Cultures

My friend Jules lead me to fermenting and culturing. She is an incredible woman who has worked so hard to repair her body using the power of food. Her and I have the same autoimmune disorder, but you'd never know it with her. She also has a barrage of other health issues, but she works so hard to ensure that she is almost always symptom free.

She has helped me so much in working toward regaining my health, and the health of my kids. She has supported me over the years through many of our family's dietary changes to work toward improving our gut health. I will be forever grateful to have had her love and support, and my family will be indebted to her for a long time for the way she's changed our life.

She has taught me about kombucha, kefir, kvass, vegetable fermenting, and this has led me to looking at other fermenting and culturing also. We always have yogurt, and sourdough starters made using the finest of ingredients. We quite often have veggies culturing in jars on the bench. We love these foods, which have become part of our life.

Today I'll talk briefly about the drinks and I'll provide lots of links for you to further research from experts. If you're on facebook, like the page CARNA - it Jules page. Also Sandor Katz is considered to be one of the world's leading experts in fermentation. He has lots of youtube videos, check him out.



Kombucha.

Kombucha is a fermented tea drink which has been around for over 2000 years. It uses sweetened tea to host and feed a SCOBY- symbiotic colony of beneficial yeast. It's very easy to make, and requires not much more than making tea, adding sugar, cooling it down, adding a scoby and covering it with cloth. We keep ours in a dark cupboard as they don't like light. A month to six weeks later, we pour it into bottles add fresh fruit or dried fruit, sometimes fruit juice, turmeric, ginger......whatever is on hand.

A brewed kombucha with the scoby floating on top of the tea. 

Kombucha is a very powerful detoxifying drink. There is conjecture regarding if it carries strains of probiotic bacteria, (you can make up your mind after reading the articles I link) but all agree it's detoxifying qualities are immense.   We use it as a digestive aid, as it has been reported to help with digestive health. I take it to detox my liver and kidneys, as I have had issues with both in the past. 

Pouring the kombucha into glass bottles for the second ferment.

Second fermenting with turmeric and strawberries, and honey and sultanas.

http://www.foodrenegade.com/kombucha-health-benefits/

http://www.seedsofhealth.co.uk/fermenting/kombucha.shtml
http://www.naturalnews.com/041051_kombucha_healthy_drinks_scoby.html
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/water-kefir-versus_kombucha-tea

Water Kefir.

Water kefir is a probiotic beverage made with water kefir grains. Water kefir grains consist of bacteria and yeast existing in a symbiotic relationship. The term kefir grains describes the look of the culture only.  The grains are fed from the sugar in the water, and a second ferment (after the grains are removed) using fruit or juice makes the drink sweet and palatable.  This link shows the 57 strains of bacteria found in water kefir.  http://www.culturesforhealth.com/water-kefir-grains-composition-bacteria-yeast These strains are known to be beneficial with a myriad of health concerns, ranging from cancer, to autism to autoimmune illnesses. The great thing about water kefir is you get a new batch every couple of days. 

The front bottle is the first ferment, you can see the grains at the bottom of the bottle. The two bottles behind are second ferments using fruit. They are going to lightly carbonate. 

A lovely fizzy apricot water kefir. 

http://www.modernalternativehealth.com/2013/07/25/the-health-benefits-of-water-kefir-and-how-to-make-it/
http://www.growyouthful.com/recipes/water-kefir.php
http://nourishedkitchen.com/water-kefir/
http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2011/04/how-to-make-water-kefir.html

Milk Kefir.

Milk kefir isn't a favourite in our house. We don't love the taste. So I hide it, in smoothies usually. I really want the kids to have it, as it is the cultured drink that contains the most beneficial probiotic strains. It is super easy to make, just adding grains to milk, and culturing it a couple of days - and it has so much goodness in it.

Here are the strains http://www.culturesforhealth.com/milk-kefir-grains-composition-bacteria-yeast in your milk kefir.

Milk Kefir. The bottle on the left has the grains in it, the one on the right
is from the last batch. It'll go into a smoothie. 

http://www.growyouthful.com/recipes/kefir.php

http://www.kefir.net/kefir-benefits/
http://www.benefitsofkefir.com/probiotic-benefits-of-milk-kefir-and-water-kefir/
http://products.mercola.com/body-ecology/kefir.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/024477_kefir_bacteria_probiotics.html

Yeast and milk kefir sourdough starter.

We use milk kefir in our sourdough starter. It's basically bread yeast, milk kefir, bread flour and water. We let it culture for a few days on the bench, then use it in place of yeast in our bread. It gives a delicious sourdough taste. The yeast and most of the bacteria is killed off in the cooking process, but gee it tastes good.

Our 'fermentation station' on the kitchen bench. We always have something brewing up.

Here are a few more links to more fermenting information.

http://www.changinghabits.com.au/probiotics-and-fermented-foods
http://www.wildfermentation.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i77hU3zR-fQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmDtbvRZnw4

As I said, I'm no expert - and as with all our kitchen adventures, this is trial and error too. I do know how much better we feel when we take these beautiful things. Live cultures really make a difference to your health.


As always, enjoy your kitchen adventures - and just eat real foods.

Marney x