Make your own food

[perinova]

It's an offshoot of the brewing thread.

Does anyone here have experience making wine, cheese, yogurt, jam, moonshine...

How about bon food items (soap)?

 

[Mwsinron]

Interesting topic to me. Since I have talked to older relatives who grew up making their own cheese and living on a farm. I find it fascinating that people would make "head cheese" their own soaps etc. The only thing remotely close I have done is had a garden. Someday when I get time Id like to explore this more. Looking forward to some of the responses.

 

[OKLibrarian]

I've been wanting to try Alton Brown's yogurt recipe, but haven't gotten around to it. I definitely intend to get into canning/jamming as soon as I have A: a bigger kitchen and B: a garden.

 

[linkerbink]

Although it's been a while (several years), I used to make my own yogurt. I also made yogurt cheese (just drain HOMEMADE yogurt in cheesecloth til of the consistency you like) and added things like herbs, or coarse-ground pepper...yummy on crackers! I have a Salton yogurt makes that works really well. Also used to sprout grains, add to bread and salads.

 

[crazy connie]

I tend to be a scratch cook so my awnser is yes. I enjoy picking peaches and freezing as well as making jelly. Making candy is fun and giving it as gifts makes perfect sense to me. Homemade biscotti is a big hit with my friends and not that difficult to do. Whenever I find a deal on over-ripe bananas it is time for banana bread.

My goal is to get a garden and fruit trees to reduce the spend at the market and also enjoy the activity as well as reduced toxins and cloned foods.

The deep freeze is a good friend here and there is always enough to take you through a month or two were unexpected/budgeted expenses to crop up without dipping into savings. It just makes sense with my upbringing.

I have found recipes to make laundry soap and home cleaning products which I plan to try this year. With asthmatics I have learned to exercise caution in commercially prepared cleaners. Vinegar and elbow grease is a good thing.

 

[brewer12345]

Have made jams, jellies, syrups, jerky, bread you name it. Time is a limiting factor.

 

[Hillbilly]

It's an offshoot of the brewing thread.

Does anyone here have experience making wine, cheese, yogurt, jam, moonshine...

How about bon food items (soap)?

Made soap and cheese as a third grader. 'Shine...hum

 

[Khan]

I've made wine and yogurt.

My father used to make applejack.

 

[OKLibrarian]

I've made wine and yogurt.

My father used to make applejack.

Not into homebrewing for beer, but I can't seem to find a drinkable cider on this side of the atlantic, and the good imported stuff is hard to find, pricy, or both. A possible solution? hrm...

 

[Sandy]

I've made yogurt. Used to make just about everything from scratch (never got the hang of bread), but with kids, while there is still a lot of cooking, there are more short cuts.

 

[Fireup2020]

Sausage, jerky, jams/jellies, bread, tomato sauce, pickled stuff. Never messed with yogurt. Does a killer lemon meringue pie made with Meyer lemons count for this poll too?

My dad did the beer & wine thing - he is too busy now that he is retired doing really fun things (busy flying his RAC's, biking, etc)

 

[Goonie]

We do bread. We've done wine....some so-so, some just plain nasty! Also we grow quite a bit of our own produce, and have canned some.

Grandad and great-uncles were bootleggers during prohibition era (started before prohibition actually, and continued afterward for several years). They made enough to keep the rent paid, utilities on, and food on the table. That's how our family made it through the depression.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

the closest i got to that was back when i was an omnivore & big into cooking. i used to make my own mango chutney and gave out jars as presents. i also did a red pepper chutney that friends still request. but lately the extent of my "cooking" is pretty much pre-prepared grilled tofu and packaged salads purchased from the local wholefoods store. i don't know when i got this lazy.

 

[lswswein]

i also did a red pepper chutney that friends still request. but lately the

Recipe please!
-h

 

[clifp]

Make my own bread, pizza, the ocassional chutney, and a fair amount of scratch cooking. I do grow a fair amount of vegetable, and the wonderful Hawaii weather takes all of the work out of growing fruits.
I just got remember to pick them.

 

[Nords]

I do grow a fair amount of vegetable, and the wonderful Hawaii weather takes all of the work out of growing fruits.
I just got remember to pick them.

This is turning out to be an interesting spring. Our tangerine tree hasn't even finished its second crop yet it just blossomed again. Our mangos are blossoming, too, and if they're sucking the same nutrients as the tangerine tree then it's gonna be a really messy summer.

 

[Outtahere]

I've always had a garden, make as much as I can myself, can tomatoes for fresh pasta sauce, make my own pie fillings. Tried yogurt once but didn't turn out like I wanted. Once I've RE I plan on doing a lot more, things taste so much better when made without all the junk in them.

 

[brewer12345]

Not into homebrewing for beer, but I can't seem to find a drinkable cider on this side of the atlantic, and the good imported stuff is hard to find, pricy, or both. A possible solution? hrm...

The problem is the apple varieties grown here are eating apples, rather than cider apples. You can make pretty good cider with local apples (I have a keg of cyser sitting in the fridge now), but it will be a "softer" cider than is produced in the UK. I've heard that a modest addition of tannin (found in homebrew stores) can help, as can teh addition of some crab apples t o the crush, but I haven't tried either of these.

 

[saluki9]

I "harvest" my own meat from our local and regional animals does that count?

I love baking bread, but time is a problem. Now that I actually have a house, I will get going with the garden too. Of course the fact that it's snowing today is not motivating me.