#aura's stuff

[auressea]

It’s been more than 24 hours... and the cabbage is *GROSS*. Instructions recommend to leave it in until the bubbling starts.. but I think I’ll get the wrong type of bacteria in here if I leave it in.

8 hrs later: BUBBLES!

[auressea]

So! apparently I have to ‘feed’ this thing every 8 hours! That is more often than I fed my dog- or my birds- or my fish! 

7:30am- wet, limp cabbage and no progress to show for it 3:00pm- AH! ‘hooch’- I’ve been warned to look for liquid floating on top. I’m supposed to stir it back in for the first 48 hours. Yes. It’s actually pink. 

[auressea]

Got home and my apartment smelled like active yeast! Uncovered the bowl to feed the Thing...and... BUBBLES.. It was actually ‘fizzing’!  Much excitement. 

One more feeding puts me at 48 hrs. Then I have to partition it before I feed it again- which means... PANCAKES! 

[auressea]

OOOoooooh Kay. So. I’ve never made bread before. EVER. Now that I’m Gluten-free, I can no longer afford to BUY bread. 

Thus: (against @copperbadge‘s excellent advice ) I bring you the Great Gluten-free Sourdough Experiment. 

-2 leaves of organic Red cabbage to provide yeast and the lactic acid bacteria -experimental blend of gluten-free flour (which doesn’t include the recommended sorghum because I don’t have any.)

[auressea]

ARG! I think this project has failed!

Yesterday the visible amount of Kefir grains got really high- I had been adding new sugar and cross pollinating the grains from the original batch into the other 2. You can SEE how much more growth there was!

The research I did suggested if you’re feeding grains for growth they could stay in the same water for 4 days. It was past time to change them out today.

Number 2 went down the drain because it had turned to vinegar :{

I split #1 into two containers (1 & 2) and filtered and re-poured #3 with new water, sugar and minerals.

Sigh. The filtering didn’t catch the grains.. I can’t see any at all :(

[auressea]

Hmmm. I think this may be a failed experiment. I decanted the original batch of Kefir grains into jar 2... with fresh water and white sugar and some lemon juice (according to the Google). I think it’s dead. Jar 3 is on ‘second ferment’ with added water and more brown sugar. Jar 1 is much the same as 2 days ago... I’m supposed to change the water every 2 days or so, but I’m afraid to kill these tiny baby grains...

[auressea]

OKAY! The Great Water Kefir experiment begins!

A friend gave me freshly decanted water Kefir to drink. I didn’t have ACTUAL Kefir crystals in it... just the ‘dregs’.  This is my attempt to Grow full sized, useful Kefir crystals at home.

I fed them demerara sugar and the one on the left got Molasses (for the minerals) as well.

Photos are from day 2 and 4. Today is Day 5 and I decanted and put fresh water in the original container. I’m not optimistic... they were barely the size of salt grains in the strainer. :/