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Celery Salt: Application and How to Make it Yourself

With celery salt, you can add flavor to savory foods without resorting to flavor enhancers or other unhealthy ingredients. We show you how to make celery salt yourself and how to use it.

Celery salt naturally adds a savory touch to your savory dishes. Celery is an integral part of many soup seasonings – you can therefore use homemade celery salt in a similar way to soup powder. The advantage: It is completely free of unwanted additives.

Celery Salt: The Ingredients

To make your own celery salt, you only need two ingredients:
1 stalk of celery with celery greens
100 grams of salt
Buy the celery as regionally and organically as possible. In this way you avoid chemical pesticides and long transport routes. You can also do without packaging waste if you buy your vegetables at the weekly market.

Normal table salt is suitable for celery salt. It does not have to come from the Himalayas, nor does it have to be sea salt. This is neither better nor healthier – on the contrary, microplastics have already been discovered in fleur de sel and in sea salt. However, make sure that your salt is free of anti-caking agents and other chemical additives.

Additionally you need
a dehydrator and
a good blender or coffee grinder.
If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can alternatively dry the celery in the oven at a low temperature. However, a dehydrator is much more energy efficient.

Celery Salt: The Preparation

The preparation of celery salt is very simple:
Wash the celery thoroughly.
Separate the celery greens from the bulb.
Cut the bulb into fine cubes.
Distribute the cubes evenly in the dehydrator or alternatively on a grid.
Allow the celery cubes and celery greens to dry in the dehydrator for about 12 to 14 hours. Depending on their size, the pieces need about four to five hours in the oven at 50 degrees.
Grind the dried celery leaves and dice into a fine powder.
Mix the powder with the salt and fill the finished celery salt into a screw-top jar.
Stored in the dark, celery salt can be kept for several months.
Tip: If you want to do without salt altogether, you can season your dishes with just the dried and chopped celery.

How to use celery salt

You can use celery salt in many ways in the kitchen – here are some inspirations:
The fine seasoning goes well with potato dishes such as potato gratin, potato soup or fried potatoes.
Tomato sauce or homemade tomato sauce also get a special flavor from celery salt.
Whether it’s fried eggs, scrambled eggs or a vegan alternative – dishes with eggs harmonize well with the seasoning salt.
Celery salt is also suitable for refining salad dressings, sauces and dips.

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Cooking Tips

3 Healthy Jam Recipes to Cook Yourself

In this post, you will find three recipes for healthy jam. They are simple and proven housewife recipes. You can cook your own healthy jam from fresh berries and fresh fruit. You will find a jam recipe for summer, one for fall, and one for winter.

First, you only need two to five fresh ingredients. Secondly, you can cook your own jam creations yourself. And third, your health will benefit. Instead of buying jam, you can make your own jam. If you want to make jam yourself, you need fresh fruit or berries and preserving sugar.

1) berry jam in the fall

Preserving summer’s harvest in jam jars is tempting. Fresh blackberries can be picked well into October. You can easily make this grandmother-style jam with fresh berries yourself. If you want to make jam without sugar, there are alternative sweeteners like dates or honey. The recipe for blackberry jam makes four to five jars of jam.

Ingredients for the berry jam

  • 1 kg of blackberries
  • 500 g preserving sugar (2:1)
  • 4-5 jam jars

Step-by-step instructions for making berry jam

The preparation of the berry jam is very easy. The delicious jam is on the table in three steps.

  • Boil the sugar with 40 ml water to a clear, thick syrup.
  • Add the berries and cook for 30 minutes while stirring.
  • Then pour into jars that have been rinsed with hot water and close them immediately.

2) Summer strawberry rhubarb jam

When the strawberries are ripe in the fields, this summer jam is quickly conjured up on the table. You can pick the ingredients for this delicious jam fresh from the field or buy them at the weekly market. Make sure that you get ripe, sweet strawberries, because then the fruits will develop their full aroma. And this is how you succeed in cooking the healthy strawberry and rhubarb jam yourself step by step.

Ingredients for the strawberry rhubarb jam

  • 750 grams of strawberries
  • 500 g preserving sugar (2:1)
  • 250g rhubarb
  • Juice half a lemon
  • 4-5 jam jars

Preparation instructions for the summer jam

Summer is the peak season for fresh fruit and berries. The strawberries grow so numerous that they can be made into jam for the time after the strawberry season.

