Probiotic Foods and Drinks

[Yvonne Smith]

This thread is to discuss the importance of probiotic foods, such as sauerkraut or kimchi, and probiotic drinks, such as kombucha or water kefir, and other fermented probiotic drinks.
I made kombucha for a while, and it is pretty simple to make, but does take up a lot of counter space. I had a couple of gallon jars out on the counter growing the SCOBY, and then flavoring the kombucha once it had fermented in the first jar. And then, I had all of that kombucha in my refrigerator aging for a couple of weeks after the fermentation on the counter; so it was a long process.
Eventually, I just got tired of making it, and now i just buy some kombucha from the store when I want it. I am sure it does not have as many live probiotics as the ones I cultured at home, but it is simple, and I do not have the refrigerator full of kombucha jars now.

Dr. Davis has a video about making a probiotic juice at home, and you use a live kombucha culture as a starter, and I am going to try making this. It is made in a smaller batch, and all you have to do is add the kombucha to a bottle of pure juice and let it ferment in a warm place for 2 days, and then you have a probiotic drink.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

I had some survey points available to cash in for Amazon, so I just ordered this adjustable warmer that will work for kombucha, kefir, yogurt, or sourdough starter, and probably just about anything that needs to sit and warm .
They have a large variety of these on Amazon, in all price ranges, and this was about the cheapest one,($13) but it should work for what I want it for.

I just started making some cultured fruit juice this morning, and it mixes fruit juice with a kombucha starter, and then has to sit and culture for 2-3 days, depending on the temperature. It looks like I can use this with a regular quart jar, and maybe even with a half-gallon one, and the temperature will work anywhere from 70-110F, so it should work for almost anything I want to culture.

By the time the warmer ships and arrives, this batch of kombucha culture should be finished, but I will try it for the next batch, and it should work for kefir , too. In the summer, it takes about 12 hours for my kefir to culture, and in the winter, the kitchen is too cold, so it needs at least 24 hours or longer. I can crochet a cover to fit over the quart jar, and that should help hold in the heat, too.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

I have been using this warming plate for a few days now, and i really love it ! So far I have made 2 batches of the L.Reuteri kefir, using the Coolinario Reuteri kefir starter, and it has been coming out thick, rich, and delicious in around 12 hours (overnight)even though we are having cooler weather and chilly nights here now. I crocheted a little cover for the wide-mouth quart jar, and that helps it to hold the heat, and i have been culturing at about 95 F, which is a good temperature for the L.Reuteri bacteria to proliferate.

Then, I decided to try making the probiotic juice with some kombucha, so I have a jar of that culturing right now. Dr. Davis said it needs 60 hours, which is 2 1/2 days. Mine has been culturing for about a day so far, and i just tried a taste. I can already taste the kombucha flavor, but I did use more starter culture than he shows in the video.
I really like kombucha, but it takes up sp much kitchen space and so much time for it to ferment into kombucha, so I just stopped making it. If all I need to do is add some kombucha to some juice and let it ferment 2-3 days, that will make it much simpler to do.
This is my jar of kefir culturing on the warmer plate.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I had some survey points available to cash in for Amazon, so I just ordered this adjustable warmer that will work for kombucha, kefir, yogurt, or sourdough starter, and probably just about anything that needs to sit and warm .
They have a large variety of these on Amazon, in all price ranges, and this was about the cheapest one,($13) but it should work for what I want it for.

I just started making some cultured fruit juice this morning, and it mixes fruit juice with a kombucha starter, and then has to sit and culture for 2-3 days, depending on the temperature. It looks like I can use this with a regular quart jar, and maybe even with a half-gallon one, and the temperature will work anywhere from 70-110F, so it should work for almost anything I want to culture.

By the time the warmer ships and arrives, this batch of kombucha culture should be finished, but I will try it for the next batch, and it should work for kefir , too. In the summer, it takes about 12 hours for my kefir to culture, and in the winter, the kitchen is too cold, so it needs at least 24 hours or longer. I can crochet a cover to fit over the quart jar, and that should help hold in the heat, too.


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I'll have to buy it at stores, too much going on here to make it. What type yogurt is best at grocery?
I 'finally' got floors vacuumed and mopped, I'm not as good as I once was.

If Beth were here she would be upset about not putting up song, hope she comes back soon, I miss her,she was fun.