Kombucha Tea - gave it a taste

[big brown horse]

Thanks Dace, and I will send you some fresh horse poop!!

I'll go back and look in the fridg section and ask a more seasoned employee.

Thanks!!

 

[freemotion]

I would be happy to send you one if you pay the shipping. I would use a priority mail box at about $10.50. I would need to send some liquid, too, so I think this is the size box I would need to package it better than mine originally was shipped in.

You get a new baby each time you finish a batch....a week or so in warmer weather, longer if it is cool in the house. I have also seen them sold online as a fourth of a mushroom that was obviously cut. I pull mine apart all the time. It will grow. It is very forgiving.

The first time I got mine, it sank to the bottom of my jar. It had leaked in shipping and I had no finished tea to use, risking bad beasties in the alkaline tea. After a few days, it looked like mold was appearing in spots on top. Fortunately, I didn't get around to tossing it for a few more days, and the "mold" turned out to be a new mushroom forming on top. The whitish spots grew and became one big mushroom. So be aware that this might happen.

My favorite container to make the tea in is a gallon "cracker" jar I got at Wal-Mart for $5. It is square-ish and has ridges in the glass so it is easy to pick up off the dark closet shelf that I ferment in. Free gallon glass pickle jars from restaurants are perfect, too. I have several now, so I store all the lids in a ziploc in the same closet so the jars can be used for other things when not fermenting. I also switched to using a paper towel rubber-banded to the top, and I write the start date and the anticipated finish date on the corner. I made the switch after fruit flies were interested in a fresh batch of sweet tea. I wanted to be sure they wouldn't get in. There are some reasons I still keep paper towels around, even though I use them less and less.

ETA: I won't send you goat poop, though, I don't have enough!

 

[big brown horse]

Thanks freemotion,

I will get back to you if I can't find it at the market.

 

[freemotion]

I throw a lot of mushrooms into the trash can! It kills me every time I do it!

 

[big brown horse]

I have said this over and over, but now I have two bottles of kombucha tea, I found them at Fred Meyer in the organics section.

So now I can make my own! Thanks for bearing with me and my silly questions!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I throw a lot of mushrooms into the trash can! It kills me every time I do it!

Could you toss them on the compost?

 

[freemotion]

Probably, it never crossed my mind....I do throw a lot of whey in the compost.

 

[big brown horse]

What do you think would happen if I added fresh grated ginger to my kombucha tea while it is fermenting? I thought of this when I saw kombucha tea made with ginger too at the store. (I'm not using any flavored kombucha to begin the process.)

 

[freemotion]

Nope, don't do it. Spices can inhibit the fermenting process, I don't know about ginger specifically, but save it to flavor the kombucha just before drinking it. It is my favorite flavoring, I need to make more as I just drank the last of my ginger-chai infusion.....mmmmm!

 

[big brown horse]

Thank you for that intervention! I have it waiting to be grated to add thinking I could make a ginger beer kombucha tea! You know two for the price of one.

O.k. then I will add it last right before I chug a lug the finished tea.