  • First, clean the strawberries, wash them, and cut them in half.
  • Mix the berries with the jam sugar.
  • Then puree the mixture with the hand mixer.
  • Wash the rhubarb and cut off both the leaves and the stalks.
  • Peel the rhubarb and cut it into small pieces.
  • Mix the rhubarb pieces with the lemon juice into the strawberry puree.
  • Then bring it all to a boil in a saucepan.
  • Let the jam cook for about 3 minutes while stirring.
  • Fill the jam quickly into jars that have been rinsed with hot water and seal them.

3) Winter jam from apples and raisins

In this jam recipe with apples, you can also try other spices such as vanilla, cloves, or ginger, depending on your taste. This delicious jam also tastes great in winter with Christmas spices such as cinnamon. When the days get colder, the wintry jam also tastes good warm on waffles or pancakes. An alternative for apple lovers is home-cooked applesauce.

Ingredients for the winter jam

  • 900 g peeled apples
  • juice of a lemon
  • 500 g preserving sugar (2:1)
  • 100 grams of raisins
  • 1 pinch cinnamon

Step-by-step instructions for apple jam

You can get the preserving sugar for making jam in any well-stocked supermarket. Especially in autumn and winter, you can buy it in stock if you like to make jam.

  • First wash the apples, peel and core them, and cut them into small pieces.
  • Then bring the apple pieces with lemon juice and preserving sugar to a boil in a saucepan.
  • Then add the raisins.
  • Then cook the mixture for 4 minutes while stirring.
  • Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the cinnamon.
  • Fill the jam quickly into jars that have been rinsed with hot water and seal them.
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Cooking Tips

Make and Cook Jam Yourself

In this article, you will find the instructions for making and preserving jams yourself. You will find a basic recipe for a simple jam recipe from grandma’s time. We’ll also tell you what you need to pay particular attention to when making jam so that everything works out. Have fun making the jam.

It exerts a great attraction on many people to make their own jam. You can’t usually save money – unless you use the fruit you have picked yourself from your own garden as a starting point – but preparing the popular spread yourself is definitely fun.

5 good reasons to cook for yourself

Making and preserving jam yourself is fun. In addition, homemade jam is healthy because the ingredients are known and freshly processed. It also allows you to create new flavors that may not be commercially available. In terms of taste, the homemade jam often offers a pleasant change from the dozens of products from the supermarket. And last but not least: a jar of homemade jam is a nice gift for family and friends.

Must-haves for making jam

Ordinary kitchen utensils found in any good kitchen are enough to make simple jams. A stove, a kitchen scale, a measuring cup, and a whisk, and you are well equipped for jam making. You will also need jars to fill the jam into. This is the list of essentials. You need:

  • A large saucepan and a wooden spoon
  • A clean jam jar
  • 125 g preserving sugar (2:1)
  • 250 g fruit and/or berries
  • label sticker

With regard to the ingredients, the gelling sugar is important in addition to the fruit. Although you can also make jam with normal sugar, this requires a little experience and is not promising with all types of fruit. In the worst case, the jam then remains liquid or becomes rock hard when it cools down. The beginner should therefore resort to gelling sugar. In addition to the sugar, this also contains pectin as a gelling agent. With it, you can usually get useful results right away. Preserving sugar is available in most supermarkets. It is important to pay attention to concentration. However, with a little experience, it is also possible to cook jam without sugar.

The basic recipe for making jam

Classic jam sugar is mixed 1 to 1 with fruit. That means 100g of fruit and 100g of preserving sugar make a jar of jam. This variant naturally leads to very sweet jams, especially if the fruit itself already contains a lot of fructose. For those who prefer less sugar, there are also jam sugars for mixing ratios of 1:2 or 1:3 in well-stocked shops. With the latter, however, it may be that the jam only sets poorly. Beginners should therefore use the 1:1 or 1:2 variants, depending on their taste.

Finally, you need fruit. Frozen or fresh strawberries are recommended for beginners. They are readily available and easy to work with. In addition, this jam gels excellently, you can hardly go wrong. But also blackberries, gooseberries, apples, apricots, rhubarb, and many other fruits and berries are suitable for making jam, marmalade, and jelly.

