I was gone hunting for a week and came back to my first plate of figs ever, albeit a small plate it was still my first. There were also several figs of different varieties that were half dried, of those HC was the taste winner.

On the plate is Malta Black, Peter's Honey, HC, and Unknown Dark Greek.

 

 

My daughter and I both agreed that the Malta Black was the best today. Well, that's half true. She's biased to honey type figs, so she actually said that she liked both the PH and MB equally the best.

This year I didn't fill my elk tag, but I didn't come home empty handed. I picked 2 pounds of Chanterelles. I pick them in the afternoon while walking back to camp when the hunting is pretty much done for the day. I know..I know,  I would rather have 120+ pounds of pure clean meat too but the mushrooms were a nice treat.

 

And lastly, it's time to make sauerkraut.  Here are a few pics. I shred it with a knife, I like the texture better that way.

 


I add salt and a little starter in some mild sugar water(it's gets the bacteria up to speed faster). I like to use vegetable fermentation starter when I make my pickles and sauerkraut, I know it's not necessary but I feel they finish faster and the end product therefore has a little more crisp texture.

 
The whiskey bottle is what I use for a cabbage stomper. Someday I will meet someone with a wood lathe and have them turn out a nice traditional maple stomper for me. Making homemade kraut is easy. I fill the small bowl 1/2-2/3 full with cabbage, sprinkle with sea salt and spoon full of starter water, then smack it 15-20 times with stomper. Mix with your hand and taste some for saltiness. If you like it, put it in the crock and press it down with your hand and repeat.

Here is my fermentation crock filled with cabbage. This is where I put it that has the best temps for me, and it is mostly out of site. I use four medium-smallish sized heads to fill my fermentation crock. It will be done in a week or two. After it has finished I put it old time glass jars with the flip top and keep it the fridge unprocessed so it stays alive. It will keep fine until I make more next year. I cook with it, but I like it as a raw probiotic treat too.

Yumm... I love mushrooms!
Very nice!

Home made sauerkraut...yum

Kimchi is next on my list. Love that stuff

Sounds like you had a bountiful day even without meat which is still good. You are quite creative, nice figs, nice mushrooms, and kraut all hand picked or hand made. Make sure the whiskey is completely consumed before using the bottle as a stomper, nothing can be discarded. Actually, I think I will try some figs soaked in brandy. Congrats, everything looks great.

Love those mushrooms.. Nice figs

Calvin, everything looks terrific, but most importantly, congrats on the nice plate of figs, glad you could enjoy them.

Looking good. Malta Black has been a winner here too. Can't wait for full production next summer.

This year, Malta Black was the best from my trees, as well.  I do not know what happened with my Hardy Chicago.  Early in the season it was my fastest grower.  Then it stopped.  It's total growth is still on par or better than the other trees, and it still looks very healthy.  It just hasn't grown for a while and it dropped it's fruit.

Calvin,  what are  you using as a starter in your kraut?  I shred, salt and crush the cabbage then stuff into mason jars and leave on the counter.  My last batch went south.  It was older cabbage and my guess is it had started to grow some undesirable bacteria.  When I make barbeque, I like making a Carolina style slaw with partially fermented cabbage.  I used the liquid in the dressing as well.  It cuts the richness of the meat/sauce very nicely.

Thanks for all the compliments!

Rich, I love Kimchi too. I want to make it some day.  I need to try growing some Napa Cabbage and Daikon radish, I have tried growing Bok Choy here and it didn't go well. I did however discover this year that the north side of my tomato plants is a great place to grow plants that like a cooler season with even moisture, like lettuces. I have never been able to grow them before this year other than spring time and really early summer if it stays cool. My garden is in full sun all day.


Andy, good to hear from you. Malta Black is a fig machine. A fig at every node of every branch except the first leaf, and none of them have dropped. I also like that it is delicious even if you pick it a bit early, I am going to be removing my Peter's Honey (either giving it to someone local or chopping it up and sending out cuttings) and moving Malta Black up from it's ~8 gallon to that ~12 gallon. So how did your Desert King do this year? I am thinking about getting a healthy Tissue Culture DK from Wellspring this fall, I like getting the brebas a month earlier, but your experience with it makes me hesitant. So many people have such good things to say about it. Then again, maybe I should pursue Grantham's Royal instead. I read that it is superior in every way, but that is in a different climate than ours.

Bijan, my HC grows like nuts until the figs appear. Then it pretty much entirely stops all vegetative growth. Mine has yet to drop any figs, but I noticed today there are 2 figs that look a bit yellowish like they are going to drop. If they do it could be because they went to a timed watering system while I was out of town -vs- me hand watering them with the wand most every night. Or/also maybe because of the light frost we had while I was gone, there is some mild bronzing on the leaves from it. My cucumbers, squash, melons, and green beans took the most damage from it; the figs faired rather well..even the tiny ones only had mild damage.

