As I wrote about previously, before you can brew your own batch of kombucha you need a starter. You can either buy one somewhere online (which apparently isn’t as good since live bacterias are killed off in transport), get one from a friend/ company locally or simply grow your own.

Since a kombucha SCOBY is a raw live bacteria culture that can easily be contaminated with unknown mater I felt better being 100% responsible for the growth and sanitary conditions of mine rather than trusting the technique and working conditions of another person I didn’t know. What you decide to do will depend on your own comfort level of course.

I shared my own recipe, photos and experience growing my SCOBY here if you want to grow your own.

Before you start your brew be sure you have a large, unleaded wide mouthed jar to hold your brew. Also take time to sterilize your jar and materials so your brew and SCOBY aren’t compromised.

Once your slimy starter is done you can follow the steps below to begin brewing.

To Make 1/2 Gallon of Kombucha

1. In a large 1/2 gallon, non-leaded glass jar or container begin your brew with 8 cups of hot water and 4 tea bags. Brew your tea and let it cool to room temperature, preferably overnight. You can use green or black tea from what I’ve read. I used black tea for mine.
2. Sweeten your tea with 1 cup of sugar and mix till dissolved. I used Sugar in The Raw for mine since I had it on hand to use up but my recipe called for white sugar. Note, more natural sugars will work differently than white sugar. I believe my brew needed a bit more time since I didn’t use white sugar but it still worked out great.
3. Pour 1 cup of the reserve kombucha (that your SCOBY grew in) in your sweetened, brewed tea. Reserve your SCOBY’s leftover fluids though (and recover with a cloth), it will grow a backup SCOBY on top and will later be your SCOBY’s “hotel”.
4. Transfer your SCOBY from it’s growth jar to the sweetened, brewed tea jar. Place on top but know it is fine if the SCOBY sinks or floats. Mine was floating initially and then sank but then came back up.
5. Cover with a cloth, secure cloth and wait 5-7 days for it to brew. Taste test it from about day 5 on. If it is too sweet it needs to brew longer. It will go from sweet to vinegar like as it brews so frequent taste tests will allow you to end the initial brew when it suits you. Mine was ready at day 6 this round. Don’t let it get to vinegar like, you may not be able to stomach it. It should taste like the unflavored kombuch sold in stores but without the fizz. The fizz and carbonation happens in the next ferment.

Secondary Fermentation & Flavoring Your Kombucha

Your secondary fermentation happens once you bottle your Kombucha and add any flavorings to it. Here is how we did ours:

1. Sanitize about 6 swing-top/ flip-top bottles or you can use regular mason jars.
2. Move your SCOBY and about 1-2 cups of kombucha back to your kombucha “hotel”. A new SCOBY will likely have begun to form on top while your kombucha was brewing, this is great. Just reach in and grab your SCOBY even if it appears to have a thin milky film on top of it.
3. Once your SCOBY is out of the brewed kombucha it is time to add some flavoring. The easiest way is to add fruit purees to the kombucha. We added a kiwi, strawberry, banana puree this time. Add about 3/4 cup for your half gallon of kombucha and mix. Don’t be alarmed about foam and any bubbling reaction. Ours produced quite a bit of “head” on top of the kombuch once the puree was added, we just bottled it that way. We also didn’t opt for straining the fruit puree before adding, this did result in quite a bit of fruit pulp in our kombucha but we think the added fiber and nutrients are great. Strain if you prefer a less pulpy drink.
4. Next siphon or use a funnel to fill your jars with brew. My half gallon of kombucha ended up making 5 bottles of finished brew. Or fill your mason jars and cover them with their lids.
5. Allow the flavored, bottled brew to sit out on the counter for an additional 3 days for the secondary fermentation process. This is when the brew becomes carbonated.
6. Once your 3 days of secondary fermentation is up transfer the bottles to the fridge for a minimum 1/2 day so the carbonation settles a bit and your brew gets cold. Opening the bottle prematurely is reported to cause major kombucha sprayage much like a shaken soda does so you’ve been warned ;P
7. Lastly, enjoy your kombucha and start a new batch

We learned this the hard way with some older bottles of brew. I am still cleaning off the walls and ceiling!

Stay tuned for other fermented food adventures shared like saurkraut, kefir and cheese. You can subscribe to the blog updates at the very bottom of this page.

The post Brewing Homemade Kombucha: A DIY Healthful, Homesteading Adventure Shared appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

He was surprised when he took his first drink because of how different it tasted. Very much fermented with a hint of vinegar. He had me try it too, I wasn’t a fan but he managed to finish his entire bottle that day.

Kombucha is a probiotic rich, fermented tea beverage. It is considered a raw food that is beneficial because of all the probiotics and antioxidants that it contains. It’s great for digestive health and is also said to be a powerful detoxing beverage.

It contains lots of essential vitamins such as folic acid, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin B1, vitamin B3, vitamin B12. It also contains antioxidants including EGCG, Glucuronic Acid, Lactic Acid & Acetic Acid. Bacillus coagulans & S. Boulardii are the probiotic organisms it typically contains.

