Kombucha is a drink made from sweet tea, is slightly carbonated and delicious! Being full of probiotics, B vitamins and enzymes, it not only tastes good but is also good for you.
If you have not tasted Kombucha before, you might want to buy a bottle at your grocery store or health food store. While a purchased bottle of Kombucha will often cost around $3+, you can make your own for much less.
Kombucha is naturally carbonated tea that starts with a Kombucha scoby (also called a starter or mushroom) which looks like a flat grayish disk – see the picture below. Since the scoby does grow and multiply, if you know of someone who already makes Kombucha, they may share with you. Mine came from my daughter-in-law, Jessica. The picture above shows Jessica’s Kombucha fermenting. There are also many sources available online. One company I have used for other starters is Cultures for Health and they also carry Kombucha scoby. The scoby is reused and transferred from one batch to the next and consists of yeast and bacteria which live together in a symbiotic relationship. SCOBY is an acronym for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast.
Once the scoby is combined with brewed tea, sugar and water, it is allowed to ferment for 7 – 10 days (depending on taste). The longer you leave the tea fermenting, the stronger the flavor will be. That being said, leave it for 7 days and begin tasting it daily. The majority of my family does not like it really strong – it tastes too much like apple cider vinegar – so I pour mine off before that point. It is easiest to make a gallon at a time. I was able to find 1 gallon glass jars at Walmart and had 4 of them going on top of my refrigerator at one time. I am now using two 3 gallon tea dispensers which is working very well.
A couple of notes to help with successful Kombucha:
- Make sure to use non-chlorinated water as chlorine will kill the scoby.
- The scoby needs sugar to live on – honey, rapadura or sugar substitutes will not work.
The following recipe is adapted from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon – I multiply this recipe to make 6 gallons at a time.
Kombucha
3 quarts water (non-chlorinated)
4 organic black tea bags
1 c. sugar
1/2 c Kombucha from a previous batch ( you may use purchased Kombucha for your first batch)
1 Kombucha scoby
Other equipment needed: 1 gallon glass jar, cheesecloth to cover jar, rubberband, 1 gallon jar with tight fitting lid to fill with the finished Kombucha
Brew the tea by bringing water to a boil and adding the tea bags. Allow the tea to steep until cool and remove the tea bags.
Add sugar to the tea and stir until dissolved.
Make sure the tea is at room temperature and add 1/2 c of Kombucha from a previous batch and then add the scoby. (If the tea is hot it will kill the scoby)
Put a piece of cheesecloth over the top of the jar and secure with a rubber band - this allows air in but keeps bugs and dust out.
Place the jar in an out of the way place.
If your kitchen is warm, the Kombucha will ferment more quickly, so for the first batch or so, taste it after 3 or 4 days. Once the taste is to your liking, remove the scoby and place in another jar to begin your next batch.
The fermented Kombucha may be stored in the refrigerator and enjoyed at will.
*I recommend Cultures for Health only after being a satisfied customer. If you choose to purchase from them, please use one of the links from Dimes2Vines as I do earn a small commission.
The picture above is the view which greets us every morning as we pull up to Tyler and Jessica’s vineyard to help them prune. The rows are 1/4 mile long, which unlike ours, have no center turn road dividing the distance.
But, as you finish a row and look back at it – what a feeling of accomplishment!
Then – - – you start the next one!
You may think that it is a daunting task to prune their 25 acre vineyard after just completing our 20 acres – and, you would be right!
But, with only 2 1/2 acres left, we should finish today – YAHOO!!!!
How, you might ask, were you able to finish pruning 25 acres in 2 weeks? After all, it took us about 3 weeks to prune our 20 acres. There are several reasons:
1. Their vineyard is younger, therefore, the vines are easier to cut and there is less growth to pull out of the wires.
2. The weather has been much warmer – 70F to high 80F as opposed to 34F – 70F.
3. We have 2 extra volunteers who have been great helpers:
- Joe, my brother-in-law from Tennessee will have been here for 2 weeks. He knows though that just because pruning is finished we do not get to take it easy. In fact, there is a list of things to do next! I am sure he will be ready to get home and rest after all this!
