Today's Creative Endeavors in Red, White, and Blue

A first-time experiment. Wildcrafted Staghorn Sumac "berries" (seeds) picked to make a cold-brewed drink that is supposed to taste like a tart lemonade. Information and directions here. A second article by Sam Thayer is here.

The author of this article, Sam Thayer, has published a book that I own, have read (that's how I learned about this):: The Forager's Harvest. I'll let you know how it turns out, it's brewing as I write this!

My first attempt at making homemade fermented kefir last week flopped. I decided I didn't have detailed enough directions and I was a bit lost in the dark. Last night I was reading a recently purchased book Wild Fermentation and learned more.  I am grateful for this detailed information but the author gets into topics that have nothing to do with fermenting food and I could do without that.  Today I gave making kefir a second try with a new recipe from the book. This is fermenting at room temperature for 24 hours. I can't wait to see if it works.

I purchased my kefir grains from Happy Herbalist.

The batch of oatmeal complexion soap with shea butter that I made last week has been cut into 40 bars. It has to cure for a month, then I get to see how my experiment with adding shea butter turned out. The recipe is from the book Clean, Naturally by Sandy Maine.

I was suprised to learn yesterday that blueberry season has arrived in Connecticut, two weeks early! Today on the spur of the moment my sons and I went blueberry picking. I discovered that:

3 people + 90 minutes of picking = 12.5 lbs. of blueberies (and costs $29.31).

Okay I can't resist adding purple: here's one of the two batches of blueberry jam I made today. This is the first time I've made this. The first recipe tasted horrible (it had grape juice in it instead of sugar and it has a weird taste of concord grape and blueberry).

This is the second batch with a low amount of sugar (tastes great). I got these recipes free on the Internet because the two cookbooks I own with recipes in them have a 2:1 ratio of sugar to fruit which is offensive to me. I can't in good conscience eat jam that is twice as much sugar as fruit! I want to taste these fresh berries not eat something that's mostly sugar!

Here's the link for the recipe but be forewarned it's the most difficult to navigate and cluttered website I've ever used.