How to Ferment Food

I’ve been fermenting our garden surplus for years, but this is also a great way to preserve any bits of leftover raw veggies you have that you bought at the store or farmers market and are lingering in the the recesses of your fridge.

I just put my final jar of fermented cherry tomatoes away for the winter, so I thought I’d sit down and walk through the steps with you. While I’m showing you my tomatoes, know that you will follow this same process for any vegetable.

Fermenting fruit

You can also ferment fruit (in fact, I LOVE fermented fruit), but you follow a different method. Go here for:

Fermenting blueberries

Fermenting peaches

Fermented pears

But the recipe below focuses on fermenting vegetables.

Can I make fermented food at home?

Everyone can make fermented food at home. It’s much easier than you think, as long as you know the right details. Fermentation preserves food by changing the sugars that naturally occur in the veggie into organic acids. And you do that by using the right amount of the right salt (both details are very important… read on for more).

Also feel free to add spices and herbs if your fermenting recipe calls for that.

How does fermentation work?

Salt keeps all the bad microbes from being able to grow on your vegetables and spoil them. Even better, salt promotes the growth of the good bacteria that produce lactic acid. Lactic acid is the secret sauce of fermented food. It’s the magical conversion of sugars to acids.

And lactic acid helps with cancer prevention (ref.), decrease in cholesterol absorption(ref.), and reduction of food allergies (ref.).

And we know that butyric acid–the main energy source for the good bacteria in our gut–is produced while food ferments. ( source )

But that’s not all! Fermentation makes the nutrients that are present in vegetables available, a process called “bioavailability.”

A stark difference from canned vegetables, fermented vegetables retain all their nutrients and vitamins. In fact, their nutritional value increases! ( source )

You see, during fermentation, microorganisms are creating amazing nutrients, like vitamin C, B group vitamins (including the famous B12), and vitamin K.

Does fermenting add nutrients to your food?

Best-selling author, Kristen Shocke explains everything you want to know about fermenting on episode 185 of my show: the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast.

How to ferment vegetables

How to make a ferment brine

The brine concentration you should use for vegetables depends on the type of vegetable.

Today, I used 4% brine. My tomatoes weighted 41 oz, so that meant I added 1.7 oz of salt. (I measured that out. It was 3 TB.)

 

Can you use tap water for fermenting food?

• Filter it… Use a water filter, such as a charcoal filter or a filtering pitcher, to remove chlorine. 
• Boil it… Bring the water to a rolling boil for at least 20 minutes to allow the chlorine to evaporate. But make sure you let it cool completely before using it for your ferment. 
• Let it sit… Pour the tap water into a bowl and leave it out on the counter overnight to allow the chlorine to naturally evaporate from the water. 

How to make fermentation lids

All you need, in a fermentation lid, is to have a way to keep the bugs out but let the air in. I personally love this fermenting kit that works so nicely with any mason jar. The lid allows the brine to bubble out and the good bacteria in the air to get into my ferments, but it also keeps the bugs out.

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How to Ferment Vegetables

Instructions

• Clean your vegetables.
• Weigh your vegetables, then multiply that number by the percentage of brine you want to make (1.5-5%)
• Place veggies in jar.
• Add salt.
• Fill your jar with filtered water and shake gently to agitate the salt to start dissolving.
• Place weight on vegetables, to keep them under the brine. (I use this.)
• Place fermentation lid on jar. (I use this.)
• Let sit for at least 3 days, at room temperature.
• Taste daily. When it tastes the way you want, remove weight (or spring) and fermentation lid, add a high-gauge stainless steel lid that won't corrode from the brine, and place in fridge.

What you need to ferment food

More about Fermenting Food

How to ferment peppers

How to ferment cauliflower

How to make kombucha with a SCOBY

Adding nutrients to your food by fermenting (listen)

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I hesitated if I would like fermenting whole pears, but the organic ones I ordered from my favorite independent food supplier were the perfect size to be able to ferment 8-10 of them whole in a 1/2-gallon jar and I decided it would be an awesome treat on the dark cold winter nights to pull out a whole pear to enjoy, if it worked.

Man oh man am I glad I was adventurous and went for it. These are SO good.

They’re carbonated pears! You need to make these.

What do fermented pears taste like?

Fermented pears taste exactly like fresh pears, just a little mushier (it’s great to ferment slightly green pears if you want them less mushy) and quite carbonated. Seriously, who wouldn’t love bubbly carbonated fruit? (Do you see the bubbles bursting out of that jar above? Yeah, baby, bring it on.)