- Mary, my sister-in-law from Alabama who dropped Joe off and worked with us for 3 1/2 days. She then continued her travels to Colorado.
Needless to say, everyone is excited about the prospect of having the pruning completed for another year. Next comes planting the new vines, tightening wires, working in the garden …
One way our family has saved quite a bit of money is to have our own vegetable garden. Not only do we enjoy fresh vegetables throughout the summer but I also freeze vegetables to enjoy in the winter. I am very serious about putting vegetables up in the freezer - we have 3 chest freezers and by this time of year, they are almost empty! So, with the end of last year’s bounty almost gone and the very warm spring weather, I am planning the garden.
To further the savings, we try to start many plants from seeds. Right now we have tomato, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper and eggplant seeds started.
Starting your own plants from seeds is much more economical that buying plants. It is also alot of fun to watch them grow! It really is very easy. We use egg cartons, plastic ones that will not dry out so quickly. Simply fill the egg cups with potting soil, sow your seeds and lightly cover with soil. Don’t forget to mark the carton with the type of seed you planted!
We put our cartons in front of a sunny window and keep them watered. I must confess, though, we had 3 more cartons to begin with than we do now. They were all planted and resting comfortably on a table outside. The days were warm so we would open the tops to allow the sun in. At night the cartons were closed to protect the seeds. Unfortunately, a west Texas wind storm came up and blew 3 cartons away – never to be found – and two others were turned upside down! But, our quick thinking 12 year old merely flipped them back over and brought them inside. They are now healthy bell pepper and jalepeno plants! I have ordered more seeds to replace those “gone with the wind”.
Seeds are available in many local stores. There also are several online companies from which you can order seeds. I have purchased tomato seeds from both Tomato Growers and Territorial Seed. I really like the San Marzano and Principe Borghese varieties from Tomato Growers. San Marzano is great for making tomato sauce and very tasty just to eat. Principe Borghese is a good grape/cherry tomato which also dries very nicely. I use Territorial Seed for most other seeds. With shipping, both are comparibly priced to the seeds available locally and I think they yield more produce. Territorial Seed has also sent replacement seeds for some pumpkins that never germinated!
Soon, we will be transplanting the seedlings to a larger area for further growth before subjecting them to this west Texas wind.
If all goes well, by the time they must fend for themselves, they will be much larger.
*I am in no way affiliated with either Tomato Growers or Territorial Seed – I am just a satisfied customer and wanted to share my experience.
We finished pruning our 20 acre vineyard last week and began helping our oldest son (Tyler) and his wife (Jessica) prune their 25 acres. They live about 15 minutes from us so we do not have too far to travel. We normally get to the vineyard by 10:00 am, work until lunch and then continue working until dark which is about 8:30 pm. It makes for a long day but we have a lot of fun working together. The time passes quickly with conversation, jokes and movie lines.
In our vineyard, the varieties of grapes (Aglianico, Montepulciano and Roussanne) have relatively late bud break, meaning the buds begin to open later in the season. Tyler and Jessica, on the other hand, have early bud breaking varieties. These include Vermentino, Merlot, Viognier, Trebbiano, Dolcetto and Muscato Giallo.
With the early spring temperatures of mid to high 80′s, most of the early bud breaking varieties have budded. The above picture shows the buds and leaves popping out. While it looks pretty and lets you know that spring is here, it is also dangerous. We are still 4 weeks away from the average last frost for the west Texas area. That means that there is the danger that the buds will be frozen and fruit lost.
Below you can see the same plant after pruning. Pruning is used to shock the plant and slow down its push to put out buds and grow.
We are 1/4 of the way finished pruning in Tyler and Jessica’s vineyard. Hopefully we will finish by the end of next week!
You may have noticed my latest recipe additions – Sauerkraut and Fermented Carrots - are fermented. Being on the GAPS Diet and reading about the health benefits of probiotics, I have purposefully added them to our family’s diet. One way to get probiotics is through fermented foods. But, not just “fermented” as in pickled, I mean “fermented” using the lacto-fermentation process. So, what is lacto-fermentation and why is it so healthy?
The result of lacto-fermentation is the proliferation of lactobacilli which increase the vitamin levels and make the fermented foods more digestible. These beneficial bacteria, lactobacilli, produce helpful enzymes, as well as, antibiotics and anti-carcinogenic substances.
