Day 1:
We started out making root beer, smelling the many things that go into it. Though not a lot of people could handle the taste of it, making it was very interesting, and it was fun to watch everyone's faces who tried it!
Root Beer Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup sassafras root bark
- 1/4 cup winter green leaf
- 2 tablespoons sarsaparilla root
- 1 tablespoon ginger root
- 1 tablespoon dandelion root
- 1 tablespoon hops flowers (4-5 cones)
- 1 tablespoon birch bark
- 1 tablespoon wild cherry tree bark
- 1 teaspoon juniper berries
- 1 cinnamon stick or 1 tablespoon crushed bark
- 2 cups unrefined cane sugar, white or brown,
- 1 cup ginger bug, or fresh whey, or 1 packet keifir starter culture
- Strainer bag
Root Beer Directions:
As you bring 4 1/2 quarts of water to a boil, measure the herbs into a strainer bag, then plop it into the hot water. Stir it a bit, making sure the bag is pressed down and wetted thoroughly. Reduce the heat low and simmer the bag for 20 minutes, stirring and pressing often. The room smelled really good after we had it brewing for a few minutes, with the herbal teabag.
Turn off the heat and remove the bag. Let it drain back into the pot by placing it on a drying rack set on top of the pot. s it cools a bit, press the teabag until little or no liquid remains. Stir sugar into the hot infusion and allow liquid to cool until blood temperature, or a little warmer.
Stir in the ginger bug or fresh whey and pour into individual bottles, leaving in 1-inch head space in each bottle. Allow root beer to ferment 3-4 days at room temperature, then transfer to refrigerator for an additional 2 days. When ready to serve, open the bottles slowly to release pressure. The ginger bug/whey/keifir help give the root bee a mild carbonation.
This root beer DOES NOT taste like commercial root beer, no A&W or Muggs root beer. It is a healthy, natural root beer with a very earthy taste.
After the root beer was brewing, we started making our jam. The jam turned out very well. It is a very low sugar jam so you cannot make this to sell it. Jams have to have a certain level of sugar to be deemed sellable.
Jam Ingredients:
- 4 quarts mixed berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries) We used raspberries, blackberries, strawberries.
- 4 tart apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
- 1 cup honey, more if your berries are tart
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 package pectin
- Clean and serialized, jars, lids, and rings
Jam Directions:
Put cleaned, stemmed berries into a large heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Pare and chop apples in food processor into applesauce, incorporating sugar, honey, and pectin. Cook over medium heat. Bring slowly to a boil and boil gently for at least 30 minutes or until it looks like jam and tastes like jam. Ours took about 45 minutes.
Take a bit out on a spoon and put it on a cold plate. If the juices are watery looking then keep cooking! Cook until when you put a little on a plate it has a more syrupy consistency. Let the dab cool a bit. It should set up a little. It doesn't have to look extremely thick. If there is a lot of foam, skim it off with a spoon. Turn off the heat and ladle the jam into the jars.
Fill them up within 1/2-inch of the top, add lids and screw down the lids. Put them in a canner for a 5-minute process and they are done! Let them cool, and tighten the lids. Within an hour they will seal with a pop!
My Experience:
After day one was over I just couldn't wait for the rest of the week. Everything was already so exciting to make. I haven't made a lot of the stuff we did so I was excited to try new things. The jam was excellent, and even though the root beer had a funny taste, it was still exciting to learn about all of the ingredients that went into it, and be able to learn how good each one is for the body. Overall day 1 was a success! I will be doing the next couple days that went into this week in different posts!
Enjoy!xx
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