This morning is 9F (minus 12 C). Clear and cruely cold. All the animals are fed and watered and I have opened all the barn doors as the sun is shining. A juxtapostition of the senses that I could not hang in a gallery. It is a stunning, fiercely cold, bright and sunny day. But no wind – no wind is good.
I took my hammer with me today to break the ice and as we rushed about doing the chores my face burning with freeze, I kept saying to the animals ‘ The cold is only relative, after minus 10 it is just more cold not colder.’ They weren’t even cold. Just hungry.
No pausing to watch the golden sunrise filter through the cracks in the barn this morning.
Back inside and all is well now. Here is a tip to remember on these below freezing mornings. If your hand is wet from the dish cloth and you have to quickly pop outside to grab a piece of wood for the fire, DO NOT grab the metal door handle with your wet hand on the way back in. Your hand will stick to the metal door handle. I hate that and I NEVER LEARN!
OK. Yesterday we bottled appler cider vinegar. This is How to Make Raw Apple Cider whilst pretending that this is what you wanted to make all along.
Take the bottles of home made apple cider (before we switched to pear cider) and put them in the basement then forget about them for a year. Then take the top off one, cover with a cloth and forget about it again for another year.
Then rediscover it when searching for a bottle of apple cider in the basement. As you remember that the apple cider was so horrible that you left a jar open just in case it decided to turn itself into vinegar. It being half way there already.
And it had turned into vinegar. So strain it through a coffee filter, bottle it and write on the bottle with a black sharpie in a casual and trendy manner as though this had been the plan all along. 
If you want to know how to make really GOOD apple cider vinegar on purpose, go and visit Ms Misks. Hers looks sharp and delicate. Her vinegar is so educated it keeps a diary.
Now I am going to fry up a couple of those eggs I collected this morning. The chooks are laying again did I tell you? My old people are pleased. They miss their good eggs.
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
84 responses to “How to make Raw Apple Cider Vinegar whilst pretending that this is what you wanted to make all along!”
Mom was always a big proponent of drinking vinegar water and probably still does so daily. I like your salad dressing method ever so much better! 😀
As for the temperature, it really IS all relative: I’ve had brief experiences of -40 (where the F and C temps meet, so you don’t even have to remember which you were discussing) that, while I can’t say I enjoyed the weird sensation of frozen eyelashes and nose hairs, were no worse than some +15 F days I can remember. No matter *what* the temp, there’s no getting used to freezing your hand to a door handle!!
MINUS 40… yikes!.. how does anything survive that kind of cold! I dress the same except when it is really cold then I wear two hatties but otherwise I have the same amount of gear on i.e. LOTS! c
Now that’s what I call icy weather. I hope the fried eggs acted as an antidote to the cold. This post reminds me that I read somewhere that apple apple cider vinegar is good for you, I cannot remember why so I best go look it up on the net. I hope your sore throat is on the mend.
often there is something to those old remedies.. i have been told that it is good on a daily basis.. c
We hit cold temps here too, so when that happens I KNOW you up North are really cold!! Ever since I posted my raw vinegar recipe and received so many comments on its benefits and those that actually drink it, that I’ve been putting some in my water too. You just may like it!! (at least you know your animals do!)
hmm, i must pop over and check out your recipe.. c
Ouch.
For the hand on the door, the poor should-have-been cider, and…I was going to say the animals, but they don’t seem to care, do they?
I had forgotten all about the frozen nose-hairs sensation until Kathryn mentioned it… *shudder*
yes it made me shudder too.. you can feel them tightening up tho, i was fast this morning. not longer than about 30 minutes.. c
Sydney is forecast a day in the thirties today – celcius of course so some of your cold will likely be very popular by about 2-00pm!
I do know what you are saying having spent time in beautiful canada ( luckily I was still young enough to think it soooo beautiful! )
I use a similar method for red wine vinegar heheheh!
I lived in vancouver for a short time and oh you are so right.. very beautiful.. esp up in the mountains.. and i do look forward to trying this with a red wine but having to sacrifice a bottle to vinegar is proving the difficulty.. c
I love Apple Cider Vinegar when I make my cabbage dish. Hope it doesn’t take too many more times to remember about wet hands on a frozen door handle. Ouch!
Oh it would be great with cabbage, now that IS a good idea.. c
i won my vintage butter churn so i will be making homemade butter soon. thanks so much for making me slow down and remember!
simple is good! c
Sounds like the perfect product – you can’t ruin it. Even if you do – it’s just some other product. Love it!
Stay warm and keep your hands dry : )
Will do! great to see you. c
Well that worked out well, huh?? Too cool that you made apple cider vinegar from scratch…even if you didn’t mean to! Verrrry jealous of those fresh fried eggs you ate this morning.
these eggs are so good Caroline! the yolks are orange! .. c
Celi … you are simply one vintage after another.!
Oh we are just hotting up frank with an angle!! I have another somewhat odd vintage tomorrow!! c
no wind is good! also, never step out of the shower, get dressed without drying off and sneak outside for a ciggie – icicles will form 🙂
AAAHHH!! That sounds like the voice of experience! and OW!! Thank you for that timely piece of advice! c
It must be a country thing. I love the wind, but Pete, who spent a lot of time on farms growing up, doesn’t, nor do any of his rural cousins. Wind is bad, no wind is good. It all sounds very cold, I hope you get to stay warm!
Must be, Wind makes it colder. Also not so good for the animals. I love the sound of the wind when I am inside though!! c
aren’t happy accidents the source of best recipes? I was having this discussion with my amazing cook of a mother in law a few days ago in Germany! Stay warm C!
Very true Mimo. I wish i had written some of them down, at the time you think you will always remember what you did and then it fades! c
Come over for Summer! Our door knobs will be kind to you…
Oh wouldn’t that be grand.. this time next year hopefully!! c