my goodness it has been an abnormally long winter here! but we spent the weekend re-arranging the greenhouse and all of the 100 seedlings that i planted have come up - woohoo! we'll have home-grown food sometime next november - arghghgh!
jam is working 4 days a week on-site and 7 days a week at home for LobstersRUs! he's doing awesome work and my days are spent making sure he is fed, the cats are fed and the kitty litter is cleaned after a cat gets in it! we have one cat who is fastidious about the kitty litter being cleaned immediately after another cat has been in it! jeesh!
here's some pasta shells stuffed with spinach and cottage cheese with some everything you can think of quinoa salad! very filling and nutritious!
and of course some shrimp and vegetable tempura with dipping sauce and pickled ginger - yummeh!
i have spent hours over the last few weeks and going 150,000 pages in on google searches trying to find anyone who has ever grown their own kombucha SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) - also known as "mother" or "mushroom" and all of the links i find START with using a commercially-bought SCOBY?!?!?!?!?!? kombucha is a delicious and healthy fermented tea that is full of wonderful probiotics. and you all know how much we love fermented stuff around here!
the picture above is another fail in trying to grow my own SCOBY. i basically made a very sweet tea- boiled 4 cups of water, removed from heat, added 6 regular teabags and one cup of sugar, let that steep for 20 minutes, then removed the tea bags, poured it into a mason jar, covered it with cheesecloth and an elastic band, put it in the bedroom closet where it is cool and dark, and checked it every day. it was doing great for about 14 days - a mother was forming but then out of nowhere - mould appeared - arrghghghgh!
no worries kids, this time i am trying sweet tea with apple cider vinegar with the mother and i swear, if i fail again, i am moving on and trying to make Kvass. have any of you ever grown your own SCOBY??? if so, i would love to know about how you did it! please leave your details in the comments section.
i am pretty good at fermenting any kind of veg but i am sucking bad at trying to grow my own SCOBY. and for the record - i REFUSE to start with a commercially-bought SCOBY. that plus the fact that there isn't anywhere around here to get a commercially-made one and i want one with bacteria and yeast from nearby.
we all have to take our stands, you know!
hope you are all having a great week!
I am like you in that I am so ready for my garden to start! I have never tried kambucha but know that people love it. I know of a friend who bought there scoby on the web site ETSY
ReplyDeletemaybe someone in your area would be selling one?
tempura...yummo!
Wow the winter that never ended. You finally can see some dirt, bet you can't wait to get your hands dirty!
ReplyDeleteWe still have bits and pieces of snow here, too. I think we have seen the worst of it over, though. I hope. I pray. I plead. PLEASE let this winter be over and done with!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are finally seeing Spring. I have no idea on the SCOBY since I don't have any fermented foods. I want to llike them so much but just can't stomach the smell as they are growing. I have some kombucha starter that I need to try. As long as I put in a far away spot I won't get caught trying my hand at this nasty smelling, but good for you, probiotic.
ReplyDeleteSo foolish question on my part Kymber - Is there somewhere else you could put it that is cool and dark but has no risk of mold growing in it? The spores came from somewhere. I am not really sure what I am thinking of, just a cool dark place that you can control the input. Maybe put the jar in some kind of semi-sealed or sealed container to minimize contact?
ReplyDeleteLhiats, TB
Glad to hear you are ok. I was beginning to wonder if all the snow was too much.
ReplyDeletekymber - I did some googling for you, and what I discovered is that your method is correct, but they stress that everything must be sterile prior to mixing the water / sugar tea. By sterile they say utensils, hands, etc. ( http://www.seedsofhealth.co.uk/fermenting/kombucha_howto.shtml )
ReplyDeleteI haven't made SCOBY but I have watched SCOOBY when I was younger!
ReplyDeleteI finally got motivated by all your seed planting and I am in the process of trying to grow 20 redbud trees from seed to plant around the acreage. I'll let you know how it goes.
Sweet Kymber,
ReplyDeleteGive Jambaloney a big hug and tell him BD Man and I will be thinking about you both when we go fishing Saturday down at Lake of the Arbuckles. Hopefully, this job will mellow a little so you and Jam can have time for yourselves.
It's so good to finally see your snow leaving, this way eventually you'll be able to start planting your seedlings outside. Do you have your potato seeds ready for putting in the ground? I know you have all kinds of seedlings in he greenhouse waiting patiently.
Sorry Sweetie, I've never made or heard of SCOBY. I could do some research and see how this is made if you need some help. If I try to make this or anything fermented the guys give me a hard time.......they will say what is that smell.....and bolt out the door, lol.... MEN!!!! Little do they know I have some fermented cabbage in a jar just calling my name.
Speaking of cabbage, this will be the first year for me to try to grow this stuff in OK. I hope at least one of the plants produces some nice looking cabbage.
I'm going to try something, let me know if you understand it and if I said it correctly.
당신과 Jambaloney 에 포옹 과 사랑을 보내기 .
당신의 친구 ,
모래의
dangsingwa Jambaloney e poong gwa salang-eul bonaegi .
dangsin-ui chingu ,
Sandy
I can here your cry now SCOBY DO where are you. I have no idea what it is your trying to do. But oh well. good luck. You keep jam running, and don't let him get run down. I would hate to see you both get sick.
ReplyDeleteMy attempts at sun teas turned out mouldy??? I have yet to be brave enough to work with Kombucha but we have found a great source here for organic local Kombucha! Again your food pics have made me hungry. I am experiment with meat and veggie fillings for my perogy dough..a little like pot stickers. This batch is browned and very well drained sage sausage with fresh sauted' scallions and celery in the meat mixture. The mix smells good but will it work in a perogy......
ReplyDelete