#spaw2

[daffodils-and-edelweiss]

DIY Fermenting Stuff

AKA why it’s fun to have a bunch of bubbling jars and you should try it

Y’all really seem to like my DIY Cheese stuff post, so I’m doing another one for general fermenting equipment. I don’t think you should have to buy special equipment in order to try out a new hobby with no idea if you’ll like it. I also think that DIY solutions are better than commercialised options in general because they reduce waste, can be cheaper, etc. Personally, I’d rather not buy anything new unless I’ve got to.

Each section will have one paragraph explaining what the equipment is used for, and a second paragraph with suggestions for DIYing your own. Fair warning, the first paragraph is mostly just so I can explain the science behind what’s happening because I think it’s really cool. As always, if you’ve got any further questions, drop me an ask or send me a message! I love sharing what I’ve learned!

Glass Jars

I’m as big of a fan of the mason jar aesthetic as much as the next witch, but there’s nothing inherently special about mason jars. They’re conveniently shaped, and the lids are designed for canning, but that’s it. What’s useful about mason jars for fermenting is that they’re made of glass. Fermenting typically increases the acidity of whatever it is that you’ve got, and that can react poorly with certain materials. Acidic substances can leech bad things from plastic and metal containers. Certain plastics or coated metals can be used to hold fermented and acidic things safely, but glass is non-reactive and a much safer option.

Glass jars are super easy to come by, and you’ve probably already got at least one. Tomato sauce (because it’s an acidic food!) is often sold in glass jars. Same thing with pickles, jams & jellies, olives, sauerkraut, etc. Tomatoes and jams are the most frequent sources of glass jars in my household, so that’s what I usually use. I will say, if you’re a pickle person, those glass pickle jars with the wide mouth are really nice to have. Whatever glass jars you already have, just give them a good wash once you've emptied them, and they’ll be ready to use!

Fermenting Weights

Fermenting weights are often used in canning recipes. Carbon dioxide gas is a common by-product of fermentation, and that can cause whatever veggies you’re trying to ferment to try to float to the surface, which exposes them to the risk of contamination and spoilage. The brine that is used to ferment pickles, sauerkraut, olives, beets, etc, prevents mold from being able to grow because of that acidity. Weights sit on top of the fermenting veggies, right at the surface of the brine, and keeps everything safely submerged. The fermenting weights should be like the fermenting vessel, non-reactive. They should also be non-porous, and easy to clean. Kahm yeast is a harmless white film that frequently forms on the surface of fermenting brines, and it’s kinda ugly so you’ll want to be able to scrape it off the surface.

There are a lot of options for DIYing fermentation weights. You can use glass marbles or ceramic pie weights, wrapped in a cheesecloth bag. You can use a smaller glass jar that can fit inside the rim of your fermentation vessel, slightly filled with water. If you’re using a large crock to ferment things, you can use a ceramic plate to hold the contents down. I’ve personally never tried it, but I’ve seen several people use a cabbage leaf, tucked around the sides of the jar just underneath the rim, with a couple apple slices on top. My personal favourite is to simply use a rock. You’ve got to boil the rock for a bit to make sure it’s clean, and you want to be sure that it’s not going to react with the brine (example, don’t use a limestone rock if you’re making vinegar pickles). I usually stick my rocks in a plastic freezer bag because there is a lot of limestone where I live and I don’t want to accidentally make a pickle volcano.

Airlocks

Airlocks are generally used in homebrewing when your goal is to make booze. They can also be used in place of fermentation weights. You’re trying to create an environment without oxygen, since oxygen can spoil the flavour and allows contaminants to grow on your booze/veggies. The basic idea behind an airlock is that it allows carbon dioxide, a natural and harmless by-product of fermentation, to escape from whatever you’re fermenting, while not allowing any oxygen to come back in its place. It may seem a difficult thing to do, trying to figure out how to keep an invisible gas away from your precious booze, but the real challenge here is in creating an environment that can regulate pressure changes. If you give the pressure some way to adjust for the gas that will be constantly released from a good ferment, the carbon dioxide will actually do all the work for you in keeping oxygen out. Oxygen in our atmosphere is diatomic, meaning it has two atoms. It’s shortened to O2, which you will notice, is only one letter away from CO2, which is carbon dioxide. That extra atom in the CO2 molecule means it will be heavier than oxygen, so it will sink and force oxygen to the top of the container, far away from your precious booze.

I know I really talked it up in the first paragraph about airlocks, but DIYing this one is actually super simple. There are a couple ways you can do it for a more “professional” look, such as drilling a hole into the lid of your fermentation vessel, fitting a straw or tube to the hole in the lid, and placing the other end of the tube in some sterile alcohol solution so that bubbles can escape but no air can get back in. But, you can also just use a balloon. They’re cheap to get, they can be stretched over the mouth of almost any bottle, and they’re designed to expand to equalise pressure. They can look a little silly, sure, and you do have to check on them periodically to let gas out so they don’t pop, but they work really well. I would recommend securing them to the mouth of your bottle with a bit of twine, a rubber band, or a hair tie to ensure it doesn’t go flying off.

