I am excited to have a guest post by the lovely Desiree Fleck of Regrow Roots (and one of my EcoEtsy teammates). This post covers a subject that is a passion of mine. If you haven’t tried making kefir, drinking kombucha, or homemade sauerkraut (among other things), you are missing out!
Here’s Desiree’s bio: I pursue harmony in life by treating the planet with respect and learning all I can about self sufficiency. Through farming, meditation, and spending time with homesteaders and enlightened spirits all over the country, I have learned many things and continue to grow. I create eco-friendly arts and handmade apparel in my online store.
And now…drumroll, please…let’s get fermenting!
Fermented foods and drinks have been used for centuries as a daily routine for a huge array of health benefits from gut repair and cleansing to cancer treatment and general immune boosting. Before canning and freezing, people fermented many foods to preserve them.
What is fermentation? It’s simply a bunch of bacteria and yeast from your environment that break down and activate your food, making it more alive and easy to digest!
Wine and cheese are some of the more popular examples of fermented food, but there are so many other amazing and simple ways to make recipes. Sauerkraut is made by fermenting cabbage, a popular German favorite. Everyone has heard of pickles, yogurt, and salami, all traditionally made by fermentation. There is kombucha, kefir, beer, breads, beet kvass, the list goes on and on…
You can ferment anything!
I was recently part of a wonderful fermentation workshop hosted by a local organization called Homegrown Missouri. We have some great videos on YouTube that describe how to make four fermented recipes. Enjoy!
Beet Kvass / Borscht, a traditional Russian beet drink
Sauerkraut
Kombucha, fermented effervescent tea
Kefir, fermented milk drink similar to yogurt
For more wonderful fermented food resources click here.
Check out Desiree’s blog here.
Thank you, Desiree!
I love kefir!!! made my own for quite some time and put into sleep in my fridge and lost the “seeds”… so now I’m buying the big bucket at costco and it tastes as good (with a bit of maple sirup, yum!) now I’ll be looking for the other recipes you listed
thanks for sharing!
@Cul de Sac: I always used to make water kefir every summer – I love it. Last year, though, my grains would not produce. Hopefully, I’ll have better luck this year!
What is water kefir?? like milk kefir but made with water??
@Cul de Sac: Water kefir is made from a slightly different kefir strain. I get my grains from Cultures for Health. You basically put them into batches of sugar water and in 48 hours, you can flavor them as you like. It’s kinda like a mild kombucha. I LOVE it.
thanks for the info! sounds interesting…