Book tip for jam fans

This strawberry jam is delicious. If you would also like to try three healthy jam recipes to cook yourself, you will find what you are looking for with us. and for jam fans, there are jam recipes from grandma’s time as a recipe booklet. Well then, have fun with your own jam creation!

This is how to jam production succeeds

In the beginning, you should clean the jam jar with washing-up liquid, rinse it, and finally fill it with boiling water to disinfect it. This is very important for the later shelf life of the jam. The lid should also be cleaned with hot water or, even better, boiled. Then drain everything into the sink.

First, you should remove the greens from the strawberries and wash them. Then cut in half. Then they are weighed. For our example, we choose 250 g of strawberries. This is enough for a small jar of jam.

The strawberries are then placed in a saucepan and slowly heated. They are lightly crushed with a wooden spoon or whisk. Now the jam sugar can be added. 250 g for the 1:1 variant or 125 g for the 1:2 variant. The sugar must now be mixed well. Once it has dissolved, the temperature can be increased and the mass brought to a boil. Stir occasionally during cooking.

Instructions for making a gel test

After the jam has boiled for three to five minutes and is slowly thickening, you should do a gelling test. To do this, put a teaspoon of the boiling jam on a plate and leave it to cool. If the consistency is jelly-like, the jam is ready and can be filled. Close the jars tightly and turn them upside down. It will take a while for the jam to cool down and set completely. Then you can attach beautiful label stickers and write on the glasses. It’s that easy to make and preserve your own jam.

Useful for making jams yourself

With beautiful jars, making jam is twice as much fun! And pretty labels also look great. These things are especially useful if the finished jam is to become a gift. A jam funnel is ideal for filling the jam into the jars. Thus, the jam is filled much better in the jars. There are beautiful stainless steel funnels that are rustproof and dishwasher safe.

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Cooking Tips

Cook Applesauce and Make it Yourself

Easy preparation of applesauce and lots of tips for cooking the apples. We give you recipes and ideas with which you can easily make applesauce yourself with or without sugar.

Cook applesauce yourself

In autumn the trees bear many apples and the kilo of apples is also sold cheaply at the weekly markets. But what do you do with all the apples? Is there a better idea than making applesauce out of it and refining it according to your own taste? What would grandma’s potato pancakes be without the delicious mousse on cold days? Whether the classic recipe or a variant without sugar. Autumn just tastes better with the golden, warm happiness. We’ll show you how.

Quick instructions for applesauce

Separate the apples from the so-called core and cut them into small pieces. If desired with peeled apples. The smaller the pieces, the faster they will cook. Boil all the apple pieces in hot water until the apples are cooked through. Then puree the apple pieces with a food processor or a blender and then season with cinnamon and sugar. Try it as rice pudding with cinnamon, sugar, and apple sauce.

The basic applesauce recipe

Peel all apples and cut them into small pieces. Cut the apples into eighths and remove the core from each apple. Then put the apple pieces in a saucepan and heat up vigorously. Pour about 0.2 liters of apple juice per kilo of apples. Then cover and simmer until all the apples are completely soft. Puree all the apples with a masher or with a hand blender. Thin with a little apple juice as you like and season with sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. The applesauce tastes particularly good with pancakes with applesauce.

Useful information and special tips

Apples can also be cooked whole. After cooking, you can simply pass these whole apples through a sieve using a food mill. Depending on the apple variety, the applesauce can turn yellow to rust-red. This is due to the different fruit acids of the apple varieties and the color of the skin. The Boskoop apple is often used because it decays evenly and has a natural yellow color. The Berlepsch is suitable for apple allergy sufferers. Applesauce also tastes good as an accompaniment to sauerbraten and Christmas goose as well as in muesli and fresh grain porridge. A classic is also Kaiserschmarrn with cinnamon and sugar.

Refine applesauce deliciously

Instead of sugar, you can also use honey to taste. Some recipes add raisins or vanilla. You can also cook cloves with it. We recommend two cloves per kilogram of apples. This can be added very nicely with a tea egg in the saucepan. With pears, the apple sauce becomes an apple and pear sauce. Other fruits such as apricots or quinces are also good for refining. Apple foam is a dessert variation with applesauce. Here cream is mixed with the mush. Or you can mix it with beaten egg white to create even more foam. Apple foam is lighter and fluffier than normal mousse. Another great idea is Christmas applesauce.