Why should you ferment fruit?

The main reason I ferment fruit is to keep it longer. I hate canning, and honestly it doesn’t produce results that are as delicious as when I ferment. 

I also love that fermented food is 1000x better for us than any processed food. (Not a scientifically baked statistic, but it’s definitely true.) And bonus, fermented food captures good bacteria in the air and then when we eat it we are helping our microbiome by replenishing the good stuff in it.

How do you store fermented fruit?

Typically, I store my fermented fruit in the fridge. When I’m fermenting peaches or fermenting blueberries, I separate the fruit from the brine when it’s time to store the fruit in the fridge, otherwise the fruit will become total mush. 

But with these whole pears, I’ll leave them in the brine, since they’re so large and won’t go mushy as easily. Since there are only 8-10 in a jar they won’t last more than a few days in my fridge anyway. But I could also store them separate from the brine.

For the whole pears that I’m going to store in my root cellar, they definitely have to be stored in the brine.

Fermented Pear Recipe

What you’ll need:

A large wide mouth jar. I used this one.

8-10 small sized organic pears. (I got mine from Azure Standard.)

1 tsp chopped fresh ginger 

1/4 cup sugar

1-2 TB kombucha starter tea (see notes)

Directions:

1. Wash your pears in water. No need to scrub them. We want the natural microbes on the skin to do their job and make some ferment magic.
2. Place them in the jar. I needed to spend a minute or two finagling them until I could fit the most possible.
3. Add your ginger, sugar, and kombucha starter tea.
4. Top with a ferment spring and lid (or anything you have that will keep the pears on the top submerged in the brine and bugs out of your jar).
5. Place your jar on a plate, to catch the brine as it bubbles out in the days ahead, as the lactic acid builds up.
6. After about 3-5 days, remove the fermenting spring and lid, replace with a standard lid, and place the jar in your refrigerator.

Notes about fermenting pears

• Any fermented starter would work. If you make cheese, use some whey; if you make water kefir, use some of the liquid.
• If you don’t have a starter culture on hand, like kombucha or whey, you can still ferment your berries, just grab this 6-pack of starter cultures. You’ll only need 1/2 of 1 packet for this recipe.
• I used raw cane sugar instead of a more expensive all-natural sugar option like I normally use (like maple syrup or honey or one of the great options in this Ultimate Guide to Choosing Sugars). This sugar is just there to feed the good bacteria, it’s not so much for us.
• This fermenting kit has ingenious springs that do an amazing job keeping your food submerged in the brine and lids that keep your ferment breathing yet keep out what you don’t want in your ferment. I have 3 sets and need more.
• You can definitely also cut up your pears, into slices or cubes, before fermenting. I do that too.
• If you’d like to know how to make your own kombucha, I got ya covered with everything you need to know about Simple DIY Kombucha.

How to eat fermented pears

If I ferment my pears whole I like to eat them whole with breakfast, or for a mid-day treat or late-night snack. I will sometimes eat them without cutting them, but they are a little soft and messy that way, so more often I will cut them into fourths and enjoy them that way.

But fermented pears are honestly delicious to enjoy in any way you’d enjoy pears. They’re delicious:

• over oatmeal
• mixed in cereal and milk
• on top of a tossed salad
• on top of vanilla ice cream
• mixed in yogurt
• blended in a smoothie

More on Fermenting Food:

• Foods to eat for gut health (podcast episode)
• How to ferment blueberries
• How to ferment cherry tomatoes
• The Cost of DIY Kombucha
• Making sourdough without wasting discard

–> AND DON’T MISS THIS! … Go here to grab my FREE 8-page Pantry Checklist, loaded with discount codes on my favorite things in my kitchen. You’ll be glad you did.

“He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:9

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I won’t lie. Kombucha totally intimidated me. And the SCOBY kinda grossed me out.

If you can relate, I’m glad you’re here.

Today the kombucha tide will change for you, I can feel it. In a few weeks you’ll be the Queen of DIY Kombucha.

How to make kombucha with a SCOBY

Today I’m busting down the myths that are holding you back and telling you–step by step–how to make kombucha at home, for beginners and anyone else who currently thinks a SCOBY is a super-weird slimy blob.

You might be a SCOBY fan before you’ve made it to the bottom of this page. Seriously. Stick with me.

Join me in my kitchen & we’ll start a batch of kombucha together:

And bookmark this page. Come back often, skipping to the section you need on any given day when the intimidating voices in your head try to convince you you can’t do this. Because you CAN. And man will you be glad you did.