Lactic acid is the main by-product of lactobacilli and has two important jobs:
- It helps preserve vegetables and fruits.
- Promotes the growth of healthy flora (or bacteria) throughout the intestines.
Lactic acid is a natural preservative that inhibits bacteria which putrefies. Vegetables and fruits contain starches and sugars which are converted into lactic acid by the lactic-acid-producing bacteria. There are many species of these bacteria. One species, lactobacilli, are present on all living things and can be easily encouraged to grow.
Basically the lacto-fermentation process uses good quality produce, sea salt and water. Good quality produce provides the nutrients necessary for the lactobacilli to work. Sea salt is used to inhibit the growth of putrefying bacteria until enough lactic acid is produced. Once a sufficient amount of lactic acid is produced, the vegetables can be preserved for many months. Kefir (or whey)) is often used to “jump-start” the lactic-acid producing bacteria’s growth. Kefir (or whey) also helps to make the fermentation process more consistently successful.
You might wonder why, if lacto-fermented vegetables are so nutritious, the process is not used on a large scale for profit. The answer is simple – the lacto-fermentation process did not yield consistently predictable results when converted to an industrialized process. Changes were made to produce a more uniform product but unfortunately, that does result in a more nutritious one. Examples would be the addition of vinegar and pasteurization (which kills all the lactic-acid-producing bacteria which benefit the digestive system).
With the recipes I have posted utilizing the lacto-fermentation process, as well as any others you might find, there are a couple of important things to remember.
- Lacto-fermentation is an anaerobi process and once fermentation begins, the presence of oxygen will affect your results.During the sauerkraut fermentation, if you do not have something weighing the cabbage down below the surface of the liquid, you should push it down into the liquid using a clean spoon, morning and evening. If you do not, a mold may grow on the surface which is exposed to air. This mold normally can just be scooped out and thrown away with the remaining sauerkraut being fine. But, if your fermented vegetables taste or smell rotten – throw them out and start over. I have made many batches of both sauerkraut and fermented carrots and only one batch of sauerkraut went awry – there was no question that something was wrong and I threw it out and started over!
- The vegetables will expand slightly and may even become bubbly during the fermentation process. Make sure to leave a 1 inch space between the top of the vegetables and the top of the jar.
While there are a few brands of lacto-fermented vegetables available through health food stores, they tend to be rather expensive. I have enjoyed the adventure of learning the process and trying new recipes. I encourage you to give them a try also. I have several others I will be experimenting with and will let you know the results.
Fermented foods are a wonderful source of probiotics which help keep the beneficial bacteria in your gut healthy and active. The following recipe for fermented carrots is easy to prepare and after a week on your counter at room temperature is ready to be refrigerated and enjoyed.
Fermented Carrots
12 medium carrots or enough to fill a 1/2 gallon mason jar
3 Tbsp kefir (may use whey)
1 Tbsp sea salt
2 tsp dill weed
4 cloves garlic (peeled)
water to fill jar within 1/2 inch of the top
Wash, peel and cut carrots into sticks – pack into a 1/2 gallon jars. Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over the carrots. Put the lid securely on the jar and leave on the counter at room temperature for 7 days. You will begin to see bubbles rising and know that they are fermenting!
* You may increase the dill (weed or seed) and the garlic if you desire a stronger taste.
Recipe adapted from The Nourishing Gourmet
Yesterday, I awoke to a rainy day! Yes, you read that correctly. Here in west Texas it was raining! The normally dry, desert conditions were completely different – everything was wet! We even had rain running down our windows! Now, we are dedicated workers and even work in freezing weather, but with the rain, everyone went back to bed for some much needed sleep.
About 9:30am however, the rain began to slow and stop. With that realization, we got out of bed and began breakfast. With the last 3+ weeks being filled with pruning our vineyard, the housework has suffered. I decided to take a “rest” day and do some deeper cleaning other that just the maintenance upkeep.
So, while John and the children went to complete the pruning and tying of vines, I kept the two younger children home deep cleaning, organizing and cooking.
While preparing dinner, thinking about tomorrow’s work – we move up to our oldest son’s vineyard and help him prune their 25 acres – I happened to look out the kitchen window. A beautiful sunset was waiting to be admired.
