Apple Cider Vinegar is a simple to make kitchen ferment that is one of the ferments covered in detail on our fermentation page. Apple Cider Vinegar or ACV as it’s affectionately known is a popular topic of discussion in workshops, I thought I’d go over a super basic way to start your own for free!

I had some leftover apple cores and bits and pieces from my drying preparation today. The apples from our own tree, it’s too early for that. I’d bought a bunch from the local grocery store. I was thinking ‘shall I feed them to the chickens or to the worms or put them into the Bokashi bin‘?

All of those were great ideas but they meant that the apples only got 2 uses. I thought, can I get an extra use out of them befits they go out? The answer was diy Apple Cider Vinegar! Dried Apples, ACV and then feed the leftovers to the critters…3 uses, that’s got to be pretty good! The chooks love pieces of ACV mother almost as much as they love bacon rind and will each grab a piece and run around the chook run looking for a special place to eat them in peace. If a chook (even a little one) doesn’t get a piece, she will attempt pinch it from another! ACV mother goes well in the worm farms too. It breaks down quickly and the worms love it! I usually rinse the pieces off first to remove some of the acidity and sprinkle them with a little bicarb soda or powdered eggshell to help in that way too.

So here’s the ultra complicated way to make your own ACV –

• Put your apple pieces in a jar and cover them with water.
• Put something on them to keep them below the surface of the water  I’m using a scrunched up bit of cling-wrap (washed and reused, of course). You can remove that after a couple of days.
• Cover the whole thing with some cheesecloth or net to keep the bugs out.

• Put it somewhere warm and out of full sunlight.
• It’ll ferment, and bubble and a rubbery layer will form over the surface. That’s the Mother and is a colony of microbes and yeasty things that convert Apple juice to vinegar. It’s akin to a Kombucha scoby.
• When you see that, leave the jar for a few more days and taste until the taste is gloriously vinegary!
• Keep the Mother aside in a little of the vinegar. When you next get some apple juice , add the Mother to some and viola! You’re making your own vinegar!

I usually keep two, 5 litre containers of it brewing and never run out of ACV or mothers, so the garden, chooks and worms are always happy! The two huge mothers in the jars below grew that way because I have been giving them a rest and added some other goodies. As you can see, they get out of control pretty quickly! These two jars started off in the manner outlined in this post!

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