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Ieva Šidlaitė, who graduated from the history of cultural history but became a specialist in herbs and field products, is happy that she has finally arrived in Lithuania after tanning. “I take tanning courses, so I judge by people’s interest in them,” says the author of the book “Natural Tanning,” which used to bring together only a few groups a year, and now barely manages to share the experience of producing tanneries with all.
– Familiarize me with pickles and cabbage, what else can you ferment?
– You can ferment everything: cucumbers and cabbage, carrots and squash, aubergines and potatoes, mushrooms and herbs. Also – milk, grains, various drinks. And it is very simple: it does not require any special effort, time, or special tools or tools. If you have a table, knife, cabbage head, triliter jar, plain salt, and fifteen minutes free, then you can prepare the healthiest, most probiotic foods that can be in the fridge indefinitely. I myself am often lazy to cut salads, so there are several jars in my fridge with prepared sour vegetables.
– And you say that every smart housewife who cares about the health of her family should get a tan?
– Definitely After all, the microflora of all of us is terribly impoverished by pasteurized and dead food in stores, by chemically pulverized vegetables and grains, by environmental contamination. And the list of diseases derived from impoverished microflora grows by days instead of years. It includes not only allergies, but also schizophrenia, depression, autism, cancer, etc. Therefore, in my workouts, I often say: people, it’s time to remember the old products that complement and nourish our inner microflora.
If you have a table, a knife, a cabbage head, a triliter jar, plain salt, and fifteen minutes for free, then you can make the food healthier and probiotic.
– As I understand it, your family is constantly eating fermented products. Tell me, what sour taste and dishes made with them are your family’s favorites? I had to read about the sour milk gums adored by the children instead of sweets and yogurt cheeses decorated with live flowers. Can the production of such curiosities also be surpassed?
– Why not? Every family (and I think of you) constantly uses tanned products, probably without thinking. Yogurt, sour cream, kefir, sour milk, beer, natural kvass, kombu, and various sour vegetables, as well as yeast bread, these are all common products in our kitchens. The world started tanning ten years ago, and this tannery arrived in Lithuania just three years ago. I have been taking tanning courses for a long time, so I can say without mistake when they were filled with housewives interested in healthy eating, restaurant chefs and lovers of good food. And our family has many favorite ferments: fermented vegetables, yogurt, kombubu or water kefir, various herbal kvass.
I don’t like complicated dishes myself, so all the recipes outlined in my first book, Natural Tanning, are easy to beat. Here you will find both how to make yogurt and how to use it to the end, that’s where all those gums and cheeses come from. I’m not a chef or even a chef, just a simple housewife, that’s why my recipes bite everyone.
– Since you constantly consume tanned products, have you felt its benefits for your own health, as a man, for three children? Biochemical processes make nutrients more accessible to the human body, and doctors recommend tannins to patients these days, even. Is that why you wrote a book about natural tanning?
– Only those products are very tasty for me. And I started tanning because I got used to good products, and they’re only there for a while. When you have gardens and good neighbors with cows, you start to spoil. In winter, it is impossible to eat commercial vegetables, neither flavor nor benefits. Carrots and ordinary beets wake up, that’s why tanning occurred. Later, things turned into delicious stories, health benefits, and eventually, it became a profession. Now I can say that tanning is a very exciting activity.
And its health benefits really had to be experienced. I remember once, a terrible eczema appeared on my hands, it looked like baldness. I started looking for what the body was reacting to, abandoned dairy products and everything calmed down at that point. But I had to live without cheese, and I did not like it at all … It was at that moment that I discovered fermented vegetables, kvass and mushrooms. We ate sauerkraut throughout the winter. After a few months of carelessly taking care of that diet, there was no reaction. Later, an allergist who attended an event, listening to my story, explained that everything here was very normal. Only tanned products restored the internal microflora and once again copes with the most sensitive products for the stomach. I have been eating cheese and other dairy products to this day. Sure, true allergies to sauerkraut won’t cure or work a miracle, but they will certainly alleviate the symptoms.
– Now it’s midsummer. We can enjoy the wonderful weather, be in nature a lot, travel in Lithuania and not forget to accumulate supplies for the winter. Tell me, what should be collected, roasted, collected and, of course, fermented in jars at a time like this?
– As I said, you can ferment everything: cucumbers, zucchini, garlic and beet greens, and collect herbs and make kvass. However, summer is not the best time to ferment: the temperature is too high, the air pollution is high, filled with flies and pollen with unsuitable mold or yeast spores. After all, have you probably heard women say cucumbers have softened because there were summer varieties? All cucumbers are elastic, you can calm down even long-fruited ones, but if it’s hot the unwanted microflora will spread and the vegetables will soften. Not surprisingly, all the weather-beaten reserves were prepared by the grandmothers in late fall, when the weather had already cooled down. However, if you ferment in small amounts, it won’t be so unfortunate to throw out the softened vegetables, so try, experiment. There are several additives that at least slightly protect against acidification: these are the well-known currants, cherries, horseradish leaves, as well as stalks of dill, bay leaf, garlic and pepper. Even more additives: oak, grape, raspberry, blackberry and twig leaves.
