Fermented foods take time to nurture, but a well crafted brew can bring the element of convenience to cultured dining.
Our modern interest in ancient origins and health traditions have sparked a revival in old world techniques, including the alchemy of wildcrafted herbal tonics. Foraging and fermenting are the new medicine for optimising nutrition and health, not to mention the culinary appeal of forgotten flavours.
Indeed clever combinations of cultured ingredients smack the palate with memorable zest—reviving the art of adventurous eating.
If however, you are not an enthusiast with time to spare, the thought of picking and pickling wild edibles or even whole foods from the market can be daunting—in which case, most of us simply buy store bought sauerkraut! Alas not all not all cultured foods are created equal, and some fermented fair simply doesn’t cut the the whole-grain mustard when it comes to benefiting our biomes. Some are simply soaked in salt (no love or care there) and others come in cans that are not BPA-free.
So how can we hack a homemade culture?
Hillbilly Fire Tonic offers one solution—lovingly crafted ‘cultured foods’ made from seasonal solids by a family of Biome-friendly Bilbies!
Head Bilby, Mark Drill, shares their backstory…
Our family started playing around with fermenting foods when it was determined that a couple of our four boys had some food sensitivities and gut issues, we would share our experiferments with friends and family until one day we heard that ‘Castlesque’ term “you could sell that in a shop”. They were talking about a particular creation ’Fire Tonic’ [colloquially known as Fire Cider or Master Tonic] traditionally used as an old folk remedy for just about everything. It is a next level RAW unfiltered, unpasteurized Apple Cider Vinegar [ACV] Tincture, adapted from a traditional Gypsy recipe and handmade in small batches in Torquay on the Surf Coast of Victoria, Australia … Fire Tonic is a LIVE Herbal Infusion with the Mother of Vinegar [MOV], a potent immune booster and metabolic stimulant.
Our ingredients have very low food miles with raw ACV from Harcourt [apple centre of Australia] with the other roots fruits & shoots local and organic as seasonally available. For the Vegan Fire Tonic we replace pure local honey with organic coconut nectar. The vinegar we use is aged up to 8 years, undiluted, chemical free and has the strongest MOTHER I’ve ever seen. This provides the pre-biotic food that helps gut flora flourish in healthy a human gastro intestinal tract.
Making Fire Tonic involves hand chopping fresh solids like horseradish [much of which I grow myself], chillies, garlic, ginger, turmeric etc etc, then steeping in ACV for a minimum of 10 weeks, before pouring off and adding the either honey or coconut nectar [vegan] … every batch is done to taste by Mark [Fire In Chief] & then hand bottled, labelled & boxed. There is no waste as the solids are blitzed up into a raw vegan sustainable hot sauce ‘Fire Sauce’ with is the BOMB!
Whilst still literally a from home, Mum & Dad business we are hoping to grow into something a little more substantial over the next couple of years.
How we used the tonic to transform our foods with fire and flavour…
1. Nut cheese in seconds: there are loads of recipes for non-dairy nut cheeses, most of which add nutritional yeast and a bunch of herbs/spices to conjure a cheddar alternative. Our hack: soak some nuts, drain and blend with a dash of Fire Tonic!
2. Tim Ferris Kimchi Kickstart: the human optimiser and best-selling author, Tim Ferris, shared some tips on supercharging your body with Dr. OZ in which he touts the kimchi rout for elevating your mood with cultured food.
“Science has suggested that if you eat fermented food regularly, such as kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage), its healthy, probiotic bacteria will help the serotonin in your gut move to your brain. Eat 4-5 tablespoons of kimchi or any lacto-fermented food such as sauerkraut or plain yogurt daily to chase the blues away.”
You can hack a homemade kimchi by steeping shredded cabbage (or other veg) in fire tonic for 1-3 days. Christmas tip: gifting a jar of hacked homemade preserves made with Fire Tonic is a sneaky way to impress friends and family. Actually the tonics make beautiful gifts on their own, present your loved ones with a glass flask and heritage label with old world charm and chilli-infused christmas cheer.
3. Seth Robert’s honey and vinegar bedtime trick: Dr. Roberts fascinating blog post presents 9 reasons why honey helps you sleep, fermented foods get a mention for their health benefits too. The original formula combined 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of honey in a cup of hot water. Both ingredients can be found in Fire Tonic (non-vegan version) and work a treat.
Love your biome with Bilby-made Fire Tonic: www.hilbilby.com.au
