Fermenting Your Garden Bounty! Learn with us...or on your own!

[Kathleen]

I have one more unit to complete on the Sustainable Horticulture class. I will never do two "winter-mester" classes again. Today, I completed my project which was winter-sowing seeds in milk jugs. While I have tried it in the past, I took a few ideas from the class to start them. Watch every jug fail.

My little water kefir grains have been doing great! I have a glass of kefir water daily with a splash of sugar free strawberry syrup in it. It's lightly fizzy and tastes like strawberry soda. I like it very much. The fermentation class Bliss and I took really encouraged me to get Kefir water started again. It was worth taking just for that! I really think it helps with my occasional tummy issues....especially with me taking this antibiotic.

 

[blissful]

That's so interesting, the water kefir. Antibiotics can kill off all kinds of good and bad bacteria. It really messes with the gut biome. I'm sure the water kefir starts to help rebuild the biome.

edit: I started a class on happiness (again!). This time is it from the chinese perspective. Audit-free-harvardX.

 

[blissful]

 

[dragnlaw]

Prebiotics are what feed your Probiotics.

 

[Kathleen]

I have some sauerkraut in the fridge and want it so much. Too crunchy for now.

 

[Kathleen]

On the amusing side, my water kefir grains are like happy as heck in the kitchen and have already increased by about 1/3 to 1/2. I'm going to end up being the water kefir queen of the mid-Atlantic.

 

[blissful]

Hi Kathleen, I hope your mouth starts feeling better soon!
Okay I started 2 of the 2 qt jars of mead with cherries and chamomile tea and honey. I had added yeast and had a lot of action on them the first week. Now it's been 2 weeks and no more bubbling. I strained out the tea bag and the cherries -no mold on them or anything bad. I put the cherries in the freezer and will use them in making nice-cream. The liquid/mead does not taste like wine at all, it is just very sweet. I washed the air locks and lids and the jar, put the liquid back in a clean jar, put the air lock back on the top.
The only thing I can think of doing is starting over with new yeast. Should I also boil the liquid first and cool it before adding the yeast? Or just add it as it is?
Anyone else want to pipe in too?

 

[Kathleen]

If you are using the same liquid, I would just add the yeast. But...that being said, I would start with new liquid...mainly because making mead is very new to me.

 

[taxlady]

I have absolutely no experience with fermenting for alcohol. But, my instinct says to just add yeast to the liquid you have. I'm really curious why the yeast would have quit, if there was still enough sugar for the liquid to be sweet. Is tea something that other people have used when making mead? Is it black tea or a herbal tea? Is it a store bought bag? Are the bags stapled? I'm wondering if the metal in a staple could be a problem.

 

[blissful]

Well,,,,,, I added more yeast to each.

@taxlady, in the original formulation it called for a little made black tea to give it some bitterness (tannins). I used a cup of black tea. Then the chamomile I added a full teabag, ingredients: chamomile. A cup of dried cherries. The teabag is stapled with metal, I doubt it is a problem. What is encouraging is that there is no mold or off smell so I'm not fighting a microbe infection. The liquid has been trapped within the air lock jar this whole time. It appears to keep it free from mold. There may have been enough fermentation to create an environment where no mold can grow without additional oxygen from the environment.

 

[dragnlaw]

Ditto most of what taxy said, although I also don't think the staple would be a problem either.
But the 1 cup of black tea was just the liquid of the black tea? No tea leaves nor bag? The bag was from the chamomile? Just curious, don't think it would matter in-so-far as the mold is concerned, nor the activity of the yeast.

 

[blissful]

Just the liquid of black tea. The bag for the chamomile. I think it was possible that the netting of the tea bag could have introduced bacteria as well as the chamomile. The bag floated at the top, exposed to some air, so it could have molded but didn't. I just lucked out.
Today the 2 qt jars are bubbling tiny bubbles and that's good.

 

[Kathleen]

Just completed all coursework and quizzes for the sustainable horticulture class. The project is also submitted. Once the final exam is opened, it is all I have left to do.

 

[Kathleen]

And I just submitted the exam. No feedback on the project yet....need to wait for them to grade the exam.

 

[blissful]

And I just submitted the exam. No feedback on the project yet....need to wait for them to grade the exam.

I'll wait with you.

 

[dragnlaw]

Me too! Meet you both on the patio?

 

[Kathleen]

I'll wait with you.

Perfect!

Me too! Meet you both on the patio?

You all know that I am a frustrated girl scout. I should not give a single care about grades, etc. I'm retired. The class was for fun. I have nothing hinging on the grade, BUT....it is like a badge....and I want all of the badges. As a GS, I earned every single one. Things have not changed in some ways.

 

[blissful]

@Kathleen, I was a GS too. From 2nd grade through 12th. I still have a uniform and I have no idea how to dispose of it and the sash with all the badges.

 

[dragnlaw]

I made a sun hat and put all my badges and pins on it. Plus lots of the camping badges we got - was great- I should try and find it!
I never became a Ranger. Although I wasn't a star as a Guide (or a Scout), I was a Lieutenant and then a Captain for a short period. But the upper echelons (Commissioners) were just a wee bit overbearing for my freewheeling ways and we parted company.

My Mom was a Commissioner with the Guides in Canada and then had a Brownie troop in the States (MN) although I wasn't privvy to the inner works with her I never would imagine her as overbearing. She was the epitome of support for anything! An excellent mediator. LOL

 

[blissful]

Okay the girl scout meeting has been fun gals. We paid our dues we worked on a badge and sewed it onto our item of choice. What was the grade? Or, was the grade good enough?

I wasn't planning on doing this but we had to fill containers with honey and it leaves remnants of honey in the jars that were empty. We add some warm water to that until the honey is dissolved and we collect it all in one jar. This time mr bliss forgot to use it in his cereal in the morning. It had started fermenting so I made a quart of mead to ferment! Like I said I was not planning on this.
The 2 half gallon jars are still bubbling away, cherry tea mead. The new one is just plain mead.