As I watched, the picture changed before my eyes becoming even more brilliant.
What a beautifull end to a productive day!
Being on the GAPS Diet for the fourth week as a family, the feeling of deprivation by all has me seeking new recipes with honey. The following recipe appeared on the Nourishing Gourmet as a guest post by Kristin Jukes.
Putting my own twist to it (based on a dessert pudding from our time spent in Switzerland), it has quickly become a family favorite. For our family of nine, I quadruple the recipe ingredients and process it in batches in the food processor. If our older children are visiting, well, let’s just say I make even more – we have hearty eaters around here!
As my 16 year old daughter put it, “it is hard to believe something that good is really healthy!” – It had everyone asking for more!
Raw Chocolate Pudding
2 avocados, peeled and scooped
1 ripe banana, peeled
1/4 cup raw honey
3 tablespoons espresso (if leaving off coffee, use 3 Tbsp water)
1/3 cup raw cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup cream*
Combine all ingredients, except the cream, in the food processor and puree until everything is combined and smooth. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes just to chill it.
When ready to serve, whip the cream and fold into the pudding.
Serve and enjoy!
*If leaving off dairy, omit the cream and enjoy pudding!
With all the dramatic temperature changes while pruning, we have come to really appreciate the warm days of early spring. This morning, however, was met with damp thick fog – very unusual for west Texas! Looking from the house, you can see in the picture above, the vineyard is not even visible. My first thought was, UGH! – We have to prune in this!
But, this damp fog turns out to be great weather to spray for weeds in the vineyard. In the last couple of days, we have received 7/10 of an inch of rain which brings our total rainfall for this year up to almost 2 inches!
There is a silver lining to every cloud!
While we undertook the GAPS Diet as a family experiment, to make sure everyone had healthy gut bacteria, the results have been encouraging. I have detailed my experience with the GAPS (relief from rheumatoid arthritis pain and ability to eat meat after a 30 year “allergy”) but the family has also benefited. There are 4 main areas in which I see results:
1. Attentiveness: The children (especially the younger boys) are more focused with tasks.
2. Calmness: There is also a general sense of calmness rather than hyperactivity.
3. Physical:
- John has had an itchy spot on his back that is now gone. This very localized itch has been with him for over a year. We had decided it was either a nerve or perhaps a chemical used in the vineyard which spilled on his back.
- I continue to have relief from my arthritis pain, am the biggest fan of beef in the house (having been a herbivore for 30 years, I have found myself to be a carnivore at heart!) and am even out pruning in the vineyard! I have not been able to help with pruning for the past 4 years because of the joint pain in my hands! When we ordered new pruning shears for everyone, we did not even order mine – because there was no way with my hands in the shape they were (pre-GAPS) that I would ever be able to use them. Poor John – I am now using his and he has an old pair!
4. Menus:
- My style of cooking has changed considerably. No longer do I whip up a quick pasta meal or beans and rice – I must plan ahead. I know that menu planning saves money and gives a certain peace of mind, but it is also easier not to do it! I am also trying many new recipes. The children especially need the encouragement of “treats” made with honey. I have not baked much with honey and am enjoying the challenge of trying new recipes.
- More variation in our diet is now a priority. In an effort to keep everyone full and satisfied, I have added nut mixes (with soaked and dehydrated nuts), dried fruit (no sugar added), avocados, as well as, other vegetables we have not eaten before.
This “experiment” has definitely been life changing and even on the Full GAPS Diet and afterwards, we will continue to have plenty of probiotics in out diet. These will be in the form of kefir, sauerkraut, fermented carrots, as well as, other fermented vegetables that I want to try when our garden produce begins to be harvested.
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About Me 
God has amazingly blessed me, Dina-Marie, with a wonderful husband and 10 beautiful children. Moving from our "secure" life in Alabama to the "exciting" life of starting a vineyard in west Texas has been challenging to say the least. I have had the opportunity to take a crash course in frugal living and become a real farm girl - complete with milk cow and chickens. I have learned the importance of health from the inside out, "traditional" cooking and cod liver oil!
I hope to encourage you to make the most of where you are and what you have. |
