On Discovering You Created Your Very Own Mother

Now if that isn’t an interesting title, nothing is.

Several weeks ago, I was reading (another bunny trail) how you can make your own vinegar out of peels and cores and ‘bees are eating them’ and ‘deer (or the damn squirrels) are eating them’ apples and pears. All it takes are… well… peels and cores, or chunked up fruit… water to cover… a little sugar (like… 3T for a half gallon jar) and patience.

So I went hunting deer apples, or people who were canning and had a crap ton of peels and cores, or ‘seconds’ apples from flashfood app. I found pears enough for one half gallon. I found apples enough for another two and a half gallons. And I found jars to make this viable. AND… off I went. You stir it (or shake it) every day for 3 or 4 weeks. Then you let is sit for a month or so. Then you strain out the fruit, cover it again, and let it sit another month or so.

To be honest, I forgot about it most of the time. I covered it with shop towels (heavy cheese cloth) and set it in the china cupboard and promptly forgot about it. I was periodically reminded when I would catch the scent of… what the apple orchard smelled like when it was covered in rotting apples (without the bees). It never drew fruit flies (thank heavens).

I ran across a video yesterday talking about the amazing home made vinegar somebody made.

Aaaaaannnnd….

Palm to the forehead… oh yeah…

Got up and checked the first batch. The pear vinegar is very light and kind of silty but smells amazing. a few more weeks without the pear mush at the bottom and… we shall see. The apple… not only does it smell like vinegar (still not really strong but… it’s getting there) but it had a mother floating on the top.

What, you may well ask, is a mother?

According to Wikepedia, it is…

... "a biofilm composed of a form of cellulose, yeast, and bacteria that sometimes develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids during the process that turns alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air and acetic acid bacteria (AAB).“

It is, in reality, a slimy looking floaty thing in the vinegar that helps the apple schmutz turn into vinegar. See the pictures of the white floaty things… those are the mothers.

So, I decanted (strained out the fruit) the first two and decided to check on my second two jars.

And both of THEM have mothers… one of them has freaking two!

I may be JUST a little too excited about this. According to everything I’ve read, this is not acidic enough for pickling and stuff… but it will be perfect for cooking… salads… cleaning…

I need to strain off the two big jars… if not today… over the long weekend… put the mother to sleep (put it in a jar covered with distilled white vinegar until I need it for another batch) for a bit.. and start contemplating my next few batches.

I’m thinking, maybe grapes? Or maybe teach myself how to make rice vinegar… I wonder if apple cider mother would help rice vinegar along…

AprilJoy
11/22/2023