The Summer Lids Are On

I make all of my seasoning myself, and most of my staples. I preserve food through dehydration, canning, pickling and fermenting. Pastes and sauces such as soy sauce and miso paste are fermented in ceramic fermentation vessels. I have two larger fermentation vessels that are called onggi and were handmade in South Korea. In time, I will get many more. In the largest of the two, I ferment gochujang – a Korean chilli paste.

During fall, winter and spring, the onggi have flat ceramic lids on top. But during summer, they have these glass lids that allow them to ferment in the sun and they also protect them from curious bugs that might want to approach the content. But over all the years of fermenting, I have never had a problem with bugs approaching my ferments. Still, the gochujang does intensify in flavour when it is allowed to ferment in the sun.

I always make a few years worth of ferments at a time, and I made almost a decade’s worth of gochujang last time. The paste has been fermenting for about a year and a half, and the flavour was fantastic even after a couple of months.

I just switched the lids and the beautiful scent that came through when I removed the ceramic lid was intoxicating. It made me want to bake some bread and eat it warm with a gochu spread and pickled vegetables.

I often keep kimchi in the other onggi during fall, winter and spring, but it really isn’t a good idea to do keep it there during the warmer months. Thus, I have decided to clean it well, sterilise it and then make soy sauce in it this summer. The beans and other ingredients will ferment very quickly in the summer heat, so the process will be much simpler.

I’ll have to start looking for bargains on organic soy beans and the Atlantic salt I like to use. That is, unless I decide to try something different and make soy sauce with another type of bean. That could also be interesting. We’ll see.

Now that that’s done, the onggi are ready for summer.

To do next week:

I have a lot to do next week. I have a long list of tasks that I need to do for the sites, and an even longer list of products to add to the store.

The weather is supposed to be warm and sunny all week, so the plan is to be outside as much as possible and then work in the evenings.

I have two medium containers that I need to fill up with soil, and a few more that I need to add more soil to. I prepped three bags of soil before winter last year, and after filling these last containers, I should have used up all of it. I do still have some compost that I’ll divide between the containers as well.

Sometime during the middle of the week, I will start transferring the seedlings to their forever spots in the container garden. By the end of the week, I hope to only have hydroponic plants left indoor.

I am very excited to get the four sisters planted outside, since they make the garden look fantastic and they tend to produce a lot of food. I’m also looking forward to seeing what kind of harvests the pepper plants and the tomato plants will produce. Oh, and I hope I can grow some massive radishes this year. Daikon especially can grow really large.

These are the plants I hope to transfer outside next week:

• Pepper and chilli
• Tomatoes
• Squash, corn, beans and sunflowers
• Flowers
• Onions
• Tomatillo
• Physalis
• Korean radish
• Daikon

I will also plant a few new varieties in my hydroponic pots. A small variety (the plant size) of cherry tomatoes, basil and another leafy green.

As the season progresses, I will be saving seeds from the plants. Some will also be allowed to release their seeds and self-propagate. I know how to successfully save seeds from:

• Tomatillos
• Tomatoes
• Squash
• Peppers
• Chilli
• Corn
• Beans
• Radishes
• Sunflowers

I am still learning how to save seeds from root vegetables, alliums and brassica. I think I will let a few root vegetables self-propagate.

I’d like to be able to gather the seeds from the alliums, so perhaps I’ll grow one plant of each variety in pots in the greenhouse solely to produce seeds for next year. Or I’ll simple let them self-propagate as well. Maybe both.

How is your garden doing?

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