I am so excited to be writing this post. A few months ago I learned about this wonderful health elixir, called Kombucha. Yes I am a little late to the party, but hey at least I showed up!
Kombucha is a fermented tea that is made with a scoby (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). It's kind of similar to milk/water kefir. Only I killed my water kefir lol. So far kombucha has proven to be easier and tastier so I am very excited.
When I first started learning about kombucha I was looking into buying a scoby. But they can be a bit pricey. Then I found some websites that talk about growing your own scoby! So I quickly headed to my local whole foods and found the most filamenty bottle of kombucha I could.
I drank half the bottle and used the other half to start my mother, who we affectionately call Roscoby. ;o)
I added the half bottle of kombucha (about a cup), and all the filament, to a cup of black tea with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Then I let it sit for a week. After a week a baby scoby had formed on the surface of my jar. It could take longer depending on the location you store it, so just keep checking it. If it takes longer don't worry. Just be on look out for mold. In which case throw everything away and start over.
Once I had a baby scoby covering the top layer, that was about 1/8th of an inch thick, I convinced my hubby to go buy a gallon size jar of pickles so I could move on to step two. Once all the pickles were gone I made about a quart of tea, with 1/3 of a cup of sugar, and added that along with my baby scoby and the liquid to the gallon size jar
Then I waited.... Part 2 is coming :o)
I'm linking up with: The Homestead Barn Hop, Front Porch Fridays, The HomeAcre Blog Hop, From The Farm
Wow! You got success with a store bought bottle of kombucha? That is great. I have a knack for killing off my scobys and I used to grow a new one this way and had no troubles. Until....they took kombucha off the market. Ever since it has returned I have not been successful in growing my own. Thankfully, after buying one locally (look up on craigslist) for $5 I have been successful in keeping mine alive. I currently make 6 gallons of komubcha a week (we have a large family who all LOVE to drink kombucha!). Now if I could only get them all interested in my fermented veggies!
ReplyDeleteI am new to your blog, but an very excited to read about your journey. We have a wee little homestead on 2.5 acres, with lots of trees, a handful of goats, 30 chickens, too many cats, a dog...who are all taken care of by our family of 10 (ok, the youngest is only 3 months old, so she doesn't do much but babble and drool :-))
Blessings,
Kerri
Wow 6 gallons! I've got 2 gallons going right now, but just the one keeps me pretty stocked up lol. So glad that you found us, please stop by again :)
DeleteOops, just in case you went to see 'who' this Kerri person was in the previous comment, I had been signed into my daughters account. I can assure you my 10 year old does not have 8 children :-) Ha, ha.
ReplyDeleteI am excited to try this. Good to know that you can do it yourself. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI was excited too! And it's so easy.
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