Making Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar

Making Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar!

Homemade vinegar requires patience, LOVE, and Respect all the beings!

Vinegar has one of the best NATURAL home remedy for healing!

Here is my story!
My oldest sister came to America for the first time in 2007 to help me to recover from my illness.

Without knowing how to speak English, she was scared to transfer the airplane from the international to the domestic to come to Albany, NY. But, she was determined to come to America to help me to get better. My Korean friend helped to make several emergency cards written in English with Korean translation, such as “Where is the restroom?”, “My sister is very sick, and I need to go to Albany, NY”. “Please help me!”, “I am sorry. I do not understand you”, or “I can’t speak English”.  We were so worried my oldest sister transferring within the airport without speaking English.

Fortunately, my Korean friend who lived in New York City offered that she can have one day off from her work to pick my sister from JFK and go to New York Bus terminal to help my sister to take a bus to come to Albany, NY rather than avoiding transferring. We liked the idea because at least we did not need to worry about my oldest sister wandering around the airport. So, we made an arrangement, and my sister came to Albany by bus with the help of my friend.

My American friend picked her up from the Albany Bus terminal and took her to my house. My American friend was also worried if they could not meet each other since there are so many Asian people around here. But, my American friend told me that it was very easy because my sister and I were alike.

When my sister arrived at my house, she hugged me and told me with tears in her eyes, “Are you OK? You look better than I imagined. I felt better to see you in face.”

When my sister opened her luggage, besides her personal items, there were only two things filled up her bags, “4 year old Kim-Chee and 5 year old homemade vinegar”.

My oldest sister told me, “These two things will help you to recover to get back on your feet. Mother of homemade vinegar will be the best helper for you to clean your body from so many medical surgeries and procedures. I wish I can bring more, but there are so many restrictions on airline baggage allowances.”

My oldest sister makes homemade vinegar all the time.  We grew up watching my grandma and mom made homemade vinegar and soy sauce at home. For your information, soy sauce and fermented bean paste (known as Miso) were originated by Ancient Koreans.

In my childhood, we lived in a traditional Korean house, similar to a hut-like form. Our house had three rooms and a big wooden floor in the center. In the side yard more toward the shady backyard of my house, there was a variety of earthenware clay pots from small to large and from short (as short as 1/2 foot) to tall (as tall as 6 feet). This is called Ong-Gee made of lumps of clay, so we call Hang-Ari, Dan-Jee or clay pots.

The shape of earthenware pots are round, oval or cylindrical with big round mouth. In Korea’s ancient time, these were made from dark clay, neither fired very hot, nor glazed, but later more skillful methods were added. The color of earthenware pots are determined by the iron contained in the clay in addition to the way of burning the earthenware pots.

Some earthenware pots were small, measuring one or two feet; others were higher than my current height and possessed a handle to lift them. The top and inside were glazed with brown, the outside was a deep charcoal-colored brown. In order to access to the shady backyard of my house, we need to pass through the kingdom of clay pots, like a kingdom of earthenware pots. When fresh greens were not available, cabbage and other vegetables were marinated with mixed seasonings and stored in those earthenware pots. Therefore, the process of long term food preservation for the winter months was well developed in my native country.

In autumn after harvesting, we marinated cabbage and other vegetables to preserve and store them in the kingdom of earthenware pots. Also, for long term food preservation, we developed bean pastes and soy sauce made of soybeans and other grains by using a fermenting process, and stored them in the earthenware pots. The shady backyard of my house— the kingdom of the earthenware pots— consisted of bean pastes and soy sauce, a variety of pickles, different types of vinegars, and a variety of different kim-Chees.

Sometimes, the earthenware pots were buried into the ground to preserve the food during severe winter seasons. Thus, the earthenware pots were created for the purpose of food preservation and storage for natural refrigeration meaning natural preservation!

The earthenware pots are the symbol of preservation!

Thus, I have wanted to have clay pots to store fermented foods.  I was once talked to my Native American friend that I want some clay pots to make Homemade Vinegar .  She got me two clay pots a couple of days ago. Oh, YES, now I can make my grandma’s homemade vinegar.

The more I learn about Native American, the more similarities I have found. Now, I believe that Native American were migrated from Asia to America long time ago, but there were more migrations from Korean peninsula to North America on a boat riding the Seaweed highway rather than walking across Siberia and Alaska.

Homemade vinegar requires patience!

Anyway, now I have two clay pots!
The following photo is Making Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar using clay pots!

This is the simplest and most basic method making vinegar. Wash well and remove debris. Add them into the clay pot and cover it with top. Wait for at least one year to naturally develop the mother of vinegar and mature the loving flavor of natural vinegar.



There are three bottles here with three different Apple Cider Vinegar making.

Method I: Making Apple Cider from fully ripe apples (Use sweet apples with high-sugar content, such as Gala, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Spy, and Jonagold apples. Cut out the bad parts so that it can be worm-free and blemish-free.

Cut the apples into small pieces and crush them to press. I used Juice Lady to press them.

I put a rice paper (you can use cheesecloth) on the top of the jar to secure and store in shadow area to invite Fruit Flies. Do not close the lids, but cover with fabric or paper so that the mother of vinegar can breathe. Apple Cider Vinegar will be ready in three weeks.

Method II: Cut the apples into small pieces and add to the jar with the mix of lemon. Apple Cider Vinegar will be ready in 100 days.

Method III: Use left over from the method one and more Apple Cider pressing. Add one tablespoon of the mother of vinegar.

Tada~~~~This is how it looks once I finish prepareing Making Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar!

Now, we need to store them outside in shadow area to invite Fruit Flies to do their Loving fermenting jobs to feed the mother of vinegar.
Now, we need to wait with HOPE.
Homemade vinegar requires patience, LOVE, and Respect all the beings!