Mrs. Frankenstein and her nettles.....

The things that excite me..:).....



P.S. My water kefir grains are very promiscuous, and keep multiplying :). I am happy to share....

The morning after......

Today I wanted to share with you what happens several weeks AFTER I post pics....It seems there are always wonderful resources online to start things, but it never shows how they are supposed to look like.

Mine things may not be as they are "supposed" to, but at least you will have a visual. So, enjoy.

A few bottles of water kefir, flavored. Our favorites so far: Cistus tea (a rock rose, it would be the pinki. The one next to it has vanilla extract and cinnamon, and the third bottle has sarsasparilla :). So good...and fizzy good enough for the kids to think "soda".

This is my peach Scrap Fruit Vinegar. Not quite ready to dump it, but tomorrow :).
Compare it to .........

The plum vinegar! It is a beautiful ruby color. In about two weeks we will be enjoying wonderful plum essences in our salad :).

And last, but not least, the trick for all those chaotic Goddeses like me :). I put coffee filters with rubber band on top to keep the flies out and the air in. When I make vinegar, I put the date the the filter, so I know when I have to strain it, etc.

Enjoying our first batch of brew!

Yesterday was the day!

We got to "tap" our first batch of ginger soda! After waiting 2 weeks for it to bubble and brew, we were anxious to taste our homemade concoction. Especially my son, who babied and fed his Ginger Bug vehemently for 7 days; hard commitment for THIS 8 year old boy!

I was a little apprehensive, as our ale looked quite flat sitting on the shelf. Don't let that quiet look fool you!

I unscrewed the top just a tad....WHOOOOOOOOSHHHHH!

Olala!

There was some serious carbonation happening in that bottle! It took about 10 minutes of slow release until we could finally get our lips on our brew.

YUMMY! Need I say more?

We have been experimenting with our water kefir brews also. My favorite sofar: plain with some lemon. My kid's favorite sofar: Vanilla Cream (just add some vanilla :)...), and lemon with cinnamon chips (like that one too!).

Happy brewing!

Braumeister....addicted to brew.

I was recently introduced to home-made Ginger Ale by Ayla at ChrysalisWoman. Not only did it taste yummy, I was intrigued at the process of making it. Now, I am not usually one to jump on the opportunity of "feeding", "turning", "culturing", "watering", anything on a daily or consistant basis....it scares me.

I thought starting a Ginger Bug would be a great summer experiment for my son. I was right, he is quite the little Braumeister (Brewmaster), and is responsible for feeding the bug daily. After 7 days of feeding the ginger bug every day, we finally had the frothy base we needed to brew our ale and bottle it. We added some Sarsaparilla to the syrup to give it a little extra taste. Now we need to let it ferment for at least 2 weeks....

We took a little of our Ginger Bug and started a new one. Now the process won't take so long, and we will continously brew. What a great alternative to soda! If you google "Ginger Bug", or "Ginger Soda", you will come up with a plethora of brewing tips & recipes!

I ordered some water kefir grains (the growing of beneficial bacteria...mmm....).The water kefir...yum. The initial batch came dehydrated, so it takes a few days to get started. After that, you can continuously reuse your grains. We added some lemon and had a tingly lemonade. I did start the newest batch with sucanat, which is dried cane sugar, instead of organic sugar. The sucanat has a molasses flavor, and is supposed to help the grains multiply. Waiting to see what the difference will be in taste.

I also tried my hands at joghurt to try to replicate the joghurt I love so much from Germany. Sofar, I have killed both batches. It is a bit fickle, as it needs warmth to start to culture. The first time I left it too close to the oven when baking bread (instant curdle), and the second time the house got to warm. We don't use the AC unless it is close to 100, so I will have to find a way to do this now that the days are getting hotter.

Great place to explore and order cultures is culturesforhealth.com.