredients yourself. If things ever get too bad, you could still have your own homemade beer grown from ingredients that you have grown yourself. Also, those grains you would use? You could eat them if things got too tight!
4) If you stop halfway through the process, you could take what you made and make liquor out of it. (LEGAL NOTE: I make no claims about the legality of this. Verify the legality at your location before attempting. This is not legal in the USA.) The coooked wort (pronounced wert) is the end result of cooking the grains, sugars, etc. This is what would be distilled to make whiskey and whisky (yes, they are different). I can, and probably will, discuss this process in further detail in another post.

Now that you know Why, you need to know the basics of How. Beginning to homebrew does not have to be expensive. Homebrew supply stores, sell kits with everything you nee (except bottles). Bottles can be gotten from beer distributers (ask them if they have any returns that people returned for the deposit (this practice is unfortuntely diminishing, but it doesn't hurt to ask)), ask friends to keep non-twist bottles for you, etc. The equipment itself can be expensive, but if you go with the kit, it doesn't have to be that much (you can get by for less than 100 from many homebrew stores for a beginners kit). You can go all the way up to super-expensive for an all grain, complicated setup. It all depends on where you are comfortable starting.

I highly recommend "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" by Charlie Papazian, and his followup "The Homebrewer's Companion". These books contain pretty much any and all information you would need to learn to home brew as well as a really large and diverse list of recipes.

Also check out:
http://www.homebrew.org
http://www.homebrewing.org
http://www.beertown.org --- the American Homebrewers Association

These are just a few sites to check out, but there are many many more out there. Also, look around, many cities have homebrewing groups and organizations where you can get to know people that are currently doing it and their setups, feelings, likes/dislikes, etc.

I hope you find this informative. Tomorrow? Homebrew: CIDER!

The Animal Less Raised

I hear a lot about raising chickens and raising goats on the homestead. Heck, both of these animals have multiple magazines dedicated to raising them. But what about the other animals that can be raised on smaller properties that will provide for the family? Ok, so I've started to hear more about meat rabbits, that's one. But what about a big ol' hog? Those things get HUGE! That's a lot of meat there, and unless your kosher, its some pretty good eatin'.

Ok, but seriously, think of everything that comes from a pig. You've got bacon, sausage, ham, pork, and lard. (Yes, I said lard, but that's another entry.) When you consider that there are small homestead farms out there raising heritage breed hogs upwards of 250# and getting 75% packaged meat from that. I admit, I have not done this, yet, but from what I can find online, that's 75% MEAT. That doesn't count the lard, salt pork, etc. that can be made using fat. That's a lot of meet for one growing season. Now, I'll admit, I don't know the breakdown of meat by type, but still, for an animal that can forage in pasture. Think about it... a meat goat will weigh much less, but on average, you will only get about 33% of the goats body weight for food (20% if you debone it all). Also, take into consideration if you can do the processing yourself, or if you will need to pay someone to do this all for you... that cost might change your mind.

I'm not saying to not think about each of the other animals, but make sure you consider these lovely animals. I'm still doing some research to see if they can be pastured with any other animals, but hey, I'm not saying this is for everyone, its just a thought.

Lard - the better fat

Lard has all but disappeared from the modern American household, and now when mention of the word comes up, people shudder. They fear the dreaded problems with lard. BUT, do said problems truly exist? Or are they just misconceptions perpetuated by companies and scientists? Let's take a look...

Fats come in three types: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. In this order they are: not great, good, and best. Now I know people are going to get on me about saying saturated fat is "not good" instead of labelling it "bad", but I really don't see it as bad. Is too much bad? Yeah, probably. But it occurs in nature in foods that our forefathers ate, and you know what? I don't think its bad. At least, it wasn't until we started mucking about with its chemical structure.
Now the big scare is trans-fats. Guess what! Lard doesn't have any. None, zero, zip, zilch, nada. Studies have shown that trans-fat is much worse for your health than saturated fat. Lard has about 40% saturated fat (compared to coconut oil's 85% and palm kernel oil's 80% **source**). Lard also has about 45% monounsaturated fats. That's a very respectable number from a health standpoint.

So from a health standpoint, Lard is good. There are proponents out there that are doing studies showing lard to be high in Omega-6 fatty acids, and showing the many other health benefits of lard. But there is a caveat.

Come on, you knew it was coming, right? Well, the boxes of lard that you get at the store are hydrogenated. This means that Hydrogen is added to increase the stability of the fat thus eliminating the need for any special storage conditions. By adding Hydrogen to the fat, the producers are eliminating a lot of the fat benefits listed above. Never fear, you can buy pig fat from local farms in order to render your own lard, or if this is too much work or too scary for a beginner, there are farm markets that sell "real" lard that is not hydrogenated.

As with anything, I urge you to do your own research and to look into the facts. If you agree that this wonderful ingredient is not the health terror we've always been told, let me tell you, it works WONDERS to pastries, baking, etc.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw09102006/2003248134_pacificptaste10.html
http://thehealthierlife.co.uk/article/33781/trans-fatty-acids.html
http://westonprice.org/motherlinda/fats_crisco.html
http://geniuscook.com/lard-is-healthy

These boots are made for...

Unfortunately, my working/hiking/caber-tossing boots have finally broken beyond repair. For now, I can make do with my rubber wellie muck boots, but I'm going to need a new pair of work boots. But, with my worries about the future, and my attempt at frugal prepping, how do I pick a new pair of boots?

Do I go for a cheap pair that should last me a while? Or do I go for a more expensive pair, hoping that they will be better made and will last longer? The pair that just died lasted me a couple years, and were a whopping $19.99. So if I go for an $80 pair, they should last me 8 years, right? Or will they just be more comfortable for the few years that they last... I could get a couple pairs of the cheapies for the price of a more expensive pair. But if things get as bad as we all know they COULD... will I be able to buy another pair in a couple years? Will I have the money? Will the companies that are selling them still be around? All points to ponder...

Then do I go for 6" or 8" boots. Do I go for real leather or fake leather. Steel-toe or no? What about the rubber outer-soles. Etc etc etc. Lots of different things to think about.

Now, there is a lot to be said about paying for the better quality and more comfort. I will admit that I am not worried about weather-/water-proof boots because I will mink oil/saddle soap/wet-pruf my boots on a regular basis to take care of them. I have seen water-proof boots that have a "membrane" in them. You know what these do for me? They make my feet sweat, esp in mid-summer.

I have known a couple pipe-fitters who swear by Red Wing boots. I know mechanics that swear they don't see a difference between brands. I have talked to people who swear by brands (Caterpiller, Carhart, Timberline, etc). Well, that all being said, I am looking at a pair of C.E. Schmidt boots from Tractor Supply. This is T.S. house brand. They are less expensive, but they feel really good on my feet when I tried them on. Now its just a matter of saving up the rest of the cash for it, and seeing if anyone brings up any points that I hadn't thought of or that might change my mind. :-)