Sugar-free variants save calories

You can also cook applesauce without sugar. You only use apples, water, vanilla, cinnamon, and lemon. Particularly gentle and with far fewer calories and is also suitable for diabetics. If you want a little more sweetness, but still want to save calories and remain tooth-friendly and suitable for diabetics, you can use sugar alternatives such as birch sugar xylitol or erythritol. Coconut blossom sugar also has slightly fewer calories than table sugar and gives the applesauce a slight hint of caramel in taste. Maybe you are also interested in a jam without sugar.

Preserve in screw-top jars

To preserve it, you can either freeze it or fill it in screw-top jars. For the variant with glasses, fill the still hot mush into jam jars. Then turn the glasses upside down. Once the jars have cooled, return them to their normal position, as you would with jam. The shelf life is at least one year if you work cleanly according to the rules of kitchen hygiene. Did you like our tips on applesauce? You might also be interested in cooking plum jam and making plum jam yourself.

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Cooking Tips

Make Pudding Yourself

Tips for making pudding yourself and recipes for a delicious vanilla pudding and chocolate pudding. Now make your tasty pudding yourself.

Who hasn’t bought and eaten a ready-made pudding in a cup or a powder mixture to mix? But what ingredients are actually in these finished puddings? Better to make it yourself! This is the only way we know the ingredients 100% and can cook the pudding according to our preferences. Whether vanilla, chocolate, nut or strawberry, or raspberry – every type of pudding is possible.

The pudding ingredients basic recipe

For a good pudding, we need a few basic ingredients: milk, cornstarch, sugar, and egg should not be missing in any pudding. For the individual pudding design, we then add vanilla, chocolate, raspberries, or, depending on your preference, strawberries to the pudding. The imagination knows no limits. Do you like to make your own desserts? Here you will find tips and recipes for making ice cream yourself.

Recipe for a vanilla pudding

  • 300ml milk
  • 200ml cream
  • 1 vanilla bean (a packet of vanilla sugar)
  • 60g sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 40g cornstarch

Preparation for vanilla pudding

First, put 200ml of milk together with the cream in a saucepan and slowly heat it up on the stovetop.
Either add the packet of vanilla sugar or slit a vanilla pod lengthwise with a sharp knife and add the pulp and pod to the saucepan with the milk mixture. Then gently boil the milk mixture. Slowly stir in the remaining ingredients such as milk, sugar, the two egg yolks, and the cornflour. No lumps should form. Remove the vanilla bean from the boiling milk mixture and reduce the heat.

Then slowly stir the mixture of sugar, egg, and cornstarch into the hot milk and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. When the mixture thickens, remove the pudding from the heat and divide it evenly into small bowls. Incidentally, low-fat types of cow’s milk, constant stirring or stretching a cling film over the pudding help to prevent the skin on the pudding. The delicious pudding is placed in the fridge for an hour to cool down. Enjoy the meal! It tastes particularly delicious with hot raspberries or a delicious chocolate sauce. Did you like the recipe? Also, try our semolina porridge with cinnamon and sugar.

Variant for chocolate pudding

  • 50g dark chocolate
  • 300ml milk
  • 200ml cream
  • 50g sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 40g cornstarch

Preparation for chocolate pudding

Do you love the taste of chocolate? You can not only make chocolate yourself, but also chocolate pudding. Roughly chop the dark chocolate and slowly heat in a saucepan with 200ml milk and cream. While the mixture slowly begins to boil, use a whisk to mix the remaining milk with the cocoa powder, starch, and egg yolks in a bowl. Again, make sure there are no lumps left. Then slowly stir the mixture of sugar, egg, and cornstarch into the hot, boiling milk and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. When the mixture thickens, remove the pudding from the heat and divide it evenly into small bowls.

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Food

Rosemary Tea: Effect and Recipe to Make Yourself

Rosemary tea not only tastes delicious, but also has a positive effect on your body and mind. In this article you can read how to prepare the healthy tea and how it works.

Nowadays, rosemary is mainly known as a spice. Rosemary is much more than a tasty kitchen herb that goes well with potatoes. Rosemary was already valued as a medicinal plant by the Greeks and Romans. Rightly so, as modern research shows. The healing properties of rosemary are versatile.

A popular way to benefit from the health benefits of rosemary is with rosemary tea. Here you can read how rosemary tea works and how to prepare the tea.

