What Gil taught us at the farm is that it doesn't matter what kind of rice wash you use. You can get technical and experiment with different kinds of rice wash...but for him, it's starchy water (aka CARBS) that are important. There was an American at the seminar (I'm in the Philippines and the seminar was at Gil's farm) who asked if he could use potato wash since he doesn't prepare rice back home. Gil's response? "What do you think?" *wink* We Filipinos eat rice with every meal, so we get rice wash all the time. A woman in the seminar who was lactating even asked if she could use breast milk. Gil said breast milk is the best milk, and if she can afford to pump THAT MUCH milk to make lactobacilli culture, then go ahead...but of course he quipped, "Why deprive your baby of breast milk when you can use the cheapest pasteurized milk in the market for culturing lactobacilli?" He also said that he uses the curd on top of his culture for bread spreads. :) It's basically cottage cheese. When he's feeling "gourmet-ish", he'll pick some herbs in the garden and toss them in with the lactobacilli while it's fermenting and he'd have herb cheese. :)

Knock, knock! Anybody still here? Any Plain Jane coffee maker suggestions for a non-coffee-snob, non-foodie? DH drinks two cups of coffee at breakfast. I have one cup, cafe au lait. (Acid tummy.) Our 15-year-old Krups drip coffee maker with thermal carafe is acting up -- failing to use all the water in the reservoir, despite de-scaling with vinegar. It uses #4 Melitta cones. I use a separate small burr grinder. I warm the thermal carafe before making coffee. My main objectives are a decent brewing temperature, a thermal carafe, and a medium-low price point. Among the medium priced five drip coffee makers that Consumer Reports says reach high enough water temps, only the Capresso MT600 did not have bad user reviews on the carafe. (Complaints about drips; some people resorting to pouring *over the sink*.) Costco has a Capresso CM300 for $60. The MT600's MSP is $140. Would you encourage/discourage me from buying either one? (At least I could return the CM300 with no loss.) Would you encourage any of the 'pod' type coffee makers? (I would not be spending hundreds per year on pre-made pods, but using our own freshly ground beans.)

When you do home food storage like I do, old beans can be a challenge if you don't rotate your stock in a timely manner. Add to that, you can't always be sure when your beans were harvested and how long, and under what conditions, they have been warehoused before you purchased them and place them into storage. Beans store best in cool temperatures away from heat and light. Since the original posting of this thread I've added two more methods for preparing them to my arsenal of choices. The first method is sprouting them before cooking and the second method is brining. "Sprouting decreases the total carb content and the starch content, increases the dietary fiber and increases the digestibility." Sprouting beans takes the "noise" out of them. If the beans won't sprout well, then they are too old for cooking using standard cooking methods and I'll mill them into bean flour and use them that way. I now sprout all lentils before cooking to increase the nutrition, and I will also sprout them and then dehydrate them for even faster cooking times. Brining is a method I learned watching America's Test Kitchen (link below). I especially like brining when I use the beans whole in a salad or entree and I want a creamy soft bean that doesn't blow apart during cooking. A couple other things to note after re-reading this thread - the minerals in hard water affect beans and adding baking soda is a way to neutralize hard water. However, "Amounts of baking soda over 1âÂÂ8 teaspoon per cup of beans may destroy the thiamine (Vitamin B1) in beans. Thiamine is a valuable nutrient and one reason why beans have a reputation for being nutritious." So using bottled or filtered water (not distilled) may be the best answer for anyone who has hard water to contend with. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: How to Brine Beans

I'm with you Miz, except I use the Melitta cone, because it's just so easy and unbreakable, like when I knock it off the cup before I've had my coffee. For one cup, it is the easiest, low tech way to get a delicious cup of real coffee. I didn't watch the video, but I do wet the grounds and let them swell (for about 15 seconds or less) then pour the rest of the water over them. I have a cup of the best coffee possible in less than a minute (not counting the heating time in my electric water pot, which might be 2 minutes or so). Nothing to clean, the filter and organic coffee grounds go into the compost (I buy unbleached filters). If I am making a whole pot in a thermos carafe for guests, I do wash the grounds off the sides of the filter (a larger one I use for that) a time or two, after the initial wetting. Then I discard the grounds and fill the rest of the carafe with hot water and shake it up to make sure the plain hot water isn't sitting on top of the stronger coffee below. Everyone raves about the coffee served here. We are a very "good" coffee appreciative community. I don't know anyone with a Keurig or electric coffee maker. We all make it with a cone. I have no problem being called a coffee snob. Unless I can have good coffee, I'd rather not have any.