THE PRINTABLE IS BELOW ⬇️ Every November someone asks me the same question: can I make this with frozen cranberries? Yes. You can make honey fermented cranberries with fresh berries or frozen ones, so whatever your store has, you can make a jar. Only one step changes, and I will show you exactly which one and why. This is a condiment you cannot buy. Over a few weeks the honey turns into a thin, glossy syrup that tastes of cranberry, orange, ginger and warm cinnamon, with a ge

THE PRINTABLE IS LINKED TOWARDS THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE Bread Baking 300: For the Love of Sourdough | Lesson 1 There is no sourdough bread without a starter. Flour, water, and time create a living culture that can eventually raise a loaf of bread. Making one isn't particularly difficult. The part that often makes sourdough feel difficult is knowing what you're looking at once you have one. Is it hungry? Is it rising? Has it reached its peak? Did you miss the window? Is that li

This is the second half of the fermented hot sauce process, and it is where that jar of pepper mash finally becomes something you can pour, spoon, drizzle, and use at the table. We started with a 3% fermented hot pepper mash, using the weight of the prepared vegetables to calculate the salt. That mash is made with peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and optional sweet peppers, then left to ferment until it develops that bright, pleasantly sour, peppery aroma that tells you it i

THE LINK TO THE PRINTABLE IS BELOW ⬇️ There is a part of food preservation that I don't think we talk about enough. We spend a great deal of time learning how to fill the jars. How much salt?How long should something ferment?How do we know when it is finished? All important questions. But eventually you open the refrigerator, look at all those beautiful jars and face another question: Now what do I do with them? That is a skill too. I don't want us to learn how to ferment foo

**LINK TO PRINTABLE IS BELOW September has a way of making the garden feel generous and slightly unreasonable at the same time. The tomatoes are still coming. The peppers are piling up. There is more on the counter than we can eat fresh, and this is exactly when preservation stops feeling like a hobby and starts becoming part of the rhythm of the kitchen. Today I am putting two very different ferments on the counter. One jar is filled with whole cherry tomatoes, garlic and sh

If you have a jar of cucumbers bubbling away on your counter, you might be wondering if it's working, if it's safe, and when you can actually eat them. This one's for you! Many of you have told me you’ve never fermented anything before, so let's slow down and explore exactly what to look for. No canning. No vinegar. Just salt, water, cucumbers, and time. Here’s how to read your jars from the first bubble all the way to the fridge. Is It Even Working? The good news is that a h

THE PRINTABLE IS LINKED BELOW When most people think of fermented pickles, one flavor immediately comes to mind—classic dill and garlic. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's a classic for a reason. But if you've been following Homestead Wife Life for a while, you already know that one of my favorite things to do is take a traditional skill and explore just how much farther it can go. Fermentation is no exception. Today, instead of making one jar of pickles, we're ta

How to Bottle Tepache for Natural Fizz, Flavor & Continuous Batches If you’ve already made tepache, this is where everything comes together. This step takes your base ferment and turns it into a naturally fizzy, refreshing drink — a simple way to create a homemade natural soda right in your own kitchen. But more importantly, this is where tepache stops being a one-time recipe and becomes a repeatable kitchen system. 🌿 Watch the Full Video 🌿 What You’re Doing in This Step Th

Fermented Beverages Series | EPISODE 1 There are a handful of things I like to keep going quietly in the background of the kitchen. A pot of stock. A jar of something fermenting. A dough resting somewhere it’s not being bothered. This—this is one of those. A ginger bug is a simple culture made from fresh ginger, sugar, and water. Left alone and fed daily, it comes to life on its own and becomes the foundation for naturally fermented drinks like ginger ale and fruit sodas. We

There are many ways to make yogurt, but in a working kitchen, what matters most is how it behaves once it’s made. In this lesson, we use two methods:– a purchased starter culture– and a spoonful from a previous batch (what I call my kitchen culture) Both are reliable. Both will give you yogurt. But they do not give you the same yogurt. Why This Matters If you only ever follow recipes, this difference can be easy to miss. But once you begin making yogurt regularly, you’ll noti

The Traditional Salt Method for Citrus Citrus season is brief, and before it fades, this is the preserve I make every single year. Most people in the West know preserved lemons. But the traditional salt method was never meant for lemons alone. In North Africa, citrus is layered generously with salt and aromatics — bay leaves, peppercorns, sometimes chilies — and left to transform slowly in its own brine. This is the method I was taught. Each fruit is quartered but left attach

Culturing dairy at home is one of those quiet kitchen skills that feels old-world and luxurious, yet is surprisingly simple once you understand the process. In this video, I walk through how I make cultured butter and crème fraîche using low-temperature pasteurized cream, explaining not just what to do, but why each step matters. You’ll see how a small amount of live culture transforms fresh cream into two deeply flavorful staples: rich, tangy butter and smooth, spoonable crè

Once you’ve started fermenting your own ingredients, it’s impossible to go back. In this second part of my Fermented Flavor Bombs series, we’re making four versatile pastes that live happily in the refrigerator and quietly transform everything they touch. These pastes begin with the simplest ingredients—fresh garlic, bright lemon, colorful peppers, and golden ginger with turmeric—and end up deeply flavorful, probiotic, and beautifully complex. A spoonful here and there turns

Fermenting is one of the oldest — and most rewarding — ways to preserve food. By encouraging beneficial bacteria to grow, fermentation transforms simple ingredients into something complex, savory, and deeply flavorful. It’s how “pickled” used to be made before fast methods replaced flavor. Around the world, fermentation has long been used to keep foods safe to eat longer and to boost their health benefits. The results are foods that are alive, full of character, and absolutel