How do you make kombucha at home?

It’s much easier than you think to save money and enjoy making kombucha at home.

There was a learning curve for me, but once I figured out some simple tips and tricks, it was like a lightbulb moment.

I knew I wanted to share these simple insights with others, cause, well, the world would be a better place if we were all improving our gut health, naturally and deliciously.

Plus, making kombucha is probably the most fun thing I do in my kitchen… it genuinely makes me happy to bottle up, flavor, and serve this amazing elixir. So I got to work and put everything together–all my secrets & fool-proof tips–and created Kombucha Academy.

So don’t hesitate–dive into Kombucha Academy. It will save you all the time, effort, and mistakes that so many folks make and you’ll be a master kombucha artisan in no time flat.

What is a SCOBY made of?

SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. Not too catchy, I know, but a scoby makes up for its lackluster name and, well, dare I say it, squeamishly ugly appearance, in its super hero powers.

How long does kombucha take to ferment?

There is actually no answer and yet so many answers to this question… in short, kombucha should ferment as long or a short as needed to taste the way you like it.

If you like it to taste on the sweeter side, your kombucha should ferment much less time than someone’s kombucha who likes a vinegary tasting brew.

The temperature in your home, the health of your scoby, and even what you’re using to flavor your second ferment will all be factors that impact how long it takes for your brew to go from sweet to vinegary.  

Is homemade kombucha worth it?

I decided long ago that I needed to know how much money I was saving by making my own kombucha. I knew it was saving us a lot, but I was blown away when I did a detailed cost analysis.

It turns out I save over 80% when I’m making kombucha at home.

See my cost breakdown and the shocking details on just how cheap it can be to make your own kombucha right here:  DIY Kombucha–What’s it really cost?

Is kombucha actually good for your gut?

Because it is full of good bacteria and healthy yeast, kombucha is very good for your gut.

It is loaded with probiotics, which is good food for our gut. (source)

I talk more on this podcast episode about why gut health matters and the best foods and drinks to encourage good gut health: Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy Podcast (S5 E20)

What do you need to get started making kombucha?

You really don’t need much to get started making kombucha, and most items are self-explanatory, but read on for the nitty gritty details on each of these items. But rest assured, except for that last item, you probably have all of these in your kitchen today:

• A jar (or other fermenting vessel)
• water
• sugar
• tea
• square of fabric & rubber band
• a scoby with starter tea

Go here to grab the absolute best choices for everything you need to get started: The Best Kombucha Products

What do you need to know about your kombucha supplies?

Here are some more details you should know about your kombucha-making supplies:

• A “fermenting” vessel—The 4-gallon one linked below is my favorite option. I’ve been using mine for almost a decade and it’s still going strong. But keep reading for suggestions if you’re not sure what to use for your fermenting vessel. And trust me, you can keep it super simple.
• Water—tap water may have contents in it that could kill a scoby, so stick with filtered water if you’re not sure. But go here to read more about this  : Can I Use Tap Water for Making Kombucha? (Spoiler alert–I do.)
• Sugar—you have lots of choices, but to start, I recommend plain ole refined white sugar. This is the only place you will ever see me say this. I’m kinda a sworn enemy of refined white sugar, and truth be told I haven’t bought it in years. More here about The Best Sugar to Use (& what sugar to avoid). I personally use organic cane sugar for my kombucha, but having said this, trust me, you can definitely use cheap refined sugar for making kombucha.
• Tea—I love all the amazing options linked below, but I break down all kinds of options in Kombucha Academy if you really want to delve into the delicious art of kombucha. I’ll walk you through all the tips and insider secrets it took me years to learn & you’ll be an overnight expert, wasting zero time or money on month’s–or year’s!–of failed attempts.
• A scoby & starter tea–maybe you have a friend or neighbor who can give you a piece of a scoby? If not, I gotcha covered. Scroll down for the best organic scoby that will arrive in your mailbox in just a few days. (And don’t miss the discount code!) Your scoby will come floating in some starter tea. I recommend a minimum of 1 cup of starter tea for every 1/2 gallon of kombucha you’re making.

Go here to grab the absolute best choices for everything you need to get started: The Best Kombucha Products

How to make kombucha when you have a scoby

Now we’re to the good stuff. I know it can seem intimidating, but you’re only 6 steps away from your first batch of kombucha. You got this.

