Right. The first couple of kilo of grapes done - some into a bag for the freezer, some for dehydration. Only 5.5 kg to go.
It's a bit of a sticky job, picking, destemming, slitting each grape. I reckon 1.5 - 2kg at a time is a good way to break it up.
I want to fit them all onto 3 dehydration trays if I can. The other one has doddrapatre* dehydrating.
*It has lots of names eg Indian Borage, Mexican Mint, Cuban Mint, and a lot lot more.
#Apples, the fruit of Winter. While we think of them as dessert fruit, they also make amazing salads and savoury baked dishes - salads, pickles, chutneys, as well as jams, breakfast dishes, juices and desserts.
They can be eaten raw, poached and roasted. As well as salads, they make amazing soups when incorporated with veggies. Dr Ben, a Korean doctor and blogger, uses apples and pears in his kimchis for sweetening.
to the apple!
I picked the remaining grapes and don't really know what I am going to do with them all. If I'd had my wits about me I'd have picked them a few days ago and dried them in the sun. (We have some cooler weather beginning tomorrow. I think there are far too many to fit in the dehydrator. Others gifted, no doubt.)
This basket looks small but holds a LOT.
And taadaaa!
2L of beet kvass. I could have squeezed the leftover bit into the other jars duh, but it'll do for tomorrow's tonic. In the fridge now so the bubbling is settling.
It took about 750g beets, but could do with a little bit less or more either way.
And finally, the beet kvass, ready to be decanted into bottles. I just have to wash the bottles first as I finished the last of the previous kvass and the kanji this morning.
The jar is not really on a slope 
and also was covered with a cloth while fermenting.
This one has a lovely taste to it as I added some spices - fennel, coriander seed, cardamom seed, long pepper. I can definitely taste the fennel seed, and the others will reveal themselves I am sure, once the kvass is chilled. It has a different taste when chilled.
I read yesterday that the left-over beet is nice roasted. It is too hot for that today, but I might freeze it and use in soups, veggie stews, dals, wet curries etc. #NoWaste
Most of the grapes have been dehydrated and are now conditioning (a few still finishing off in the dehydrator).
And the rest of the fresh grapes are now busy making vinegar. It is a very lively ferment. It usually is covered with a breathable cloth; I took it off for the pic.
The vinegar is darker coloured rather than light due to the sugar used.
The rhubarb was fermented - a slow bubble for this one - then dehydrated. It will be powdered for a nice, funky tart addition to foods, possibly to replace the usual souring agents in some Indian dishes.
I loved how the powdered fermented herbs turned out so I wanted to do this with rhubarb too, rather than just dehydrating it.
Sorry for out of focus pics. Those dehydrated piecs are quite tiny - the bowl is a very small one, so they look bigger than they are.
Purslane has been fermented (using ziplock bag method) with onion and garlic and is now in the fridge and is being used. V. happy with the results. Purslane still has some crunch. It was a lovely bubbly ferment.
A catchup on things #FromTheKitchen
Chillies have been dried and conditioned. Now in a jar - I'll grind chilli flakes and powder as needed and the rest will be used whole.
Good grief it is hot out there. I mean "Summer burning hot" not "Autumn gentle hot". Pot plants are watered.
Also water is out for the insects and birds. I can tell that magpies like the verandah for the coolth on hot days, as there are little white spots everywhere 
I'll often see them behind the pot plants that sit on the edge of the verandah.
Time to taste the kvass and stir the vinegar.
New day, new dealing with garden produce.
Today it's the grapes. I'll have a go at some vinegar, plus dehydrate some.
My grandmother would bottle grapes, and I loved them. I don't have such a sweet tooth these days, but if I had a vacola ......
Good. The chillies are in the dehydrator. 14 dozen (168 chillies).
They are small Thai chillies so they don't look that many - just 1 dehydrator tray.
I *nearly* made a fermented chilli mash, but the #KirstenShockey ones are a bit faffy - the hot chilli sauce I made the other day is simple and awesome and without messing around.
No seeding or peeling chillies for me, altho next time I make the sauce I will roast some. (These chillies are two small to remove the seeds anyway, and last time I just blended everything up in the Vitamix. We're not scared of a few seeds*).
* I read the other day that it is not the seeds that hold the most heat, but the white membrane parts of the chilli. I am not testing this.
I am adoring reading this book 
( #TheCookingOfTheEasternMediterranean by #PaulaWolfert ).
I got half way through the book before there was a section that contained meat. (There were a few "chicken stock" recipes before that but mostly the non-veg components were easily substituted.)
Her description of the recipes, how she found them, who showed her, where they cooked the dish, the drive there..... All fascinating and make the book very readable.