Carboy/Crocks

Ok, so now you’ve fermented some stuff in your old jam and tomato sauce jars. For things like sourdough starter, yogurt, kefir, and ginger bugs, those jars are the perfect size. If you like pickles, but don’t love them, then making pickles in pint sized jars is probably just fine. I, however love pickles, and would prefer to make them by the gallon. Also, brewing enough mead for you and your friends is tedious as hell to do in a bunch of little jars. If you can’t make enough mead to share with your friends, then what’s the point of making mead at all??? So, you’re gonna want something that’s big enough to hold everything you want to ferment, and that’s where carboys and crocks come in. Carboys are big glass jugs with narrow necks that are designed for making booze. Crocks are big ceramic containers, usually wide-mouthed and designed for fermenting vegetables. Ceramic and glass are both non-reactive and therefore safe to use in fermentation.

This is probably the most difficult equipment on this post to DIY, but that makes sense. If you’re looking to ferment things in the quantity that would necessitate a crock or carboy, you’ve hopefully already tried fermenting and decided you liked it. As far as crocks go, I personally use the lining of my slow cooker. I got a crockpot from a Goodwill for $4 when I first got to college, and I’ve used the lining of it for several batches of homemade soda and lightly alcoholic raspberry lemonades. It’s a ceramic lining, designed to hold and cook food over a long period of time, so I know it’s not going to react with acidic contents. Plus, it comes with a lid that I can use to keep pesky fruit flies out. For a carboy, the best method I’ve found is to buy a gallon of that fancy organic unfiltered apple juice that comes in glass jugs from the grocery store. It’s usually around $8, yeah, but the cheapest 1-gallon carboy I’ve found online is about $10. Buying the glass jug of apple juice saves you $2, plus you get a gallon of apple juice that the enterprising person could potentially turn into cider. That’s what I did :)

[hymnealavie]

mac miller would be 27 today. drug addiction can and will kill. whether you're suffering in a mansion, under a bridge, your momma's house or on skid row, get help. you deserve freedom and you deserve life. 

US National Drug Helpline: (888) 633-3239

Find a Narcotics Anonymous meeting anywhere in the world, wherever you are: https://www.na.org/meetingsearch/

If you live in the US: Call 206-587-2838 to speak to a sober alcoholic 24 hours a day. Answered by a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

N.A’s 30 questions to help you find the answer to a bigger question: “Am I an Addict?” https://www.na.org/admin/include/spaw2/uploads/pdf/litfiles/us_english/IP/EN3107.pdf

[agatha-abstinent]

Tag 939 / Etwas Altes, etwas Neues, etwas Blaues, etwas Geborgtes

Das erste Mal nach einem Dreivierteljahr wieder bei NA gewesen. Und zwar genau in dem Meeting-Raum, in dem ich vor 279 Tagen das letzte Mal bei NA war. Und das kam so: Im Bett nach dem Aufwachen den “Nur für heute”-Text online* gelesen. “Jetzt, in Genesung, werden wir so angenommen, wie wir sind. Unser tatsächlicher Wert für andere besteht darin, wir selbst zu sein.” Ausgelöst von diesen Worten die Meetingliste online aufgerufen und geplant, mit dem Rad dorthin zu fahren, durch die Sonne, die erstmal nur noch heute so schön scheinen soll.

“angenommen, wie wir sind” Mich hat die eine, eine einzige von NA, nicht angenommen wie ich bin. (Tag 686) Mich, die Antidepressiva nimmt. “nicht richtig clean” “nicht du selbst”

Und durch diese Ablehnungserfahrung mit einer von NA, war die NA-Gruppe für mich tabu, waren alle NA-Gruppen für mich passé. Dabei war es ja die Gruppe damals, die Summe der vielen annehmenden Gesten, die mich Heulende an Tag 368, am Tag nach meinem einjährigen Trockenheits- bzw. Cleangeburtstag getröstet, aufgenommen, verstanden hat.

In Genesung ich werde angenommen wie ich bin. Das geht mir in den Selbsthilfegruppen so. Das ging mir aber auch in der Nachsorge so. Ebenso wie in der Grenzlinie-Gruppe, in der Rehaeinrichtung, … Das geht mir öfter in Genesung so, als es mir vorher in der aktiven Suchtzeit ging. Ich werde angenommen von Menschen, die ich auch schätze, deren Wertesystem mir zusagt, deren Ausdrucksweise mir gefällt, deren Stärke ich bewundere, ihre Aufgeschlossenheit auch… Was nützt mir, dass Ulrike oder Iphigenie’s Mann oder Joschi die übermäßig konsumierende Agatha cool, witzig, mutig fanden, wenn sich viele dieser coolen, witzigen, mutigen Aktionen im Suff abspielten, wenn da immer diese Substanz war, die mich nicht ich sein ließ? Und die trockene Agatha, die gefällt dem Ex-On-Off-Whatever nicht, die gefällt Mareike nicht und Ulrike hat den Kontakt auch abgebrochen. Ich habe diese ehemals engen Freunde, diese langjährigen Bekannten, diese Daueraffaire nicht mehr. Dafür habe ich jetzt Menschen, die mich annehmen wie ich bin, wie ich wirklich bin.

