Wow, March’s sourdough theme sure was fun. I should have kept track of how many loaves I baked. I would guess it was at least 30. Plus sourdough pizza and some focaccia bread as well. I never thought I would love baking, but sourdough changed my mind. It’s funny how much simpler it is using the old ways of things, but how complicated if feels at first because it’s just so different than the moderns ways we know well.
The Getting Started with Sourdough Workshop at the end of March was a success! It was challenging getting everything ready to have dough at each stage to show the attendees, but it was worth it. We fit the roughly 48 hour sourdough process into a 2 hour workshop. If you missed it, you can still purchase the replay. Learn more here: www.greenerpostures.com/sourdough-workshop
What’s New?
Pictured: Breakfast made by our 9 year old and 2 wheels of cheese in a salt brine.
I’m really enjoying the monthly themes that I set up for my membership and workshop schedule. I will say though, it’s making me feel like I don’t have as much time to talk about ALL THE THINGS that are happening around the homestead. Eggs in the incubator, meat chicks on the way, new feed and feeding method for our laying hens, vegetable and herb starts in the windows and seeds started in the garden. Foraging spring edibles and medicinals like nettle and chickweed. Immersing ourselves in unschooling our two boys.
I have decided to split my time on the subject of the month with more info on just whatever is on my mind as I like to do. That means you’ll be getting some bonus podcast episodes and more variety of posts on Instagram and YouTube. Don’t forget you can sign up for the Greener Postures Membership on PATREON.COM/GREENERPOSTURES or here on this website www.greenerpostures.com/membership.
April’s Theme is
Culturing Dairy
Yogurt was the first thing I ever intentionally fermented. Way back about 17 years ago. It was an awesome feeling to follow some simple steps and turn a gallon of boring old milk into a quart of delicious yogurt. Learning to strain that yogurt to make labneh and then herbed labneh balls in olive oil I realized how one simple ingredient can transform into so many things when given specific treatment. Since then I’ve made butter, kefir, kefir cheese, mozzarella, ricotta, paneer and even aged cheese! Not to mention all the uses I have found for that strained whey.
You don’t have to wait until you have space for a family cow to get started understanding and experimenting with cultured dairy. Follow along this month both on the podcast and in the membership to learn how I work cultured dairy into my normal kitchen routine.
Book Recommendation
There is one book that I have purchased since jumping into actual cheesemaking after years of culturing dairy in other ways. The Art of Natural Cheesemaking by David Asher. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to make real cheeses the old fashioned way. I went for this book over others because the recipes do not require special purchased freeze dried cheese cultures. You can use home grown cultures like kefir or clabber, and that’s just what I’m using.
The Greener Postures Podcast
This month’s podcast episodes are all about culturing dairy! Week one I will be giving an early spring homestead update and an intro to cultured dairy. Week 2-4 I will give a brief history of pasteurization and talk about yogurt, kefir, butter, clabber, buttermilk, whey and how I am experimenting with aged cheeses in my modern homestead kitchen.
Be sure to subscribe to The Greener Postures Podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify or Anchor. If you would like to listen elsewhere, just copy this RSS feed and paste it into your favorite player: https://anchor.fm/s/bf433928/podcast/rss
Of course, you can always listen to the podcast right here on this website on the PODCAST page.
Featured Video
Have you checked out the Preserving Today YouTube Channel lately? I’ve got a few new things up. This one is older. Here’s a video of how I make yogurt in my instant pot.
What’s Next?
This May I’ll be talking all about common sense kitchen prep with my Intuitive Home Cooking theme. This is something I’ve put a lot of thought into. I’m really passionate about sharing my tips and tricks on how I make the most real food from scratch with a reasonable amount of time spent. Get the biggest bang for your buck, both in your wallet and on the clock and still feed your self as well as possible. Extra content is available when you sign up for the membership.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Thank you for your support.
Greener Postures 
Leave a Reply