I am up to a section on the use of chickpeas! And how she waxes lyrical about chickpeas 
*Pops into kitchen to put chickpeas on to soak*
Doing a test run of dehydrating doddapatre/Karpooravalli - so far so good altho it loses colour. Smells the same tho. It is easy to strike cuttings so will pot some up for people and do a couple of trays for dehydrating.
Aka Indian borage, Cuban oregano, and Spanish thyme, Mexican mint., and so many more.... Also ajwain leaves and carom leaves (incorrect names).
Of course, lots of different names across India:
Hindi: Ajwain Patta or Sambrani Patta
Kannada: Doddapatre, Karpooravalli or Oma Kalu Ele
Tamil: Karpooravalli or Omavalli
Telugu: Omavalli or Vamu Aku
Malayalam: Panikkoorkka or Karpooravalli
Marathi: Patta Ajwain or Doddapatre
Bengali: Patharchur or Pashanabheda
Gujarati: Sambrani or Ajma Na Parno
Real name: Coleus aromaticus / Plectranthus amboinicus
I made the best ever eggplant and chickpea dish last night in the slow cooker function of the #InstantPot.
The recipe is Macedonian Chickpeas, Eggplants and Tomatoes, from The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, by #PaulaWolfert.
A few bits (onion, green capsicum, eggplants) are sauteed quickly then tomatoes, LOTS of parsley, greek oregano, bay leaves is added, then tomatoes. Simmered for 10 mins then mixed with chickpeas and slow cooked for 3 hours.
The recipe also includes chillies, but I added the water used to swish around the blender after I pureed the fermented chillies. It was a perfect heat!
All from the garden except onion and chickpeas.
The recipe punches above its weight!! Very special. Lots in the fridge for 'ron. 
Pea Eggplants (also called Turkey Berry and Sundakkai) are very common across S.E. Asia and India. They are used fresh in S.E. Asia and more commonly used dried (Sundakkai Vathal) in South India. They are very delicious and incredibly nutritious. Fresh pea eggplants can be found in Asia groceries and the dried ones in Indian groceries.
#Tamarind is one of my favourite flavours, and it is a regret that we don’t often get fresh tamarind pods here. There is a difference between using fresh young but ripe tamarind and the dried blocks of older tamarind that we use. Some recipes are great with the younger tamarind, some pair better with the older and/or dried tamarind.
Occasionally we can pick up raw tamarind, and I love to make a sweet-sour molasses/syrup with it to capture the wonderful mouth puckering green taste.
Here I roasted Brussels Sprouts with my tamarind molasses.
You can make your own from raw or ripe tamarind pods. But in some parts of the world it is easy to purchase a tamarind syrup – this can be used as well if the sweetness doesn’t override the tartness. It needs a balance of sweet and tart.
This is a perfect evening salad, reminiscent of a cheese and greens plate – so much so that you will find yourself wanting to eat it with crackers! It is simple and quick, yet utterly delicious.
I don’t often buy bags of mixed lettuce leaves but sometimes it is the easiest and cheapest way to bring a salad together. Here I use mesclun, but any mix will work. If you have some watercress leaves, radicchio or Belgian Endive, add some of those too.
Top with toasted nuts or seeds. Walnuts are great – I sometimes keep a bowl of two of unshelled walnuts in the kitchen just to add to dishes as needed. But other nuts will work easily as well – pistachios, pecans, hazelnuts, for example. Or sunflower seeds, pepitas or other seeds.
Then drizzle with just a little walnut or hazelnut oil with even less lemon juice. Select your cheese and add. Voila! A salad.
The Prince of Vegetables, beetroot, was at its most sweetest tonight, cooked perfectly in the Instant Pot, sweet as, with a touch of butter and a little black pepper. It has been ages... My heart sang as I bit into the first beet....
Last time I cooked them in the IP they were rock hard. I like them soft. I got the timings perfect this time (110g-160g beetroot, on trivet, 34m HP, 5m NR - very soft). 
Beancurd sticks/dried tofu sticks
Maybe a decade ago, Michael from https://herestheveg.blogspot.com/ was asking about some tofu sticks they'd seen in their recent trip to China. He couldn't find them. We discussed options, but he really wanted to find these lovely twirled beancurd sticks. Not the long, scrunched, sort of flat beancurd sticks. These are twirled around to make a round, long, light stick.
I'd never seen them. And still hadn't until recently I found them in my local Asian shop.
The are soaked briefly, then can be used like noodles. I just made some with some Maggi seasoning, soy sauce and chilli crisp, with just a little veg and herbs from the garden.
Hit the spot. When they soak they become twice the length and slightly unfurl, but still hold enough spaces and twists to really get the sauce right through the sticks.
Do you know these? How do you use them?
