So Excited!

Today's song is So Excited by Stevie Ray Vaughn. I am really excited because my water kefir grains arrived today! Moments after reading the really simple instructions, I started the process of brewing my own water kefir. It will take a minimum of 48 hours for the sugar water to fully ferment. If the kefir is still too sweet, I can choose to allow the grains to continue working for up to 6 days.
I went searching for other possible recipes to add some variety and it seems that just about anything will work. One kefir maker suggests straining out the grains, adding fresh squeezed/pressed juices to the 'brew,' and allowing it to ferment for another day before refrigerating. The longer it is allowed to ferment, the lower the sugar content and the higher the alcohol content. Every site that I checked noted that the alcohol content will not get to anything higher than 1% as there just isn't enough sugar to bring it higher. It is at this point that I really wish I had a juicer so that I could juice some grapes, apples, or other fruits to add to the recipe. Citrus fruits are easily squeezed, so I might just opt for lemonade kefir for the first attempt. While this isn't really a new step on my journey to wellness, it is certainly a modification.

Another reason for my excitement today is that I discovered a new flavor (for me) of kombucha! I stopped in to a not-so-local Whole Foods Market to see what they offered for kombucha and found that they had a really nice selection to choose from. They carry a wide variety of GT's kombucha and Synergy drinks. They are also almost $1.00 cheaper per bottle than It's Only Natural. I just wish that they were more local... Anyway, they only had a couple of bottles of the Gingerade flavor so I decided to try something different. My new favorite variety of kombucha is GT's Synergy Ginerberry! Instead of being pure kombucha, Synergy is 95% kombucha and 5% fruit juice so it is a bit higher in sugar. I had previously tried the Trilogy variety and while I liked it, I didn't find it to be all that different. As a result, I wasn't expecting much from the Gingerberry. The flavor blew me away! I will definitely be getting some more of it.

A-Z Challenge - 'F'

Fermentation is the topic of the day. When we hear the word fermented we tend to think of alcohol, but there are a couple of fermented beverages that have less to do with the alcohol and more to do with probiotics. Kefir, kombucha, and kvass are three that come immediately to mind (don't worry, I'll be covering at least two of these in more detail on 'K'-day). In addition to these beverages, many foods also gain some nutritional benefits when fermented. Cabbage, for instance, is pretty good as it is but when fermented - becoming sauerkraut - it can be quite a bit better. Personally, this is not a good example as I can't stand the smell or taste of sauerkraut - but most people don't even realize that it is just fermented cabbage.
I have fairly recently embraced fermented drinks as a part of my regular nutritional intake. I have definitely seen some benefits!

For more information on fermented foods - specifically lacto-fermented foods (using whey from milk as the catalyst) - check out the book Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.