This is how rosemary tea works

Various essential oils are primarily responsible for the effect of rosemary tea. Furthermore, depending on the location, the following active ingredients are included:
Tannins such as rosmarinic acid
Diterpenes such as carnosic acid
flavonoids
glycolic acid
saponins
antioxidants
Rosemary has a variety of positive effects on our body, as various studies have shown:
Antioxidant: Researchers from Basel examined the antioxidant effect of rosemary in a comprehensive study in 2018. Antioxidants support your body in cell renewal, fight oxidative stress and free radicals.
Antibacterial: The same study also found that the active compounds in rosemary successfully eliminated various strains of bacteria, such as E. choli, in the laboratory.
Anti-cancerous: In the laboratory and in the first animal experiments, the active ingredients of rosemary were able to demonstrably inhibit the growth of tumor cells and thus reduce the size of tumors.
digestive: In addition, the ingredients have a positive effect on our digestion. Rosemary can relieve bloating and flatulence.
Stimulates blood circulation: Our circulation and blood flow can also benefit from rosemary.
Diuretic: Rosemary has also been shown to have a slightly diuretic effect. This can be used especially in the treatment of cystitis.
For the medicinal effects of rosemary, you can use rosemary oil as well as rosemary tea.

Rosemary tea for your memory

Not only the body can benefit from the healthy ingredients of rosemary. The effect of rosemary is also beneficial for our mind:
The carnosic acid it contains fights free radicals and toxins in the brain that are associated with the development of dementia. It contributes to the health of the human brain, as researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research found.
In further investigations, researchers were able to prove in experiments with humans that 1,8-cineole, the main component of the essential oil in rosemary, has a positive effect on cognitive performance simply by absorbing it through smell and nose.
A study from 2016 therefore dealt with the therapeutic potential of rosemary in Alzheimer’s disease. Since the causes of dementia are still not fully understood scientifically, further research is required. Results so far indicate that rosemary could be a valuable component in the treatment of Alzheimer’s.
A study with students in 2018 not only found improved memory performance, but also a positive influence of rosemary on anxiety and depression. The quality of the subjects’ sleep could also be increased by rosemary.

Make rosemary tea yourself

So there are numerous reasons to drink rosemary tea. The preparation of the healthy tea is very simple:
For 1 cup (250 milliliters) you will need about 1 teaspoon of crushed rosemary leaves or a fresh sprig of rosemary.
Pour boiling water over the plant parts and let the tea steep for eight to ten minutes.
Then remove the boiled plant parts.
Rosemary tea also goes well with dried lemon or orange peel. Make sure the citrus fruits are organic to avoid pesticides.
Important: The daily dose of rosemary leaves should be between four and six grams maximum.

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Food

Yeast From Beer: With This Trick You Make Yeast Yourself

Yeast from beer is an easy secret recipe for when you don’t have yeast at home. Be it for pizza, yeast braid or cake – we’ll show you how you can make yeast from beer yourself.

Yeast consists of microscopic organisms that make dough rise. Yeast is also an essential ingredient in beer – here it ensures that beer ferments. You can take advantage of this if you don’t have any yeast in the house and still want to bake something.

Note: Even though yeast consists of small organisms, yeast is vegan: they are unicellular fungi.

You only need three ingredients to make yeast from beer

The following ingredients replace about one cube of yeast. This amount is therefore suitable for about 500 to 1000 grams of flour.

What you need:
100 ml beer: Here you can use a beer of your choice, preferably naturally cloudy.
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp sugar
Recommended kitchen utensils:
1 small bowl
1 fork or 1 small whisk for mixing
1 kitchen scale or 1 measuring cup
1 jar or other container that you can seal

Make yeast from beer yourself: It’s that easy

Pour 100 milliliters of beer into a small bowl.
Slowly pour in the flour and sugar while whisking constantly. This will prevent lumps from forming.
If there are small lumps, try to crush them with a small fork and stir to break them up.
Pour the whole thing into a screw-top jar and seal it tightly. If you don’t have a screw-top jar handy, you can use another container like a food storage box or a bowl covered with a plate.
Set the beer-flour-sugar mixture aside and let it sit for several hours, preferably overnight.
Note: Use 100 milliliters less liquid for the recipe you want to use the yeast for.

