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Post by feather on Jul 28, 2019 19:00:45 GMT
I made a few gallons of fruit vinegar, pear scrap, in 2015 and I found it helpful for cleaning and I use it a lot. I saved it in 1/2 gallon jars and I'm about out of it.
We've been going through a lot of fruit, so I'll use the cut cores and any peel, from apples, pears. There are recipes of making it with green grapes to get some balsamic vinegar (kind of a similar process but boiling it down to concentrate it). Plums and peaches-I haven't read anything about using the pits, so I'm not using them. Two more fruit scraps I can use are pineapple cores and peel, and strawberry cores and tops.
I'm using a food grade bucket, and the recipe calls for 1/4 cup sugar per quart of water. So 2 gallons of water is 2 cups of sugar plus as much fruit scrap as I can put in. I'm going to put in some fruit scraps every day for the next few weeks. Cover it with a towel and wrap a long shoe string around the towel to hold it tight to the top of the bucket.
2 gallons water 2 Cups sugar Fruit scrap of up to 2 more gallons. Optional: add a vinegar mother if you have one. Cover and leave at room temperature for a few months. (strain: some recipes have you strain it at a few weeks, some at a month, it's up to you)
1st step, it goes to a natural wine smell. 2nd step, it turns to a vinegar smell.
At about 2-3 months, the top of the vinegar is shiny, and that is a kind of gel. That is a vinegar mother, leave in or strain out.
(I didn't add a mother to my original vinegar but it still formed one. I stored it in glass and the mother settled to the bottom.)
Pasteurize and store. Strain and heat to 140 to 159 deg F for 20 minutes.
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Post by feather on Aug 4, 2019 16:34:46 GMT
Apple cores, pear cores, strawberry tops, and foam.
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Post by solargeek on Aug 4, 2019 21:10:52 GMT
feather, I have an unopened bottle of apple juice which I bought for some unknown reason/recipe. I have a GREAT Apple Cider Vinegar Mother floating in the ACV. Can I open the apple cider, dump in some mother from the ACV and end up with more ACV?
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Post by feather on Aug 4, 2019 21:16:58 GMT
Yes. If the apple cider is pasteurized then it won't have active yeast in it, so leave it open to the air with the mother in it, but cover it with a towel to keep dust and bugs out.
You'll notice the winey smell, followed by the vinegar smell in a few months.
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Post by feather on Aug 10, 2019 21:42:54 GMT
I decided to strain it today. Strained it through a tea towel. It smells like wine. My DS asked me if this was how they made wine in prison. I told him that yes, this is how they make wine in prison, when I was in prison.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Aug 10, 2019 22:14:48 GMT
I decided to strain it today. Strained it through a tea towel. It smells like wine. My DS asked me if this was how they made wine in prison. I told him that yes, this is how they make wine in prison, when I was in prison. Oh boy that was a good one - you never cease to crack me up! Thanks! ~Mari
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Post by feather on Aug 10, 2019 22:20:25 GMT
I decided to strain it today. Strained it through a tea towel. It smells like wine. My DS asked me if this was how they made wine in prison. I told him that yes, this is how they make wine in prison, when I was in prison. Oh boy that was a good one - you never cease to crack me up! Thanks! ~Mari Well, that's just the kind of relationship we have, I think. I don't know if he thought, I wonder if my mom's been to prison, or, he was wishfully thinking he's got a future in wine making if he ends up in prison. (for what I can't imagine) I think he has a very funny silly sense of humor and I love being around him.
The other day I was cleaning and then cooking down a bushel of kale. He says, well once that is cooked down it will fill half a coffee cup and we both burst out laughing. Because well you know, greens cook WAY down.
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Post by karenbc on Aug 10, 2019 22:43:56 GMT
I tried to make vinegar a few years back, I made REALLY good fruit flies. Think I kept the fruit peels and such in a spot that was just too warm. Might try again though!
