SCOBY, 4 day ultrasound

She’s growing a baby! See it sticking up?

I stuck a straw in yesterday and extracted a bit of fluid out and tasted the kombucha. It was still pretty sweet, so It’s going to have to ferment several more days. The instructions (which I finally went back and re-read) said it had to brew for 4 – 14 days the first time so I may be looking at another 10 days before I can start batch #2. I think I’m going to use most of this batch as a starter and do a gallon to really get things cranking. Doing a quart of a time is kind of ridiculous since i can DRINK a quart at a time. Waiting three days for five minutes of enjoyment does not really sit well with me. I cannot imagine anyone has that sort of patience.

Today I think I am going to start my ginger beer if I have enough agave syrup. If not, that’s going to have to be put on hold. We tried a bottle the other day and it was so-so, but it was made with fructose and it was REALLY sweet. I’m going to use turbinado so it shouldn’t have that shockingly, syrupy sweet flavor. And we may just not be ginger beer folks, and that’s okay. The kids like it but I’m trying to cut their extraneous sugar consumption down to zilch. Cookies, ice cream and candy (which they basically get none anyway) are going the way of the Doo-doo to see if behavior and attention span will improve. Plus it’s just not good for them. Yuck.

Once all THIS is running smoothly (along with the garden) I’m going to start culturing keifer and goat cheese. I looooove goat cheese and my BFF suggested that keifer might help the boys’ eczema. I’d never thought about that but I bet she’s right. Chugging keifer from Whole Foods is expensive but it’s not if you make it at home, so that’s what I’ll try to get going for us.

So let’s see, I’ll be trying to juggle:

kombucha
keifer
a humongous garden
canning stuff from the garden
cloth diaper laundry
making my own sprouted bread
homeschool for 1.5 kids
a 7 month old
and being bipolar (but hey, we can do 12 hours of work in 8.  Advantage:  Donna.)

PFFT! Who CAN’T do all that?!

AHHHHH!!!!!

Also, Dave wrote a nice blog post about the raised beds he made for our little garden over at Zombie Apocalypse Survivalists.  Check it out!