Tip: You can use the rest of the beer to prepare a dish with beer batter, or you can mix up a tincture for your skin or hair – because brewer’s yeast is also good for this thanks to its healthy effects. Or you simply enjoy the rest on the balcony or by the window.

Yeast from beer or “normal” yeast?

Yeast that you can buy at the grocery store is a type of pressed yeast, and there are about ten billion yeast cells in a gram. In beer, yeast converts sugar contained in the beer ingredient malt into alcohol and carbonic acid. Yeast also contributes to the flavor of beer.

It doesn’t matter whether you use “normal” yeast from the supermarket or make yeast from beer yourself, there is no difference in taste. But the difference between the two types is the driving force: that of brewer’s yeast is somewhat weaker. So your dough will need a little more time to rise. Optionally, you can prepare a pre-dough that you let rise several times over several hours or freeze.

If you don’t yet know what you can do with the homemade beer yeast: how about a yeast braid with raisins or a plum cake? If you don’t like plums, you can also prepare a simple yeast dough and top it with fruit of your choice. If you want it hearty, we also have a recipe for pizza dough for you.

Another way to make your own yeast is to use dates or other unsulphured dried fruit to make yeast water. However, this alternative must rest for up to a week. Yeast substitutes such as baking powder are also suitable for some recipes. Making your own yeast from beer is easy and also quickly ready for use, which is a clear advantage for us over other variants.

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Food

Grow Mushrooms Yourself: You Have to Pay Attention to That

Growing mushrooms – is that possible? In fact, it is not that difficult to grow your own mushrooms. We will explain to you which varieties and methods are best suited.

Growing mushrooms at home: why it’s a good idea

Mushrooms – which are not plants, by the way – are low in calories, but provide important nutrients. Most mushrooms are a relatively good source of protein and can also contain important ingredients such as the important nerve cell component potassium, B vitamins or iron and phosphorus. Mushrooms, for example, contain 91 percent water, potassium, phosphorus and vitamins B1 and B2.

In contrast to wild-collected mushrooms, you don’t have to worry about the fact that home-grown mushrooms are contaminated with heavy metals or radioactive. If you grow mushrooms yourself, you can harvest all year round.

When it comes to where they grow, mushrooms are undemanding. However, they prefer shady places to sunny ones. Many varieties, such as mushrooms, can even do without light, which is why you can even grow mushrooms in the basement. They don’t like direct sun that much because they dry out too quickly there. Some mushrooms depend on sufficient humidity, more about that in the next sections.

This is what you need to grow mushrooms

You don’t need much to start your mushroom cultivation. Essentially, there are two things: the fungus and a substrate.

You have two options when choosing the mushroom: Either you only buy the mushroom culture, the so-called mushroom mycelium. Or you buy a mushroom culture kit, where everything you need is already prepared. Making a mushroom culture yourself is quite difficult for you as a hobby mushroom grower, so you will probably have to buy it. Ready-made sets also have an advantage: the substrate is usually already penetrated by the fungal tissue, so that the fungus very quickly begins to form its fruiting body, i.e. the part that we eat. That’s why you already have the first harvest successes after three to five weeks.

Choosing the substrate is easier. Ordinary residual products are used here. For example, you can use the following as a substrate for growing mushrooms:
coffee grounds
straw
sawdust
wood (untreated and unvarnished)
tree stumps

Make sure the substrate is as clean as possible. Because mushroom cultivation needs a lot of moisture, which in turn promotes the growth of germs or mold. If in doubt, you can treat your substrate with steam over 60 degrees Celsius. This kills germs and unwanted fungal spores.

You can fill the substrate in a bucket, pot or box, for example. Depending on the location you choose, a mushroom grow bag may also come in handy. It prevents the mushrooms from drying out. Mushroom growing bags are used in particular when your chosen location is very dry. You can buy together with the mushroom cultures.

