So I left off at soaking the rye in a bucket for 24 hours. I think I should have pulled more around 16-18 hours because I had a small percentage of grain open and I think the goal is to not have any…
Anyway… on the the stove. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15-20 minutes. I poured mine out onto a towel to let the outside water evaporate. Grains should feel mostly dry on the outside and you should be able to pick them up with no grains sticking to each other…
I filled my 4 mason jars (32 oz) about 3/4 the way full. There is supposed to be enough room in the jar to shake the grains around when they start colonizing.
I drilled a 1/4" hole in the middle and 3 small ones around the edge. Then I boiled my jar lids, dried them
On the small holes, I used this and carefully filled the small holes. These are now the self-healing injection ports.
On the middle hole, I stuffed pillow stuffing to allow the jar to breath but keep contaminants out.
Next, I covered the jars with aluminum foil then loaded all the grain jars into my pressure canner along with one mason jar of purified water (I will use the water to make the spore syringes, but it is also what I do when canning… I like to have a fairly full pot).
If you haven’t used a pressure canner before, here it is:
Jars in, add 3 inches of water, seal the lid.
Turn heat to about 8
The next step is to wait until the Air Vent pops up. Once it pops up, let it continue to spew steam for 15 more minutes.
At that point you put the pressure regulator on the Vent Pipe:
Let pressure rise to 5 pounds then lower the stove temp to 5 (medium)
Now let pressure rise to 10 pounds then turn the stove temp to just under 4.
Let pressure rise to 15 pounds. Once at 15 pounds, start your time for 90 minutes.
You must be careful and watch the gauge at all times… it can go a little over 15, should not drop below and definitely don’t let it go to the warning line on the gauge.
When timer goes off, turn heat off and let the pressure canner cool off on it’s own! Do not open the lid until the gauge reads zero. At that time, you can remove the Pressure Regulator and carefully remove the lid (tilt lid away from your face).
Take jars out with tongs and let cool on a wire rack.
NEXTUP… Making your own spore syringe!
I’ll go over making the spore prints too later!
