Chocolate Cranberry Mole: A Fermented Paste from The Fermentista’s Kitchen. This post will share the recipe for a fermented paste that is sweet, spicy, totally unusual, and utterly delicious. Read on for the full tutorial!

I live very rurally, as many of you know, so when something exciting happens in my neck of the woods, I try my best to go. When I saw that there was a fermenting workshop a mere 90 minutes drive (as in 90 miles) from my home, on a school night, I corralled two of my dear friends to accompany me and attended. The workshop was hosted by the cooperative extension office, which is a fabulous resource. Nationwide, universities have extension offices that basically offer education in a very wide range of topics for free or cheap to adults. The availability of programs ranges widely with some counties having super up to date websites and tons of programs from crafts, food, garden, livestock, health, and more to some little counties with just a few programs and understaffed offices. Your local extension office could be a wealth of Domestic Wildflower-themed information and I encourage you to investigate your nearest office.

The fermenting workshop was particularly interesting to me because fermentation is something I have really wanted to learn more about but was a bit hesitant to try on my own. I made my first batch of sauerkraut this winter with the help of the GoFerment lid (which I love) with great success and our weekly, toddler-requested hot dogs were greatly improved as a result. Beyond that, the realm of zymology got a bit fuzzy for me and in a classic flaw of my personal character, I didn’t experiment further because I only like to do things I am good at.

I was also excited for this workshop because the featured teacher was the authoress of “Fermented Vegetables,” Kirsten Shockey. I thought to myself that I HAD to attend this workshop because when in the heck else would I get to meet a published author of a super rad book, on a topic that is hot hot hot, in my super remote slice of heaven on Earth? Participation was not optional.

Well, my friends and I drove across state lines, got Mexican food to go, and miraculously arrived on time to the workshop.

In the workshop, we learned about the basics of fermentation, saw several different types of recipes prepared, and were enlightened by several pearls of fermentation wisdom including the fact that fermented foods are much higher in vitamins than their unfermented counterparts. This is due to the fact that the vitamins are no longer bound to their cellulose walls once fermented, making the vitamins more accessible to our bodies. Fermented foods are more easily digested and contribute to overall digestive health, and cultures around the world known for longevity and overall good health consume fermented foods.

It is widely stated by the fermenting community (and I could find no evidence to dispute this claim) that no one has ever died from fermented foods. In some ways, fermenting is much easier than you might think because when the good bacteria are overcome, the result is food that you clearly and instinctively would not eat.

Thus, for those of us interested in cooking more at home, eating better, and creating more of what we enjoy, fermenting is a fun and safe avenue full of culinary delights.

At the end of the workshop, we were treated to a sampler of so many cultured foods I could never have tried them all. I personally gravitate towards fruit more so than pickles, and sweet more than savory, so I filled my plate with fermented rhubarb, apple, raisins, and the like, in addition to many delightful and totally unusual krauts and pickled vegetables.

In between sampling, I got to meet the lovely Fermentista herself and I can say without reservation she not only knows what she’s doing but she’s a kind, fun soul to boot. I also learned that I didn’t have to feel like I would never have a chance to meet her ever again because she actually lives in Southern Oregon, so that joke was on me. I am so glad I felt that way, actually, or I might not have rearranged childcare, Heaven, and Earth to attend.

Kirsten was kind enough to share a copy of her beautifully photographed, entirely comprehensive book (375 pages!) for one lucky reader. Remember, the giveaway rewards you for sharing with extra entries for you, so share away!

Enter to win the "Fermented Vegetables" cookbook!

Because of what I learned in the workshop, I felt inspired and excited to try a recipe from Kirsten’s blog for Chocolate Cranberry Mole. I have a real sweet tooth and this sounded weird and delicious and because it pairs with ice cream I was sold. Here is her recipe and I will note where I changed a few things; namely I used frozen cranberries instead of fresh.

Fermented Chocolate Cranberry Mole

1 pound cranberries (I used frozen- let them sit out and soften a bit before processing in the food processor)

1 cup dried cranberries (unsweetened)

1/2 cup dried cherries (unsweetened, and sub in more cranberries if you prefer)

5 tablespoons pasilla chile powder (2 ounces)

2 ¼ teaspoons cocoa powder

¾ teaspoon salt

½ cup fresh orange juice (I used bottled lemon juice and it turned out lovely but I bet orange would have been really good)

Process all ingredients in a food processor until a paste is formed. This ferment will not be wet the way sauerkraut would be and is in fact almost dry.

