Fermenting Food
Fermenting food adds beneficial probiotics, enzymes, vitamins and minerals not only making your food more nutritious, fermenting also saves money and resources when you buy fresh, local, seasonally grown produce while it's inexpensive to buy or you have grown it yourself. Plus when you preserve or ferment your favorite foods through every season you control the ingredients, techniques and additives. Adding fermented foods to your diet can also cut down on the number of supplements you need. At its basis, most lacto-fermented foods are nothing more than whole, chopped, sliced or grated vegetables placed in a brine of sea salt and water with a weight to weigh it down for a period of time at room temperature to let the beneficial bacteria develop. Using a fermenting crock at home takes nothing but a few basic ingredients. Although using the correct type of fermenting crock is a very important element in fermenting food. You must choose one that has been fired at high temps using only a lead free glaze. Otherwise the lead will leach into your fermented vegetables. Our lead free ceramic fermenting crock includes a pair of handmade, high fired stoneware weights to help press down and keep the vegetables under the brine at all times and also has a moat around the top which seals out oxygen to prevent mould.
Other benefits include:
- Fermenting or preserving food that has been grown locally is a great way to reduce your food miles and the impact on your eco footprint.
- Natural fermentation of foods has been shown to preserve the nutrients in food and break it down to a more digestible form.
- Fermenting foods is an inexpensive way to preserve food so that it can be stored longer creating less waste.
Kombucha Tea
Kombucha is a fermented drink made with tea, sugar and a yeast commonly called the scoby. Kombucha has been around for more than 2,000 years and has a rich anecdotal history of health benefits like preventing and fighting cancer, arthritis, and other degenerative diseases. Our Kombucha jar makes it easy to make Kombucha tea is made by adding the scoby to sugar and tea and allowing the mix to ferment. The resulting liquid is rich in many of the enzymes and bacterial acids your body produces and/or uses to detox your system, thus reducing your pancreatic load and easing the burden on your liver. Kombucha is very high in Glucaric acid, and recent studies have shown that glucaric acid helps prevent cancer. It also boasts a myriad of benefits such as improved digestion, fighting candida (harmful yeast) overgrowth, mental clarity, and mood stability.
Stoneware is the perfect medium for brewing and storing your kombucha. Unlike glass the stoneware container will prevent too much light reaching your brew, making it the perfect environment for your kombucha to grow. Our kombucha jars are individually handmade on the potter's wheel from stoneware clay. They are then hand decorated and glazed with non-toxic glazes and fired to 1280 degrees Celsius. At this temperature the clay becomes vitrified and is turned to stone. The glaze turns to glass, unable to hold or leach any impurities. The jars come with a tap so you are able to use the continuous fermentation process. This method allows you to dispense a daily amount of kombucha, topping it up with new tea as you go, as opposed to waiting each time. These jars can also be used to make individual batches if desired.
For more information on fermenting food and brewing Kombucha we have some informative books available like Real Food Fermentation & The Art of Fermentation. Happy preserving, fermenting and brewing!
Some important notes on brewing Kombucha:
- No metals should touch the kombucha brew! Don't us use a metal tap and only use a wooden or plastic spoon. Our jars come with a BPA free plastic tap.
- Do not boil your water or tea in aluminium pans.
- Do not cover kombucha with a lid, only use a light muslin or cheesecloth material that you are able to breathe through. If the weave is to loose you may need to use a couple of layers. Use a rubber band or tie to hold the cloth over the jar.
