Although this fermented Bloody Mary contains live cultures, I wouldn’t recommend guzzling these as part of a health regime. They certainly taste delicious though! Fermented Tomatoes In place of V8 or tomato juice, I use fermented tomatoes for this Bloody Mary. Fermented tomatoes don’t have that sauerkraut flavor that many other fermented vegetables do. They […]
microbes
SCOBY Do’s and Don’ts: Your Top Kombucha Questions Answered
In 2014, I discovered that I absolutely love teaching fermentation (who knew?). My kombucha students have lots of questions during and after class so I thought I better write up an FAQ page. I’ll add more to this as more questions arise. If you have one that I haven’t addressed here, please ask away in […]
Compost for the Lazy: Throw It on the Ground
Compost can save the world! It sucks carbon dioxide out of the air and not only that, a half-inch layer of this black gold can still increase yields six years after its application. I had been composting in our community bins for nearly 10 years—and for several years before that at my house—but decided to start a rogue […]
The Secondary Fermentation: Hippie Jargon for “Put Kombucha in a Bottle”
Updated 09/19/17 During my fermentation workshops, I give students samples of my various kombucha flavors before I put them to work. They always ask for the recipes so I thought I better get to it and post a bunch. Before you can flavor kombucha, you must first brew a batch and wait for it to ferment. You can […]
Simple Fermented Salsa with Live Cultures
Click here to jump to the recipe My younger daughter refuses to drink kombucha (referring to the SCOBY, “How can you put anything into your body that touched that!”). She won’t try sauerkraut (“What’s that smell?!”). She will eat sourdough, although somewhat reluctantly (“Why can’t we have a normal kitchen?”). But she scarfs down this. If […]
A Great Read: The Good Gut
microbiota noun mi-cro-bi-o-ta \-bī-ˈōt-ə\ : a microbial community microbiome noun mi-cro-bi-ome \-bī-ˈōm\ : all the microbial genes in a microbiota I first read about the Sonnenburgs—a husband and wife team of Stanford PhDs studying the gut microbiota—in an article Michael Pollan wrote for the New York Times a couple of years ago. […]
How to Make a Ginger Bug Starter for Natural Soda
I have posted pics of my ginger bug on Instagram a couple of times but without directions. When people then ask how to actually make the ginger bug, they probably want more guidance than “mix some ginger, sugar and water together and add more daily for about five days.” But really, that’s about all you do. […]
How to Make a Sourdough Starter (in Stick Drawings)
I taught a sourdough starter workshop last month and I really could have used some graphics to outline the process. Creating a starter from scratch may sound complicated (you can read more about it here and here) but involves only a handful of steps and your patience. I hope these slides will help explain this […]
Travels with Etheldreda
Etheldreda is my kombucha SCOBY. SCOBY stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts. A SCOBY (aka mother or mushroom) will transform sweetened tea into kombucha, an effervescent, probiotic and delicious fermented drink. (I’m enjoying a glass as I type!) My generous friend Cory of Aquarian Bath mailed me a SCOBY last year, from which Etheldreda evolved. […]