Friendly Bacteria
What You’ll Learn:
- Fermented foods provide healthy bacteria that stimulates good digestion
- Fermented foods include pickled vegetables, sauerkraut and kimchi. Dairy items like raw milk and cheese (unpasteurized), and sheep’s milk and goat’s milk yogurt have healthy bacteria. Fermented soy products like tempeh, miso and tamari are great as well.
- Try probiotics and fermented supergreens.
- A great recipe from Jon for a healthy ketchup
Coming from Germany I have grown up with fermenting vegetables, yet I forgot about it… Kind of;)… We did this with sliced green beans- which taste lovely . We use a special pot for this .
Might have to get into that again….
Some people also drink the liquid which is around sauerkraut.
What you need:
– veggies of your choice
– salt
– jar
Take any organic veggies you like, e.g. cabbage, broccoli, carrot, peppers, celery – something that has juice inside. Quantity doesn’t really matter – take as much as you want, e.g. 2 carrots, 1/4 cabbage and 1/2 of red pepper. Chop everything into pieces i.e. Carrots – grate them, peppers- strips, cabbage- simply chop. Now combine the veggies. Take a handful, put it in a jar and sprinkle with salt (depends how much you want e.g. 1/3 of a teaspoon or maybe half) what you do now, is you bash or mash it with something that resembles a long wooden cylindrical tool like a pestle. If you don’t have one, a wooden spoon is fine too but there’ll be more work with that (dunno why but must be wooden – my mom always says to touch cabbage with wood, not metal). Now, You mash or bash the veggies with salt until you can see some juice coming out, once you see that – add another layer of veggies and salt and repeat the process till you get rid off all the raw veggies you chopped. The end of the process is that you need all your veggies to be covered with the juice (if you haven’t got enough of it – add some warm water with salt so that the veggies are covered). Leave the jar in a warm place (seriously can be on top of a counter as well don’t think too much about the temperature) with the lid on top but screw it just lightly (just put on top and maybe twist the lid slightly – if you just put the lid without twisting it’s gonna be fine too) so that the fermentation process has a place to escape – the juice will be raising so it needs some space. Every day poke a wooden/bamboo skewer into the veggies to let the air escape. Ferment for minimum 3 days. I like mine between 4 to 7 days – depending how much sour I want the veggies to be 🙂 Once done, keep in the fridge forever – well as long as you eat it 😉
I have just bought a Turkish kefir culture from the health shop but it is like a dried powder in a sachet which can be used three times. I have tried to get a kefir culture from the free online service with no success as I understand that it can be used for years. Is the one I bought as good
Don’t know if it’s as good, but if it makes kefir when you add it to nut milk/coconut water etc, then it should be fine.
Sometimes people sell the culture on ebay. That’s where I got mine.
Thanks Helen
I recently made my first batch of sauerkraut. There are a couple of great videos on Youtube; one is by Dr. Mercola and one is with Donna Gates. Also, Caroline Barringer is a good resource. The kraut tastes quite “tangy” to me which I guess is a good sign, I just have to get used to it!
Donna schwenk adds apple to her sauerkraut. It’s supposed to taste amazing. culturedfoodlife.com
I grow milk and water kefir grains.
Absolutely great!
Hi Jon,
Having dropped off the programe once again,and trying to get back on, I am having a lot of trouble, trying to get to like greens again. Is there any secret formula, or just a matter of perseverance.
Best Regards Barry D.
Hi Barry,
Are you able to call in and speak to Jon during one of his Ask Jon shows?
Kind regards
Den – GM Team
Can you post the full ketchup recipe w/instructions? Thank you
Hi KB,
I just got it off the net http://www.creativesimplelife.com/simple-lacto-fermented-ketchup/
I make Kombucha which is a live bacteria drink. You get a SCOBY (buy one or google how to make your own). Brew a gallon of tea with filtered water and let it cool completely. Transfer to a glass jug or food safe plastic container (some sites tell you it won’t work in plastic but I have done it) and add 1 cup organic white sugar. You can’t use fake sugar as it needs to sugar to ferment, don’t worry, the SCOBY eats most of the sugar. The drink is sourish is it’s made right. Gently put the SCOBY and 1 cup of kombucha in the jar and cover with a cheese cloth and a rubber band or string around the jug. Leave in a warmish place (60-80 degrees f). There should be an air source but do not put it in the sunlight as that will KILL the bacteria. (When you buy a SCOBY it comes with enough Kombucha as starter. Don’t discard the liquid it comes with!) Let sit for 7-30 days depending on how warm it is and how sour you like it. Warm weather brews faster. Google recipes for fruit flavors. NEVER use antibacterial sopa on your hands or your jar. The brew will make a second SCOBY so you can make more at once, give them away, use for fertilizer, put on burns…etc….Definitely google this before you start. Kombucha is about $3.50 per bottle. One gallon makes about 7 bottles with enough starter for two more batches, for about $3.00. It’s worth trying!
Oh yeah, I always bottle the top liquid and use the slimier stuff as starter for the next batch. If the clime bothers you, just filter it out.
I am just starting to try brewing Kombucha I have my first batch brewing. Looking forward to trying it.
I grow water kefir grains and eat them.
Julia,
Your suggestion sounds super easy. Thanks!
Would also love to hear what Jon thinks.
I love my easiyo Glo 🙂 Soooooooo simple.
Hi Sheryl!
Yes, for milk-based yogurts you do heat the milk. However, coconut, as it is not dairy, does respond differently. I took my recipe from nutrition therapist Neely Quinn.
Sounds great Glo! I always thought you had to heat the milk first?
*** Step 4 should be to put the contents of mixing bowl into sterilized preserving jar.
I was excited to try coconut yogurt after Jon suggested it on video but was unable to find it…so I made my own.
Coconut Yogurt
1. Get a preserving jar, sterilze it.
2. Put two cans of raw organic coconut cream in a mixing bowl (coconut milk works, but it is very watery).
3. Open two capsules of probiotics and pour the contents into the coconut cream. I use the Gabriel Method probiotics. Mix the probiotics and coconut cream together.
4. Leave in a warm place of 105-110 degrees F 24-36 hours. (Some people say that just leaving it in the oven with the light only on works. Mine shuts itself off, so I put it in our hot press where the water heater is. There are other tips available online.)
5. GENTLY shake and place jar in refrigerator for 7 hours.
6. It will thicken with cooling.
7. Eat. Yum!
What a brilliant idea Glo… turn the millions of bacteria in a probiotic into gazillions 🙂
I’m waiting to hear Jon’s feedback on this one now.
Another option for the ‘warm place’ is one of those ‘easiyo’ yoghurt makers, it’s basically a large thermos (though not airtight). No electricity required except to boil the water that goes in it. It comes with plastic jars to make the yoghurt in and you can buy extra jars. It’s just a matter of filling the jar with the yoghurt mix, filling the maker to the line with boiling water then sit the jar into the maker, put the lid on and leave it to ferment. The yoghurt mixes you buy for it take 8-12 hours to be ready but you might need longer for your recipe. I’d probably check it after 12 hours to see.
Great Glo. Sounds awesome!