At the end of this past growing season, we were blessed with (among other things) a harvest of garlic, apples and chestnuts from Katsumi Farms, (Megan’s parents homestead). With minimal fridge space and an eagerness to learn more about preserving and fermenting stuff, Megan and I decided to try turn them black before they turned bad. Let’s start! To make black chestnuts, black garlic and black apples, we vacuum sealed them in bags and placed them in a dehydrator at 60°C/140°F for 4 weeks, 6 weeks and 8 weeks, respectively.

Read More

Did you know we can grow persimmons in Ontario? The trees have been on the farm for some time, but you wouldn’t know it until this year now that the fruit has finally started to appear! The fruits were quite small and some had fairly large seeds without much meat, but it was still such a thrill to see them on the trees for the first time. They tasted pretty good too! With the first harvest of fruit this year, we thought we’d try to preserve some as hoshigaki for fun. We strung them up and left them to hang in our garage – which has a little airflow, but not much. Due to lack of planning, we didn’t get the process quite right. We should have peeled and hung them earlier (they were already starting to ripen) and the temperature of the garage ended up being a bit too cold. Hopefully we will get another shot at it next year!