Grow mushrooms yourself: This is how you start your mushroom cultivation

Once you have the mushroom culture and substrate together, you can get started. With these tips you will succeed in growing mushrooms:

Before you put the mushroom culture in the substrate, water the substrate and then let it drain. It should be damp but not soaking wet.
Also make sure that the humidity in the area is high. 80 to 95 percent relative humidity is ideal. The basement, bathroom or kitchen are probably best suited here. If you don’t have a room with high humidity, you can support the growth of your mushrooms with a mushroom grow bag or indoor greenhouse.
Make sure the temperature is right: Mushrooms like a warm, humid climate, so the temperature should be between ten and 25 degrees Celsius. But it is worth taking a look at the packaging of your mushroom culture. This often indicates a temperature window.
Mix the mushroom culture under the substrate and fill it in a bucket or box. The layer should be a few centimeters thick.
Now it’s time to keep wet and wait. Check daily that your substrate is still damp. It is best to moisten it with a spray bottle. Be careful not to let the water stand in it and always use fresh tap water – otherwise mold can form here too.
If you only work with a mushroom culture, it will take a few weeks for the mycelium, i.e. the subterranean networks of your mushroom, to develop. Only then does the fruiting body form.
When the mushrooms are the size you want, you can harvest them. The best way to do this is to cut them off with a clean knife.
As a rule, a mushroom culture will sprout three to four times after you have harvested it. In between, she always needs a few days off.

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Technology

Make Nettle Manure Yourself

Self-made manure plants can be used in many ways. Used correctly, they fertilize the soil, strengthen your vegetables and drive away pests such as aphids.
Plants that are well suited for preparing liquid manure are, for example, nettles, comfrey, field horsetail or tansy. Onions or nasturtiums from your vegetable garden are also suitable.
These plants nourish your garden soil and the heavy-duty plants in your garden, like tomatoes, squashes, and zucchini, with nutrients like nitrogen, calcium, iron, and magnesium.

At a glance – fertilizing with nettle manure

Nutrients included: nitrogen, calcium, iron, magnesium
Ideal for: tomatoes, squash, courgettes, peppers, cauliflower, cucumbers, potatoes, many other types of cabbage
Slurry not suitable for: peas, beans, lamb’s lettuce, all herbs
Quantity: Ratio of liquid manure to water 1:10; Use approx. 2-3 times per season

Prepare nettle manure

Fill a barrel or barrel about two-thirds full with the coarsely chopped nettle plants and pour in rainwater to about a hand’s width below the rim. Cover the jar with wire mesh or cloth to keep birds from falling in, or place a large branch or board in the bin to help birds find their way out. The addition of a handful of rock flour can bind the odor development somewhat. Stir the manure every 2-3 days. If the liquid has turned dark after about two weeks and no longer foams when stirred, your liquid manure is ready.

After just a few days, the fermentation process begins, which, however, is accompanied by a significant odor development. If you have the opportunity, you should set the vessel a little apart.

Field horsetail – use the stubborn weed as manure

Where horsetail grows, it is a very stubborn herb. Field horsetail can only be driven away through long-term and intensive tillage. During this time, however, you can make the herb usable by using it for a plant manure. The high content of silicic acid makes it an effective remedy against aphids and also as a preventative against fungal attack on e.g. roses.

Put the horsetail manure in the same way as the nettle manure and fill a bucket with two thirds of the plant and fill the bucket with rainwater up to just below the edge of the bucket. Leave the brew for 24 hours and boil the liquid with the herb for 20 minutes. When boiling, the silicic acid is released from the field horsetail and is thus contained in the irrigation water. Let the brew cool down and use it to fertilize your plants or spray them to protect against pests.

Spread liquid manure

Dilute the manure with water in a ratio of 1:10. It is best to use the watering can without a watering attachment so that you can apply the liquid manure at the point where the plant comes out of the ground.

Plant manure should not be applied in sunshine, as it can otherwise burn the plants. The best time to apply liquid manure is early in the morning.

Fight pests with nettle manure

Manure or a brew made from stinging nettle or field horsetail is also suitable as a remedy against aphids because of its high proportion of silica if you spray your plants with it as a preventive measure or after the infestation has started in the appropriate places. You should definitely dilute the liquid manure, otherwise it will be too strong and burn your plants.

A brew consists of the same ratio of plants and water as a liquid manure. However, this only takes about 12 hours and is therefore better suited for generously spraying the leaves.

Caution: If it rained shortly after spraying your pest infestation, the effect will have worn off and you should apply the diluted manure again and spray your plants.

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Cooking Tips

Making Wine Yourself: Useful Information and Tools For Wine Production

Making wine yourself is the dream of many wine lovers. We give you an overview of the basic principles, the accessories and the fermentation methods to make wine yourself.

You can make your own wine from many different fruits. We are particularly familiar with wine made from grapes – in other regions and countries, on the other hand, wine made from apples, berries, cherries or even bananas. However, the basic principle of fermentation is the same: yeasts convert the sugar from the fruit into alcohol.

