Sunday 22 April 2018

Kombucha!

So after a bunch of reading, trying a few comercial varieties, and days of YouTube research, I finnally felt ready to start brewing.

I called up a friend I knew used to brew for info/advice on locating a scoby and found out she still homebrews for her family and was willing to not only provide a scoby, but made up a deluxe starter kit for me. As thanks I brought a jar of my homemade strawberry jam.

I am now the owner of three upcycled bottles of homemade kombucha, a brand new gallon of sweet tea and scoby happily chugging away in their jar, and a smaller jar for brewing in with the sugar and tea bags for next week's batch of concentrate inside! I also came home with a finger of ginger for flavouring.

We laughed when I noticed the handwritting on the wide-mouth lid was mine. It was from a jar of homemade strawberry sauce I had given her 3 years ago.

This is the strength of the gifting community over the bartering economy. If I were to pay/barter for a kit this elaborate, well lets just say the jam wouldn't cover it. Giving what you can when you have excess bolsters your community, and a healthy community can bolster you when you don't have enough.

I'm hoping a regular supply of kombucha with help stabilize my digestive troubles and provide some of the B-vitamins that are deficient in my gluten-free diet.... And also just be a nice replacement for diet and sugar laden sodas.

Wednesday 18 April 2018

Uninstalled Facebook

I've told loved ones about my trial separation from the increasingly creepy facebook, and wiped it from my phone.

I will check in on the web version in a couple weeks to make sure there isn't any "omg but I don't have your email!" comments, and then download my data and delete my profile.