Fermenting, Fermenting, Everywhere Fermenting!

A few weeks ago I was cleaning up in my office and found a GT Dave's Kombucha drink with a baby SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) in the bottom! I was so very excited as I've been wanting to make my own kombucha for quite some time but thought that I had to buy a "mother" off the internet.  I didn't realize I could make my own. After a bit of digging on the internet (seriously, when the world collapses what am I going to do without internet!) I found out that, yes, a person really can make a mother from just leaving a jar of purchased kombucha on their desk for a few weeks.  Crazy!

So I then set my little mother scoby aside and brewed up a batch of sweet tea using half Jasmine tea and half Dragon Pearl tea and a cup of organic raw sugar in 8 cups spring water. I then added a cup of purchased kombucha and the little mother scoby.  I covered it an an antique flour sack and hid it in an upper cabinet. Here is a picture of what it looks like after about 3 weeks.  The little 2" mother that I found in my purchased bottle sunk to the bottom and I think she's still down there but I have no idea. I'm not supposed to disturb it so I don't rightly know at the moment.  I'm sure she's down there somewhere.  You can see that a new paperthin baby is forming at the top.  Too slowly for me, but still, she's growing and that's what matters.

I tasted the brew and I'm afraid its a little too vinegary for my tastes but I think I'll still try to mix it with some fruit juices this afternoon and bottle those and let them sit out another week and see what happens.  I'm thinking I'll do some of each: lemon-ginger, pear, and blackberry.

I've brewed up another batch of green tea and Dragon Pearl tea with organic raw sugar and I will feed that to the mother this afternoon.  She needs the sugar and caffeine to feed off of and as it's tasting pretty vinegary I want to give her some fresh food.

Now, on to more fermenting!

Wow! Will you look at this!  I made this beautiful purple sauerkraut this morning.  I was supposed to be doing some graphics work but as I'm the Queen of Procrastination I decided making sauerkraut was more appropriate.

And just so you know, this is my First Attempt at making this amazingly powerful raw pro-biotic food.

Here's my Raw Purple Sauerkraut recipe

1 massive head green cabbage

1 small head purple cabbage

1 fennel bulb

4 cloves garlic

1 Tbs semi-ground caraway seeds

1-2 Tbs Sea Salt

I shredded everything with my food processor, poured into a large mixing bowl and salted.  After washing my hands really well with non-chemical coconut soap I started the "smooshing" process.  I've got to tell you, for a woman with RA, the smooshing was a little more difficult than I'd like to admit. But at the same time it was therapeutic.  It's nice to take out your frustrations on innocent cabbage knowing your turning it into something yummy.

I've got to be honest.  I was quite surprised at the color.  I expect it will turn pink after 5 days to a week of fermenting on the counter.  I'll take pictures as the days go by and show you the color change.