Press paste into a clean vessel (I used a quart mason jar, though it would have fit in a pint and a half jar), try your best to press tightly so air pockets are removed. Press plastic wrap against the surface and lid with a loose canning lid & ring or another fermenting lid (I used my GoFerment and it worked swimmingly).  Allow to sit on the counter and ferment for 7-10 days. Mine sat for 10. You know it is “done” when it has a lemon flavor and a whole new flavor is created. I tasted on day 5, 7, and 10, and I suggest you do the same just so you can taste how it changes. It is remarkable how it just happens overnight. Fermentation is magic, my friends, and Kirsten the Fermentista is a wizard.

Lid and store in the fridge with a round of wax paper atop the ferment, or store in a container just the right size for the amount of mole.

I served this with homemade vanilla ice cream made with homemade vanilla extract and together it is the perfect combination of spicy hot, chocolate and fruit, cool sweet, creamy and piquant. If you like Mexican Hot Chocolate cake, you’d love this ferment. Next, I want to try it on cheesecake 🙂

Oh, and it is THE most beautiful shade of red. No wonder it was featured at Valentine’s Day ferment.

Enter to win your copy of “Fermented Vegetables” here!

Enter to win the "Fermented Vegetables" cookbook!

Or, don’t risk missing out and grab your copy from Amazon from this affiliate link here!

Cheers to fermenting, Wildflowers! What ferments have you tried? Share in the comments below!  

Psst- one more thing! If the idea of preserving foods really lights your fire, I want you to check out my canning course, Start Canning, that will be ready in about 2 weeks! Sign up here to be the first to know and to download your checklist so you are ready to Start Canning!

I love coffee. I love mason jars. I love things made in America. Maybe in that order. Enter the Portland Press by Bucket PDX, a mason jar French press, which makes damn good coffee in a mason jar, and, you guessed it, is made in the USA.

I remember thinking that coffee was gross. That was a really, really long time ago before the days of two jobs in college. When I had just one job and no major yet, I did not desire coffee and didn’t see what all the fuss was about. Many of you may remember days of past where you did not yet know the love affair that most fall into with this caffeinated, kind friend. And then, for most of us, some set of circumstances drives us to try and then, of course, learn to love, coffee. For me, it took the combo of late nights waitressing, early mornings at my fave fabric store job, and stacks of English major reading to skim-ahem, thoughtfully pour over- that led me to appreciate coffee.

If you don’t drink coffee, I hope you’ll stay with me for the rest of this post and I also hope you will take my sincere applaud- good for you. It is kinda lame to have any crutch at all but I don’t find it prohibitive enough to change. Crutch on I shall.

I also hope all my readers-coffee drinkers and abstainers alike- read on because this post is really about the amazing Portland Press and any tool that makes our lives better by helping us make more of it is a fine thing indeed. I would bet that this company will produce more equally smart devices in the future, so stay tuned.

The Portland Press is not a newspaper, so if you google it and come up with something other than this well-crafted implement, keep scrolling. It the invention of an outfit called Bucket PDX and this team of smarties realized that in the coffee making world, most options are made overseas, cheaply of plastic that ends up breaking and being irreparable. Try it; One winter I broke two glass carafes in about a month and went through the utter joke of trying to replace them. The coffee pot purchasing model is set up for you to buy more coffee pots. It is a racket, Wildflowers, and here’s a way out.

I’ll explain what a French press is before I get to the genius that is the Portland Press. A French press is a glass vessel in which an ardent coffee lover would put ground coffee. On top of that, one would pour almost boiling water. After steeping, the fitted lid and accompanying plunger are pushed down, thus pressing more goodness from the coffee. Coffee is poured and humans are thus happy, stated, and productive.