– You live with your family in nature (here I caught you moving from one farm to another). What should happen to leave the natural refuge and move to live in the city?
– Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know (laughs) But I also have a claim for nature: summer is too hot for me and I do not like the noisy forests of tourists throughout the year. But to the city? I couldn’t take it anymore. Our place here is full of berries and herbs. This is where the mushroom season begins. Everything in our house is collected, dried, marinated, made into jams, marmalades, fermented and mixed. I wouldn’t change that at all. And I would suggest to all people to be in nature as often as possible: after all, even going to the forest itself (not to mention collecting forest products) cures. Especially people tired of the current chaotic rhythm of life.
Pickled cucumbers with oak leaves and grapes
All cucumbers, even those that are not very interested in tanning, have actually turned sour at least once in their lives. And know that you need to add dill, garlic, red currants, or cherry leaves to them. To make it delicious, crispy and not sour. And I like to put grape and oak leaves. Firstly, because I have a lot of them, and secondly, these leaves give cucumbers not only crisp, but also a slightly bitter taste, which I love immensely.
Will need:
fresh cucumbers
a couple of garlic cloves
dill stem,
oak and grape leaves,
saltwater.
We wash the cucumbers, place some oak and grape leaves and a clove of garlic in the bottom of the tanning container. We add cucumbers. Top with dill stem, garlic, remaining leaves and simmer. We go out for 3-5 days at room temperature, and then we can eat. If we have more leaves, we can put layers of cucumbers on them. And if we want cucumbers that are extremely beautiful, unusual, and slightly spicier in flavor, we wrap each one individually in grape leaves. Incidentally, sour grape leaves can also be eaten or used in food production: we wrap the filling in them and make little oriental pigeons (dolma).
Sour apples
Although there are still no apples in the gardens, I did not refrain from offering one of my favorite recipes. There will be a future: time is running out quickly. Hard, juicy and sour autumn apples, especially the old ones, are suitable for fermentation. Our grandmothers put those apples at the bottom of the barrel when they fermented the cabbage and then ate it. I suppose the apples placed in cabbage stimulated their fermentation: after all, they contain more sugar than cabbage. However, we can only grow apples, they are very tasty, especially served with poultry or pate.
Will need:
acidic solid apples,
several blackcurrant and cherry leaves,
water and salt (30 g of salt in 1 liter of water).
We wash the apples, cut the larger ones in half and cut the smaller ones without cutting. Put in a tan container, fill the leaves and pour the brine. Leave at room temperature for about a week. We take it to a cool place later. We eat after 2-3 weeks.
Sauerkraut with wild herbs
You can add almost any herb you like to sauerkraut; they will gladly accept them. For me, the most delicious cabbage with wild oregano, dandelion leaves and buds, young nettles, and especially with spruce or pine buds. These buds are collected as long as they are soft and smooth. When I make cabbage with sprout sprouts, I always add blueberries, they look very ornate – bright green sprouts and bright red berries. Just don’t multiply the pines because it will look like you’re eating resin.
Will need:
cabbage,
a handful of fresh spruce buds,
a handful of blueberries,
salts (20-25 g per 1 kg of vegetables).
Cut the cabbage into small pieces, add salt and knead until the juice begins to separate. Then carefully mix the blueberries and herbs. Just be careful not to crush the berries! The cabbage with additives is placed in a tanning container, pressed and left to ferment for three days at room temperature. We take it to a cool place later.
Naturally fermented herb kvass
Any tea or spice herbs are suitable for this kvas: thyme, oregano, St. John’s wort, yarrow, linden or a mixture of herbs. Since fermentation only improves the medicinal properties of herbs, I always suggest that women make better use of the herbal blend. But if you are being treated with some herb, you can ferment kvass alone.
Will need:
2.5 l of water,
250 g of sugar (may also contain honey),
bouquets of tea or herbs (about a couple of handfuls of chopped herbs without drying),
triliter jug.
The water must be from a well, spring or running water. In warm water, we mix sugar or honey, with it we pour the freshly cut herbs, chopped or without crushing, placed in a jar. We wrap the bottle in an air-permeable cloth and place it in a warm place. Stir as often as possible. Wild yeast in herbs begins to multiply rapidly and the liquid foams. We try it, and if the taste suits us, we cut the herbs and bottle the kvass. If we want to be more acidic, let it sour even more. We leave the kvass bottled for 2-8 hours. stand at room temperature to further acidify and form bubbles. Then we put it in the fridge. As I mentioned, it is better to pour into plastic bottles so that we can verify that not too many bubbles have formed; otherwise the bottles could explode.
Šidlaitė personal file photo.
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