How to create your own thrifty food production hub

With a lot of us currently housebound, and work and the food supply feeling a little insecure, many Aussies are turning to the age-old tradition and comfort of making their own food products.

Pickling, baking and preserving are all back in vogue. While many high-tech, swanky kitchen items exist to help creative home cooks churn out yummy Instagrammable breads, kombucha, preserves and more, it’s not necessary to fork out on expensive gadgets to make such DIY food products.

Most of these can be created with things you already have in the cupboard. Learn about the gift economy on Somewhere Else: 

Here are some products you can whip up and the basic equipment and tools needed to start your own thrifty food production hub.

The daily bread

Humans have been making bread for over 30,000 years using their own muscle and a heat source. For a simple loaf you’ll need loaf tins or trays, a wooden spoon and bowl and somewhere warm for it to rise. Optimally, yeast requires temperatures between 29-32 degrees in the dough fermentation stage. Think outside the loaf, and fry up your own tortillas or naan in a skillet.

Homemade pasta

Basic pasta making requires flour, egg, a rolling pin, smooth-edged knife and work surface. However, a pasta machine, pasta cutter, food processor and drying rack will make life a bit easier.

DIY flour

With a grain mill you can grind wheat or rye berries, rice, barley, oats, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, lentils, seeds, nuts and more, into flours. Some high-tech food processors also have a flour-making capacity. Alternatively, you can produce a coarse flour using a coffee grinder. To make nut flours, pop the nuts in a standard food processor.

Pizza, pasta and pesto sauce

Stew up your own snazzy pizza and pasta toppings in a saucepan or crockpot. For pesto, blend the ingredients with a food processor or blending stick.

Yoghurt

You can actually make yoghurt overnight – with milk and the live culture, a container, and heat. Set your yoghurt in a small Eskie of warm water, slow cooker, in the sun, wrapped in heat pads, or in a warm saucepan in a turned off but still toasty oven.

Hummus, nut butters and other spreads

All you need to whip up a batch of hummus or nut butter is a blender and your ingredients. A mortar and pestle will also do the job. 

Preserves

If you’re lucky enough to have excess bounties, you can preserve them for later. Food can be preserved with oil, sugar, vinegar, salt brine, alcohol or by fermentation.

You can preserve almost anything, including sauces, jams, relishes, pickles, olives, vegetables and fruits.

Some preserving methods involve heat-treating to kill the micro-organisms behind food spoilage. For heat-treating, at a minimum you’ll need to boil your ingredients and store in sterilised, airtight jars. A pressure cooker or large saucepan, jar lifter or tongs and a rack or something to elevate the jars are also handy.

The OzFarmer site recommends using only specialty preserving jars made of tempered glass and with secure seals to avoid bacterial contamination and breakage in handling and sterilisation.

Homemade dressings

Make fabulous dressings like balsamic vinaigrette, honey-mustard, and yoghurt. Emulsify the liquids by shaking in a screw-top glass jar. They can be stored for a short time in the fridge. 

Muesli mixes

Toast your ingredients in the oven on a tray. If you can’t get hold of oats, recipes abound for gluten and oat-free varieties using nuts, seeds, coconut and dried fruits. Crush your nuts with a food processor or old-fashioned mortar and pestle.

Self-dried garden herbs

Make use of vertical space to air-dry herbs from your garden on a ladder. Dried mints, sage, thyme, rosemary, lemon balm, lavender, and many others are easily ground or crushed by using a mortar and pestle, spice grinder or bladed coffee grinder.

Use them to make your own organic teas, spices and condiments and add to your dressings.

Remember Grandma’s old-fashioned teapot? It’s time to dig out your own. Sip your home brew and appreciate the joys of your labour.