The problem with the French press (the model I owned before the Portland and in general) is that they are made of thin glass that breaks easily and needs to be replaced…how I do not know. I bet it involves buying a whole new damn press but I’m not going to find out. They also are made overseas. The one model I got seemed really pretty online but when I got it, the rose-gold metal turned out to look pretty cheap and the black handle looks more plastic than anything remotely French. And it was not an inexpensive model.

Here I should admit that after the made in China French press purchase, I caved and got my husband a Keurig style coffee maker for his birthday. I will also admit that they make decent, hot coffee very quickly. They are also silly expensive, the plastic cups of coffee are a racket in themselves (I haven’t found them for cheaper than 37 cents each, and usually see them for 50 cents or more) and which it is lame the little cups aren’t recyclable and are inherently super wasteful. I really am concerned with the idea of getting the flimsy plastic really hot and drinking the coffee that has been forced through it. Aren’t you not supposed to heat plastic containers in the microwave? I’m no scientist but it seems like a bad idea.

The Portland Press solves all of these concerns and then some. First and foremost: It makes delicious coffee. It cannot be argued; the quality of the coffee produced is awesome. I’m no food elitist, but hear me say: the coffee is really, really good when made in this press.

Next off, it takes 5-7 minutes for me to make 3+ measuring cups of coffee from start to finish, depending on how much water I have in the teapot. That is not instant, but it isn’t a long time either. I cannot argue that it isn’t as fast as a Keurig style machine but when I look at ours that is out of commission for some mysterious reason, a mere 13 months after purchase, I don’t care about the few extra minutes.
The lid is made from wood grown and logged in a sustainable, warm ‘n fuzzy fashion in America, and when I read the manual, it states in sort of an unnecessary and sweetly defeated way that one little tiny metal part had to be made in China-but in a factory that met their very high standards- I felt like I had to give those guys at Bucket a high five and a hug. Um, almost the WHOLE thing -wood lid, wool cozy (from happy, humanely raised Oregon sheep!), silicone gasket, (made in CA!) metal plunger (mostly made in the US!) and mason jar are made domestically. I feel like this is a homerun product in so many ways (no, this is not a sponsored post!) that one little metal part made overseas is a non-issue. Well done, Bucket PDX, well done.  

Here is the video that Bucket PDX has shared on their site about the Portland Press.

It is evident that the whole product, from concept to creation to sale, is totally well thought out. The best part, even better than the felted wool cozy (you better believe I’m going to test my new wool felting kit out in decorating it!) is that it all screws to a standard, buy in tons of places for about a dollar each, 3 cup mason jar. One of my very first blog posts is an ode to this jar because of its utility. It is the taller, wide mouth jar that is fairly new by mason jar standards, and ideal for canning asparagus spears. It seems so stupid that other presses are made from glass that is NOT a mason jar. Mason jars are meant to be submerged in boiling water, canning season after canning season. They are meant to get hot! They resist chipping, resist cracking under my hasty and clumsy care and are really affordable.

So, whenever I do end up breaking my mason jar, I can just buy another one. At the hardware store, at Target, on Amazon, at a thrift store- all for probably under a dollar. I won’t have to call some 1-800 number, I won’t have to have a model number, a serial number, a Hail Mary, and I won’t have to buy another lid. This is truly the last coffee pot I’ll ever need. Right? That’s right, Wildflowers.

Win the Portland Press!

To put the cherry on top, the sweet guys at Bucket PDX have shared a Portland Press for me to give away to one lucky reader. I know they are sweet because they sent me the press without asking for my readership numbers (they didn’t care that I’m a newbie!), answered a ton of my excited emails, and sounded genuinely happy that I liked their press. I know you’ll love it too 🙂

Win the Portland Press!

Enter to win yours here! You will get 5 extra entries for sharing this giveaway so share your heart out with those who will love it too.

Win the Portland Press!

https://thedomesticwildflower.com/giveaways/portland-press-mason-jar-french-press-giveaway/

You know what else I love? The packaging! There’s no plastic anywhere! No dumb plastic bag, no box-within-a-box BS, no insane zip ties…I’ll rant about wasteful plastic packaging in another post but I hate waste and there is zero in this box.

If you don’t want to risk not winning the giveaway, buy yours by clicking the affiliate photo link below! Y’all should probably plan on getting every mother in your life one for Mother’s Day because they are just that awesome.

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