That barbecue sounds great. This is the starter I use is pictured above, for some reason I couldn't paste the picture below. EDIT/ the pasting of the picture didn't work. I'll take a pic of it tonight when I get home. It's called Vegetable Starter Culture by Body Ecology. You can usually buy it at Natural Grocers /Vitamin Cottage and sometimes but less often Whole Foods will carry it. They keep it in the coolers usually somewhere near the yogurt, they also make one specifically for dairy I believe, but this one will pull double duty. I only use a small amount though, way less than they recommend, it multiplies very fast. When I make a crock of cukes or cabbage I use about a teaspoon. Last fall for some reason their was a supply shortage so nobody locally had it, I went directly to the brand site and ordered it online. There is an expiration of near a year but you keep it in the fridge and it lasts longer.

Calvin, Great pictures! Too bad about the hunt. I was looking forward to seeing an Elk picture.

Calvin. I have 3 lathes if you want something made.

Art, I was hoping to send you some! There were a good deal of elk in the area this year and we had alot of encounters, but just couldn't close the deal. I had one about the size of my mount playing cat and mouse for about an hour in really thick timber with lots of blow downs but he just wouldn't come closer than 40 yards. I was bugling, cow calling, and tree scraping, he was bugling back at me, but I had the wind in my face and sun at my back..he didn't get big being stupid. In the end I took a shot through a small window and aimed a bit high, he ducked as he spun and run and I shot clean over him. That's a long shot for shooting without sights, I have made it before, but I prefer 20 yards or less. I'm happy I missed clean versus wounding him. It was awesome, an encounter like that made the whole trip worth while.

Moments like that sure get the heart pumping. Sounds like you had fun.

Hershell, sounds great! I'll send you a PM about it within the next couple days.

Side note, I like that the posts now show that they are edited, but I have to proof-read better!

Exciting day!  Thanks for sharing, I never knew making kraut was so easy.  And nice looking figs too!

Sounds like a great trip.  Nice chants.  The ones here are so small and thin they're hardly worth it.  So if you shot that Elk, how would you get the meat out of the woods?  I'm a city boy but I'm still interested.  What gun/ammo did you have?

Nice figs and shrooms!

Thanks for sharing, Calvin. Loved hearing about your hunt. Where were you hunting? My wife and I had 6 days in CO for vacation in early Aug-had a great time and I will freely admit I was looking for future elk hunting locations :)

To those who prefer to see game animals prancing free, don't read the first paragraph please.

Bob,
I was using a bow and arrow, shooting by instinct the old fashioned way. There are a lot of different ways to get them out of the mountains. Some prefer to cut all the meat off the bones of the elk and put it in game bags(sort of a big white fabric bag usually cotton that breaths well), and then pack it out in frame back packs. That saves alot of weight. I prefer to cut the quarters at the joint and pack them out whole, skin off, in a game bag on a frame pack. The bone adds a good deal more weight but the end product is so much nicer and less brown from oxidization. An average elk will be 4-5 loads. Each hind quater averages 60-80# on the bone, front quaters are 25-40# so sometimes you can double them up for a single load if they are smaller, plus a meat bag for the tenderloins, back straps, and other meat you removed which usaually weighs around 35-45#. If you shot a small bull you have the horns which don't weigh much but they still catch on trees some while packing out. A trophy will be an extra load, the head, horns and cape are more work to carry than a hind quarter in my opinion. If you deal with alot of trophies you get good at removing the horns and cape from the skull which weighs at least 20# but I prefer not to mess it up and just work harder. :)

Ed,
I hunt up by Steamboat in an area that is lottery tags. It can take non-residents a good deal of years to get a tag depending on the season you apply for, or not. :)

In my past life I was a deer hunter.

My carcuses were hung whole and cut like beef.

When I was in Portland OR, I saw many of the elk taken from the woods whole but of course eviscerated.
We always keep the guts from my kills to make terrines. Nothing wasted nothing wanted.

So here is the finished product, 6 days and it might be the best I have ever made. You just can't buy it tasting like this! Plus it's organic. These are 2qt jars.

 

Here are a few pics from my trip in the mountains. Even though it was primetime for hunting, I had to stop and take a few.

 

 

 

We've been wanting to try making our own kraut, but haven't researched it yet.  Great to read a description of "how to".  Looks soooo yummy it's motivating me to get moving on that.

WOW  Those tree photos are spectacular!  

Thank you for posting on the kraut starter culture.  I looked at Whole Foods in the yogurt section last week but didn't see any but I will check at the health food store.  The photos are beautiful.