Make your own wine: mash fermentation or juice fermentation?

Basically, you can distinguish between two methods to make wine yourself: mash fermentation and juice fermentation.

During mash fermentation, you mash or puree the fruit and ferment it whole. Since the color of red grapes is mainly contained in the skin, you get red wine in this way (this does not apply to white grapes, of course). The mash fermentation is considered to be a little easier, and more aromas develop.
For juice fermentation, you squeeze the fruit and only ferment the juice. This is how bright and clear wines are created.
You can also first puree or mash the fruit into the fermentation balloon, squeeze out the juice after a few hours and ferment it. Then you get a rosé.

Make sweet or dry wine yourself

Whether a wine is sweet, semi-dry or dry depends on its sugar content. Since this decreases in the course of fermentation, a sweet wine is less fermented than a dry wine. Accordingly, you can make a sweet wine yourself by interrupting the fermentation process prematurely.

Making wine yourself: important accessories

Without the right accessories, it is relatively difficult to make wine yourself. If you have a few tools, it’s not that complicated.

These are the most important tools for winemaking:
Perhaps the most important tool for fermenting wine is a fermentation balloon, preferably made of glass. The jar should have a matching lid and fermentation attachment. The latter ensures that no air gets inside. To do this, the fermentation attachment allows CO2 to escape, which forms during alcoholic fermentation.
a suction hose or similar to be able to fill the wine out of the fermentation balloon
a scale that is as accurate as possible
a vinometer to measure the alcohol content of the wine (you often get it with the fermentation balloon)
a clean cloth for filtering
large bowls to prepare the fruit or decant the wine. Make sure that these are not made of metal so as not to affect the taste of the wine.
Tip: If you want to make wine yourself, you will not only find fermentation balloons on the Internet, but also complete starter kits.

Making wine yourself: The difficult selection of ingredients

The most important ingredient in wine is the fruit. No matter which fruit you use – they should be fresh, fully ripe and unsprayed. Consequently, freshly harvested organic fruits from the region are ideal for your wine. If you have the right conditions, you can also plant your own grapes.

If you are very puristic, the fruits are almost enough. All you have to do is add a bit of natural yeast and you’re ready to make natural wine yourself. However, even experienced winemakers find this difficult because fermentation with natural yeast is difficult to control. In addition, natural wine has a different taste than conventional wine.

Making wine yourself: these are the steps

Here you will find an initial overview of the stages that await you if you want to make wine yourself. If you actually plan to make wine, you can take a class or use detailed instructions from the internet or books. For the sake of simplicity, these instructions refer to grapes.

Sort the grapes and clean them, washing is not absolutely necessary. Do this very carefully so that no bad grapes spoil the wine afterwards. Important: If possible, do not let the grapes come into contact with metal, as this can change the taste.
Must fermentation or juice fermentation? For a mash fermentation you mash or puree the fruit, for a juice fermentation you squeeze them.
Depending on the recipe, add sugar, yeast and, if necessary, acid or lime to the mash or juice. Note: You can also add the sugar gradually, then there will be a little more alcohol at the end because the yeast can work more efficiently. However, it is easier to add all the sugar at once.
Fill the fermentation balloon with mash or juice, but no more than halfway! As soon as fermentation begins, CO2 is produced. The liquid will begin to bubble and sometimes overflow.
Place the fermentation balloon in a quiet place that has a temperature between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius all the time. After a few days, fermentation begins – the mixture bubbles.
If the fermentation is in full swing, you can also put the fermentation balloon in a cooler place. This slows down the fermentation.
After two to four weeks, there are hardly any bubbles left – the wine is ready. Now all you have to do is filter and bottle the wine. Note: If you have started mash fermentation, you can press out the juice after a few days and continue fermenting it. The longer the juice is in contact with the skin of the grapes, the darker the wine will be.

Important note on making wine yourself

Finally, the most important things to keep in mind when making wine:
Keep all your utensils very clean. This is how you prevent unwanted substances from getting into the wine.
Do not use metal accessories.
Follow the quantities exactly.
The first home-made wine may still taste a bit unusual. However, if you keep trying and adjusting your recipe, you’ll soon get satisfying results. It is best to start with a smaller amount of fruit.

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