A Novice

For those of you in Los Angeles, don’t forget to recycle your Christmas trees this year.  Dial 3-1-1 to schedule a delivery!  I believe they turn your trees into mulch.

Another option for next year’s tree: if you have space to plant a tree outside, buy one with the roots tied into a ball and plant it after Christmas is over! Hopefully, Jonathan and I will be able to take advantage of this next year….

It’s been about a week since I started my first kombucha brew, and I’m happy to report that a new scoby is forming on top of the old one, and as expected, it’s the width of its new home (which is a very wide jar!). It’s white and beautiful. Jonathan was a little freaked out when he realized that it was alive. He thought that maybe it would crawl out and get him in the middle of the night.

This past Sunday, my friend Tom and I went to Kombucha Kamp - an hour-long tutorial on how to make kombucha, with none other than LA’s Kombucha Momma herself, Hannah Crum.

For any of you who may not know what kombucha is, you can find it on wikipedia (it seems to be right on, but don’t believe everything wikipedia tells you!):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha

Basically, it’s a fermented tea drink. A SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) ferments the tea and create this wonderful vinegar-y drink that aids in digestion, serves as a hunger inhibitor, increases your immunity, and detoxifies your body. In short, it’s rad.

I have to say first off, that Hannah rocks. She gave us the lowdown on why she loves kombucha, which has much to do with remembering that we come from and are one with the planet. These bacteria and yeast are good for us! They’re alive and they’re working in concert with our bodies, reminding us of our symbiotic relationship to Mother Earth. woo hoo!!

We tasted her homemade kombucha (yum - better than GT’s!), learned to make it ourselves, and then took home a baby scoby of our own in its own juices (starter liquid). Awwwww… Mine looked like a giant booger. But a cute booger!

I did start my first brew that very night. I’m committed to using organic teas, but was anxious to get started, so I used a combo of Dean and Deluca’s green tea and lipton’s. Strange combo, but the scoby seems to be doing okay. Looks like it’s forming a new layer of scoby on top already!

I also took a page from Hannah’s book and wrote with dry erase marker on the jar the words “Love”, “Prosperity”, and “Peace.” Actually, it’s more from the page of Dr. Masaru Emoto, the guy who did all that cool work with water. Check him out. He’s seriously cool.

I’ll keep you updated on the kombucha process. For now, it’s nice to have an addition to the family. I’m thinking of naming our scoby George.