Mir wird da zugelächelt, wenn ich in den NA-Raum gehe. Als ich mich vorstelle “Ich heiße Agatha und ich bin süchtig”, antworten alle 27 Personen “Hallo Agatha” und als ich das “Nur für heute” zum Meetingende** vorgelesen habe, sagen auch viele von ihnen “Danke Agatha”.

Ich habe keine Aussage machen können, weil es so viele Meldungen gab und die Zeit nicht für alle reichte. Ich wollte versuchen ehrlich zu sein und zuzugeben, dass heute mein erstes NA-Meeting nach einem Dreivierteljahr NA-Abstinenz war. Ich hätte gerne gesagt, dass ich das absolut niemandem empfehle. Denn ich habe damit wider den Traditionen Personen über Prinzipien gestellt. Ich durfte mich heute davon überzeugen, dass NA eben mehr ist als eine Frau, von der ich gehofft hatte, sie könne eine gute Freundin werden.

Spät abends, nachts, bis in den Oktober hinein den schweren Fisch angefangen. Nicht mit Stoff vom doofen Laden, um die Ecke vom leckeren Eis, fünf Minuten vom Meeting entfernt. Sondern:

Etwas Altes - Stoff von einem der zerschnittenen BHs, etwas Neues und etwas Blaues - jeweils Stoff vom besseren Laden, etwas Geborgtes - das Schnittmuster.

/

* “Nur für heute – Tägliche Meditation für genesende Süchtige” online lesen: https://www.narcotics-anonymous.de/nur-fuer-heute.html

** Genesungsliteratur, Texte zum Vorlesen in den Meetings / Group Reading Cards, Nur für heute https://na.org/admin/include/spaw2/uploads/pdf/ips/ge/GE_jft.pdf

Schnittmuster und Anleitung: http://ep.yimg.com/ty/cdn/yhst-10775676472182/fish.pdf http://birchfabrics.blogspot.de/2013/08/free-pdf-pattern-tutorial-pond-fishy.html

[zer0dayeurope-blog]

SPAW Manager File Upload Vulnerability

SPAW Manager File Upload Vulnerability

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[fyeahsalex]

I decided to just post this again since I can't figure out how to reblog myself. Apparently this being a sideblog just makes everything more complicated. Anyway, I figured I'd do this Sean Pierce Appreciation Week for all of January, that way if there's anyone who missed week 1 they have 4 more chances to participate. 

SEAN PIERCE APPRECIATION WEEK  Day One - Why you love Sean [Jan. 7th] Day Two - Your favorite Sean moment(s) [Jan 8th] Day Three - Your favorite Sean quote or quote about Sean (or both) [Jan 9th] Day Four - Your favorite Sean ship (romance, friendship or crackship) [Jan 10th] Day Five - Anything that tickles your fancy (Jan 11th)

The tag for this week will be SPAW2.

[daffodils-and-edelweiss]

Got any good guerrilla gardening tips?

Maybe? I’ll admit, I have never tried guerrilla gardening myself. I move around every couple of months, so I don’t really stay in one place long enough to get an in-ground garden started. (Hence why I have a container garden) So, this is 100% speculation based on my experience with the “gardening” part of “guerilla gardening”.

Since I imagine that an issue with guerilla gardening would be finding the right time to go in and check on the garden, native species would be a really good thing to look into. Find out what native species have been cultivated for food, find out when to plant them, and rely on those. Native species will need much, much less care than non-native species would, and have the additional stealth benefit of looking like they belong there.

Also make sure that you’re taking into account where your garden patch is. If it’s an abandoned patch by the road, you’re gonna need to take into account car exhaust. If it’s an abandoned patch behind a factory or assembly site, then take into account the potential contaminants that may be in the soil because of that. If your goal isn’t necessarily to provide food with a garden, then there are certain flowers (sunflowers!) that can help fix toxic soil and will still be an attractive addition to your community. Just make sure you don’t compost them.

I’ll tag some other blogs that I follow that might have some better, more complete advice for you, if anyone wants to chime in with more tips or corrections for something, it would be appreciated!

@fungusqueen, @queeranarchism​, @practicalsolarpunk, @poblacht-na-n-oibrithe​​

[daffodils-and-edelweiss]

With the whole pandemic and quarantine thing going on, I’ve been trapped at my house for a while now, and I’m getting soooooo antsy. Therefore! I am working on writing articles, how-tos, etc for solarpunk action week 2 even though that’s literally months away.

(The place where I live is rapidly developing into a covid epicenter and I’ve got some pretty serious lung issues already so I fear that posting articles may be all I can actually do by the time September rolls around)

So! Feel free to send me ideas or requests for what kind of articles or instructions you’d like to see when SPAW2 comes around. You can check my personal tag, #red speaks, to see what kinds of stuff I know how to do already, but I’m totally open to requests for things that I don’t already know how to do.