chocolate picante con café

Meet our spicy coffee chocolate pyramid! Brought to you in part by Finca Luna Nueva Interns

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TLC

Fruit Kimchi (Fruit-Chi)

First, find yourself a jackfruit at Finca Luna Nueva!

wow, pura vida

Beautiful biodynamic jackfruit from Finca Luna Nueva

Alright, here’s the ingredients for this spectacular fruit-based Kimchi. See below for quantities. Machete optional.

This is a mixture of 1 cup water, 2 tbsp flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and annatto seeds for colouring. This thick paste makes for a great fruitchi consistency.

Mixing in the annatto for colouring

Natural colouring – literally.

Half an onion, 5 garlic cloves, half a hot chili pepper, and 3 inches ginger

slicing up the fresh jackfruit

I like to cool down the flour/sugar/water paste with ice before also adding to the blender

the MIX (Jackfruit, pineapple, coconut, and guanabana) with almonds, culantro, 2tbsp salt, juice of one lemon, and three cinnamon sticks

the MIX

Combining the MIX with the onion-garlic-pepper-ginger-flour-sugar-annatto-water paste

the SECRET – some left over fruitchi from our last batch to act as a starter

Ready for pressing into a clean fermenting vessel

Some might call it Art, others… Fruitchi

Cover with a cheesecloth (or a cut pillow case) and remember to label your piece of Art!

And the most important part of any kitchen project is a clean kitchen at the end!

Alright, here’s the ingredients for this spectacular fruit-based Kimchi.
See below for quantities. Machete optional.

This recipe is modified from Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

 

INGREDIENTS

 

The MIX
a bunch of Jackfruit * (I only used about a quarter of what you see in the above picture)
pineapple
guanabana *
coconut *
(substitute for any fruit you have available and use as much as will fit in your fermenting jar)
1/2 cup almonds (or any nut)
Juice of 1 lemon *
1 bunch culantro, chopped *
2 tbps sea salt

Cut as you please and add in a big mixing bowl.

 

Blender mix
1/2 onion (I’m conservative with the onion; it’s a sharp flavour against the fruit)
5 cloves garlic (I always say, too much garlic is just enough garlic !!)
4 inches ginger (mas o menos) *
1 hot pepper (or to taste) *

In the blender she goes!

 

Flour Paste
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar or some sweetener substitute
2 tbsp flour
Annatto seeds* (the red rhambutan-looking thing)

Heat up the water and mix the flour and sugar in well. Let sit and cool. Once it has cooled, add it to the blender mix.

 

Starred ingredients (*) were harvested right off the farm at Finca Luna Nueva.

The pictures basically show how to do the rest. Interpret as you please!

 

 

TLC

 

The Art of Wild Fermentation

At Finca Luna Nueva, besides my main focus on Tea and Biodynamics, I’ve also had the chance to engage in other interesting activities like making chocolate from cacao, collecting butterflies, hiking to and swimming in volcanic craters, and effervescing like a mad man! Pictured below is a series of ferments myself and the other interns have been brewing. The sensations are wild and the flavours sensational.

Left to Right
Oolong, Puer, Ginger Brown Sugar, Oolong-Gaunabana

Fruit and Vegetable Kimchi! Both outstanding sensations and flavour profiles. Of course, we used some on-farm ingredients like guanabana, coconut, and culantro in the fruit kimchi, and ginger, turmeric, and pepper in the regular kimchi.

The great Guanabana Mead!!

Pickled baby ginger. The two on the outside are a natural pink as a result of quality baby ginger from our farm. The one in the middle is coloured with Annatto, also from the farm.

The Classic Kraut. Green and Purple Cabbage.

Effervescent party at Finca Luna! One day, with enough tea production, we’ll have a signature Biodynamic Black Tea Kombucha available!

TLC