My New Fermented Foods Craze

In the last few years, I've made my fair share of homemade goods.  I started out with body scrubs, hand soaps, and body butters.   Then, I moved up to homemade (and, more importantly, NATURAL) laundry detergent, cleaning products, deodorants, shampoos, body wash, facial serums, cleansing oils, healing salves, sunscreen, make-up, diaper rash creams, bug sprays, face (skincare) masks and exfoliators, and natural room deodorizers.
In the spirit of healthier living, I became a little bolder and added two new things to my list of homemade items (in the food world, this time):  Kombucha and yogurt.

I love a good challenge, but creating either sounded like a daunting task.  In true Kara fashion, I decided to do both at the same time!   I dove right in and bought a yogurt maker and a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast), the starter culture for the Kombucha.    After rifling through a myriad online blogs, how-to videos, etc, I dug in and got to work!

I made my first batch of Greek yogurt using my handy dandy counter top yogurt maker.  It turned out beautifully!  I flavored it with vanilla, Stevia, and cinnamon.  It tasted like a cinnamon roll.  Yum!    The yogurt maker only makes small batches though and since we eat a TON of yogurt here (especially in our daily smoothies), I decided to make a large batch (using a whole gallon of milk)!    That time, I used the crock pot method.   Another home run!  

Nothing has gone to waste in the process; I use the strained whey protein for an extra protein punch in smoothies.  I've been researching other ways to use it too.

To be thrifty, I store it in old yogurt tubs.   For the cup on the left, I prepared a triple berry coulee and mixed it in.   The tub on the right is straight-up plain yogurt.    Voila!

My Kombucha-making was easy!  Here's how I did it: HOW TO MAKE KOMBUCHA.

After I had brewed my batch of Kombucha and let it ferment for about a week, it was time to bottle it for the second ferment (to make it extra fizzy).   I admit, I had a really tough time figuring out how I was going to get my SCOBY out of the glass gallon container; I didn't dare harm it (need to use it again for more batches) and I certainly did NOT want to touch it!  It didn't smell great and it's a large disk of bacteria and yeast (ew!!).    Finally, I had to do it though.... with my own bare hands.  Growing up on a ranch, assisting in delivering baby calves and "cleaning up" after show cattle, I reminded myself that I've touched yucky things too many times to count and never thought twice about it.

After Mr. SCOBY was removed (I'm so brave- haha!), I strained the Kombucha and added some of the triple berry coulee that I had made to flavor the yogurt.  Though the newly-flavored tea was warm (room temp), it tasted wonderful!   I divvied up the Kombucha into my new Grolsch-style bottles to let them sit and get fizzy. The second round of fermentation took about four days.

Here's my finished product: Triple Berry Kombucha, packed with tons of health benefits.  

The best part: It...tastes... fantastic!   I can't wait to try new flavors.  I'm thinking a good Chai spice and a ginger grapefruit are next in line.  :-)