Sweet Potato Homestead

home brewed kombucha

Taking another trip into the world of fermentation has brought me to the the other OG, kombucha~

It took me a few years to get into this vinegar-y drink with an unsettling layer of floaties at the bottom but now I can’t get enough of it, even as it costs an arm and a leg for one serving. After having success with a sourdough starter, I wanted to try to make my own kombucha.

2nd batch with SCOBYs at the bottom and floating on top~

Using Zero Waste Chef’s book and recipe like last time, I started a sweet tea and let it cool before adding unfiltered, store bought kombucha. This tea batch was some green tea, orange mint, and dried blood orange zest. My second batch above is ~1/2 cup of the previous tea plus green tea and a fruit tea blend.

While my first batch doesn’t have a lot of carbonation (being lazy about checking it will do that), it does have a mild familiar taste. It’s in the fridge now and will mellow out a bit more but I think I’ve actually done it.

With this second batch going, it’s been interesting to watch the SCOBY grow as it eats the sugar in the tea. It’s also really gross cause it’s essentially a giant booger that I’m choosing to keep in the kitchen~

Either way, this was a lot easier than I thought and there seems to be a lot of room for error if you do get lazy and neglect it.

🌱seeds now, seedlings later

Now that we’re getting into summer in Maine, all my seed starting has paid off and there’s plenty growing in my container gardens. There’s also plenty growing around the property in all it’s lush and wild glory.

While we won’t be breaking ground in the wild areas around this house for a couple of years, I wanted to give seed bombs a try to see what might come of them. Despite the name, seed bombs are a fun way to add some color to sad looking plots in urban areas. Most people toss them into abandoned lots or road medians to provide some refuge for pollinators and to beautify the places they live.

In my case, I’m trying an experiment off the back of our homestead to see if I can get some random pumpkins or sunflowers to break through the small saplings and scrub brush.

For seed bombs all you need is clay (bought from a herb store or garden store or if you’re “lucky” enough to have some on your property, that works too!), compost, water and your choice of seeds. There’s a science to the ratios of the mixture but I just added wet or dry as I needed it. I set aside the seeds I wanted to use in a small dish so I could add as I went and made golf ball sized bombs. I saved some seed packets for next year and when I ran out, I used red clover seeds as a filler.

Once I ran out of clay and seeds to used, I let the balls air dry for a day and a half. We had some warmer days and after letting them dry, the red clover seeds started to germinate and break some of the balls apart. It’s probably a good sign and I hope that means they’ll have no issue in the back yard.

Off the back ledge they went~ Other than the burst red clover balls the majority of the balls remained intact and held together in the air. I couldn’t tell what I was throwing where but I tried to space them out as I worked through them. I’m hoping to see some strong sunflowers and cute little pumpkins sprouting in the next couple of weeks.

success in sourdough

I’ve finally leveled up my Sourdough skill. No, I haven’t made a proper bread with it yet but I’ve kept my new jar friend alive for almost a month and attempted some ‘starter discard’ recipes.

I used Zero Waste Chef’s method and it’s been nothing but discarding ~80% and adding flour and dough everyday. I was more strict when I started out in case my lack of consistency was what was killing it but now I feed it every other day and it’s been thriving. I haven’t made any bread with it at the moment, as ZWC’s directions include making a leaven and then finally making bread ~3 days later and I just haven’t been motivated to do it.

I have made a few things with the discarded starter that have turned out pretty tasty!

Attempt 1: crackers

Easy process, not unfamiliar to someone who’s made bread at home before.
My variation on her cracker recipe was dried rosemary and garlic powder and it would be easy to add any seasonings, savory or sweet. The spices didn’t quite stick to the crackers after baking and moving to a dish but what did stick was v good.
The crackers tasted cheesy despite no added nooch or other vegan cheese-like spices. The texture was pretty good although I think I under cooked them so they have the potential to be better.
They’re certainly no wheat thins but a great way to use up a fast accumulating amount of sort-of sourdough.

Attempt 2: chocolate cake

Smelled so good, not sour or fruity like sourdough can be. A little dry and the brown sugar didn’t get mixed in evenly but overall not bad for not having baked a cake in like 10 years??

Attempt 3: sourdough discard bread

Gross name but a good bread overall! Her recipe did call for baker’s yeast along side so the dough would rise but it turned out like my other breads in terms of flavor and how well it cut.
Over baking did cause the top of both breads to burn quite a bit and did ruin the smell and flavor for me but that’s an easy fix for the next batch.

I really recommend Zero Waste Chef’s way to start sourdough and her directions are really straight forward and don’t require specialized tools besides a kitchen scale and measure spoons. Overall, I’m pretty happy with how these attempts and the starter itself has turned out. When we’re close to being out of bread again, I’ll finally tackle the almighty Sourdough~