After discovering firsthand how beneficial kombucha can be I decided I wanted to try to making my own because frankly it’s expensive stuff. Plus, our household is no stranger to fermented or brewed beverages. Turns out making your own is quite easy too!

Here’s how to grow your own starter:

Kombucha starter is as easy as one bottle of organic raw kombucha that is unsweetened combined with 1 cup of room temperature sweetened tea (can be black tea or green tea). All you do is pour your bottle of kombucha into a glass jar, then you add your cup of sweetened tea.

Some notes:

• Be sure to sterilize the jar that you’ll use to make your kombucha starter in first!
• Cover your glass jar with a towel so it can breathe and so it stays contaminant free. I chose to rubber band a towel over the lid. Then place your jar in a warm place to grow.
• People in colder climates will need to wait longer than those in warmer climates for their starter to grow as the warmth of the liquid lends to the sugars being consumed and thus growing the starter.

Your kombucha starter, known as a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast), a Mother, mushroom, etc. grows at the top of your liquid overtime.

In the beginning it looks like a thin-film but it slowly thickens as your jar of liquid sits. Once it is about a quarter of an inch thick you can get started making your own homemade kombucha.

You can find the subsequent Kombucha recipe here.

The post Kombucha: Digestions Friend & How You Can Grow Your Own Kombucha Starter. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

In earlier posts I talked about how to make simple yet helpful cleaning solutions with products you already have in your home. You can remove stains, disinfect, whiten your teeth and much more without buying expensive specialized products.

In the next few weeks we are moving out of our current place and into an new one. This means massive amounts of cleaning and fixing will occur and I am trying to find simpler ways of doing this.

My first old-fashioned know how concoction I want to share with you is homemade spackle- hole patcher for your walls . Everyone hangs photos in their home, but when you move and your landlord expects you to patch the nail holes don’t go buy a product, make it yourself- from scratch! All you need is table salt, cornstarch and cold tap water. It doesn’t get easier than that folks! Mix 2 tablespoons of table salt and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a small bowl then slowly add 5 teaspoons of water to the mixture- it should for a paste. If it’s too runny the mixture wont work… Now just fill the holes with your mixture, allow it to dry and then sand rough spots down. If you want you can go over the spot with a wet sponge to remove the dust from sanding.

In the house we are renting they provided a microwave in addition to all the other appliances. We have the bad habit of microwaving stuff without covering it first.. Bad news, I know. Obviously we need to clean the microwave before we move and I thought it would be fun to use this simple and easy Microwave Oven Cleaner.

All you need to do is get a microwave safe bowl, add 1 1/3 cups of water and 3 tablespoons of baking soda. Put the uncovered bowl inside the microwave and run it on high for 3-5 minuites. After the 3-5 minutes is up carefully remove the bowl- It’s going to be extremely hot! and wipe the inside of the microwave with a paper towel or dish rag.

The water and baking soda will steam and cover the interior walls of the microwave then you just wipe the excess liquid and the microwave oven is clean! You can also substitute 3 tablespoons of lemon juice in place of the baking soda or you can simply microwave a bowl filled with 2 cups of white vinegar. They all will work to remove the mess that accumulates inside your microwave.

Do you have a remedy you want to share? I would love to hear them.. I am expecially looking for a way to repair/ remedy a burnt wood counter top…

If you like this post consider reading some of these other do it yourself remedies that have been posted:
Homemade Cold Relief
Find the miracle products in your home that will clean and save you money.
Remove sweat/ perspiration stains naturally!
Alternative Hair Removal Recipe (sugaring)

The post Old-Fashioned Know How- Do it yourself remedies appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

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Did you know that Listerine white strips, oxiclean and various other household items only work because of the peroxide in them? Why buy several different products for different uses that all contain peroxide when you can simply buy some bottles of regular peroxide and get many jobs done?

Putting peroxide in your washing machine will also whiten and disinfect your wash, peroxide will also remove blood and other bodily fluids from your clothes.

Peroxide will add highlights to and lighten your hair, it can also be used in the bath to disinfect and to kill fungus on the skin and obviously it can be used in open wounds to clean and kill bacteria.

White vinegar is a natural disinfectant/ deodorizer and is used to dissolve dirt, soap scum and water deposits. Don’t be afraid to use as a deodorizer. Once the vinegar dries the “vinegary smell” will disappear and leave things fresh and clean. White vinegar can also be used as a fabric softener because it cuts detergent residue, this is especially helpful for those will sensitive skin

Rubbing alcohol is great for cleaning windows because it is clear and it evaporates leaving a clear and clean surface that shines. Combine 1 cup of rubbing alcohol, 1 cup of water and a tablespoon of white vinegar. Also, using newspaper instead of paper towels is another common streak free way to clean windows.

Baking soda can be used to freshen a refrigerator, to scrub rings around the tub and it can be used to remove stains on a variety of surfaces. A baking soda paste will remove sweat stains from clothes. Baking soda is used to clean silver, you can mix 3 parts backings soda with 1 part water or you can simply rub the silver with dry baking soda to remove tarnish.

Next time you take on a cleaning task try to use what you already have on hand and see how well those regular household items work!

The post Find the miracle products in your home that will clean and save you money. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.