The brambles on our property are wicked. They reach out when you walk past, grab an arm or leg, and take a bite. The thorns are sharp and strong, and they’re difficult to disentangle from your clothing. Nonetheless, it’s worth risking scratches (and ants running up your arms and legs) to harvest blackberries growing wild along the fencelines.
We picked a bowlful of ripe berries this weekend and used them to flavor water kefir and kombucha. The dark juice lent a nice color to the beverages, and the water kefir is delicious – refreshing with a definite berry flavor, not too sweet. Continue reading “Backyard Berry Bounty”
Like many things, making Jun tea improves with practice. In an earlier post, our first attempts, with malodorous results, were described. We’re now on batch #6, and the output of the hard-working scobies has been gratifyingly good.
Most of us have probably heard of Kombucha Tea, made from fermented sweet tea. We make and drink it regularly (and it makes awesome cocktails). We also make milk and water kefir, two other probiotic and delicious beverages. After allowing it to languish in a cupboard for a year (really!), we pulled the Jun scoby out and re-started it.
We make kombucha tea in gallon barrel jars, with a batch being “harvested” every Sunday. Once bottled, the ‘booch sits in airtight bottles for a few days for a second ferment. It’s during this second ferment that additional flavorings may be added. The two week initial fermentation period is what seems to work best to achieve the flavor profile we like: slightly tart, but not vinegary. Some people let it go longer, but it can get pucker-you-up tart with time. Once it becomes too sour, there’s no going back. 
Two batches of pineapple scrap vinegar are sitting on the counter, fermenting. It’s a good way to use the parts of a pineapple you’d throw out (or maybe compost), and you end up with a useful product.
Per the standard procedure, new sweet tea was made, inoculated with some of the previous batch, the jar was filled with reverse osmosis filtered water, and the SCOBY was added to the fresh mix. It will sit, covered with a breathable cover, for two weeks. If it ferments for longer than that, it will become much more vinegary…in fact, there are designated jars with batches that have been left for a month or longer, specifically to turn into