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Post by feather on Aug 10, 2019 23:25:08 GMT
I tried to make vinegar a few years back, I made REALLY good fruit flies. Think I kept the fruit peels and such in a spot that was just too warm. Might try again though! I haven't re-researched it again, but a couple years ago when I first made it, there were some sources that said you must keep out the fruit flies. There were also sources that said fruit flies were beneficial to vinegar development. So when I make it, I keep a towel over it but I don't get very worried about the fruit flies, and yes, we have them right now. I just don't worry about it anymore. Good luck when you decide to make it and I'm glad you are here.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Aug 10, 2019 23:40:12 GMT
Oh boy that was a good one - you never cease to crack me up! Thanks! ~Mari Well, that's just the kind of relationship we have, I think. I don't know if he thought, I wonder if my mom's been to prison, or, he was wishfully thinking he's got a future in wine making if he ends up in prison. (for what I can't imagine) I think he has a very funny silly sense of humor and I love being around him.
The other day I was cleaning and then cooking down a bushel of kale. He says, well once that is cooked down it will fill half a coffee cup and we both burst out laughing. Because well you know, greens cook WAY down.
Oh that is so hilarious that he said that - Yeah they do girlfriend! I remember back in the day when I would pick a brown paper bag full of swiss chard and then take it home for processing. Talk about an absolute labor of love!! ~Mari
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Post by Tim Horton on Aug 11, 2019 17:08:57 GMT
I make homemade fly, wasp, hornet traps. Some bait recipes I have found say to use apple cider vinegar in the bait mix. The apple cider part attracts target pests, while the vinegar repels honey bees.
Have not used that ingredient yet as there are no honey bees close enough to be in danger of traps here.
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Post by moldy on Aug 26, 2019 17:18:47 GMT
I've made peach, plum, pineapple, and apple cider vinegar with fruit scraps. I just fill a gallon jar about 2/3 full of scraps, cover with water and add about 1/4 cup of raw vinegar (Braggs or whatever other vinegar with the mother that you can get). Cover with a coffee filter and secure it with a rubber band. Let set until it smells like vinegar (not wine! LOL!). Strain into jars and store in a cool dark place.
I don't use this vinegar for canning, as I dont' know the acidity. But for salad dressings, cooking, etc it is the bomb!! Peach vinegar over a little cottage cheese, mmmmmm......
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Post by feather on Aug 26, 2019 17:25:13 GMT
moldy, peach vinegar? That sounds so good! I checked my big bucket of liquid sludge, 1 month since the start. It smells fruity and more like wine. It's got another month or so to ferment.
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Post by feather on Dec 8, 2019 20:49:08 GMT
I strained the vinegar with a white tea towel, 2 gallons into old vinegar gallon bottles. A nice brown disgusting sludge on the bottom, and a jelly like thick layer of mother on the top. I didn't pasteurize it because I like the live probiotic effects, if we use it for dressing.
I can dry the mother to leather dryness, and mail it to anyone wanting to start some vinegar. If so, let me know quick otherwise I'll let it go.
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Post by wally on Dec 8, 2019 22:24:44 GMT
To us this one of the items that's cheaper to buy than make your own. . If we need to make it we could
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Post by feather on Dec 8, 2019 23:23:03 GMT
wally, the homemade vinegar costs about one cup of sugar per gallon. I used cores of apple and pears, peels, strawberry tops (you can use pine apple core and peel), so it isn't expensive. The biggest issue is where to leave the bucket sit for so many months, it takes up space, and the space has to be indoor room temperature to ferment. Mine sits in my kitchen so I don't forget it, to strain it, and to strain and bottle it.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2019 0:23:20 GMT
We just make a barrel of apple juice, turns to cider and when it gets too hard, we add mother from last years vinegar. We have always canned with it....James
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Post by wally on Dec 9, 2019 1:32:01 GMT
Thanks feather, but for 2 bucks and I will just buy it
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