Whole Lotta Fermenting Going On

Fermented foods and drinks are good for our bodies and they are also incredibly fun and easy to produce. Yogurt and Kombucha are 2 of my favorites. Even wine and beer have health benefits but too much of ANY thing can be bad for you. Personally, when I'm feeling stressed, I'd rather have a glass of my favorite homemade beverage than pop a Prozac. I am quite proud of the fact that I am 52 years old, in relatively good health and take absolutely NO medications. My knee joints were acting up but that has been cured by drinking a bottle of Kombucha each day. Come to think of it, I haven't been sick in a very long time. Even my seasonal allergies have been less severe.

I have been trying to steer the husbeast in the direction of healthier eating (and drinking). He does drink some Kombucha each day and he really loves yogurt. I try to keep it on hand to send to work in his lunch. But sometimes I don't have the time to heat the milk and then watch it as it cools. Which is why I am excited about my "new to me" yogurt maker that I found on Craigslist yesterday ($15).

All the reviews were good and I was especially intrigued by the fact that you don't need to heat the milk if it's already been pasteurized. That would cut out a LOT of time. This is the first batch, made last night. I'll let you know how it turns out.

This yogurt maker was NOS (new old stock) meaning it had not been used but is no longer in production. It has been replaced with the Euro Cuisine brand. Same company, just called by a different name. Maybe because Girmi sounds too much like "germy" and no one wants to eat germy yogurt. It's going to be tough trying to find replacement glass jars for this but I'll keep looking. The new Euro Cuisine jars are a different size & shape and I'm not sure they will work.

I started another gallon of wine. This one will be Strawberry Kiwi, using strawberries from my garden. And I found a use for all those Mr. Beer bottles I've been hoarding. I ran out of Grolsch bottles for storing my booch. I was going to use my sparkling cider bottles but the stoppers I bought don't fit. I'm not overly thrilled about bottling in plastic but it's better then nothing. And here is a picture of my latest Kombucha, green tea with strawberry (using berries from my garden). It's as delicious as it looks.