1. Place scoby and 1 cup starter kombucha in a brewing vessel. It can be as simple as a 1/2 gallon mason jar. In fact, let’s go with that for these directions.

2.  Boil a few cups of water. Take the pan off of heat and soak 1 TB of organic black tea (or 4 tea bags) in the hot water for 10+ minutes… see my favorite teas for kombucha below. Remove your tea.

3. Add 1/2 cup sugar while the tea is warm and stir until dissolved. Or, to make all-natural maple kombucha, add 1/3 cup of maple syrup. (While refined sugar will not dissolve unless your tea is hot, maple syrup of course isn’t necessary to add while the tea is hot.) Add some cold filtered water at this point if you’d like your pot of tea to cool down quickly (but not more than will be able to fit in your 1/2-gallon jar).

4. Once it’s room temperature, you can add your tea mixture to the mason jar. Never add hot or even warm tea to your scoby; always let it cool to room temperature or you will kill your scoby.

5. Cover this first ferment jar with a breathable covering for 2-7 days (fabric, not cheesecloth, which will allow fruit flies in). After 2-3 days, feel free to taste it daily. When it’s not too sweet but not vinegary tasting, it’s ready. If it starts to get a little vinegary tasting don’t wait… it will get very vinegary very quickly (especially if it’s warm in the room).

6. When your kombucha is ready, remove the SCOBY to a bowl. Stir the liquid with a plastic or stainless steel spoon. If it’s nicely fermented it will get nice and fizzy as you stir. After stirring, pour 1 cup of starter fluid in with the scoby to start the process all over again and bottle and flavor your kombucha.

Taadaa… you’ve done it. Now head over and join Kombucha Academy. In no time you’ll genuinely be a pro and you’ll be saving the cost of the course in just a matter of weeks.

Even better! Use code SOULYRESTED and save 20% off the already discounted price of Kombucha Academy. Now you have absolutely no excuse, right? Go check out why folks are loving Kombucha Academy.

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Make Your Own Kombucha

Ingredients

• water
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 TB organic black tea or 4 tea bags
• SCOBY & starter fluid

Instructions

• Place scoby and 1 cup starter kombucha in a brewing vessel. It can be as simple as a 1/2 gallon mason jar. In fact, let’s go with that for these directions.
• Boil a few cups of water. Take the pan off of heat and soak 1 TB of organic black tea (or 4 tea bags) in the hot water for 10+ minutes… see my favorite teas for kombucha below. Remove your tea.
• Add 1/2 cup sugar while the tea is warm and stir until dissolved. Or, to make all-natural maple kombucha, add 1/3 cup of maple syrup. (While refined sugar will not dissolve unless your tea is hot, maple syrup of course isn’t necessary to add while the tea is hot.) Add some cold filtered water at this point if you’d like your pot of tea to cool down quickly (but not more than will be able to fit in your 1/2-gallon jar).
• Once it’s room temperature, you can add your tea mixture to the mason jar. Never add hot or even warm tea to your scoby; always let it cool to room temperature or you will kill your scoby.
• Cover this first ferment jar with a breathable covering for 2-7 days (fabric, not cheesecloth, which will allow fruit flies in). After 2-3 days, feel free to taste it daily. When it’s not too sweet but not vinegary tasting, it’s ready. If it starts to get a little vinegary tasting don’t wait… it will get very vinegary very quickly (especially if it’s warm in the room).
• When your kombucha is ready, remove the SCOBY to a bowl. Stir the liquid with a plastic or stainless steel spoon. If it’s nicely fermented it will get nice and fizzy as you stir. After stirring, pour 1 cup of starter fluid in with the scoby to start the process all over again and bottle and flavor your kombucha.

Grab my Pantry Checklist & lots of great deals on great ingredients

I am happy to share my pantry checklist with you because I firmly believe real food–like DIY kombucha–can be much more “doable” and convenient to make if we just make sure to have the important staples on hand. I also firmly believe we all need to keep some moolah in our pockets whenever possible, so I’ve filled my pantry checklist with exclusive discount codes as well. Go here to grab yours right now. It will take about 4 seconds & instantly save you time and money.

More kombucha tips:

• Our favorite flavors for kombucha
• The best summer flavors for kombucha
• Can I use Tap Water to Make Kombucha?
• How to make maple kombucha

Kombucha tools:

Go here for my full list of products that make DIY kombucha the best.

Kombucha teas:

Go here for my full list of products that make DIY kombucha the best.

Talk to me about your kombucha…

If you have questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your kombucha @souly.rested.

“If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land.” Isaiah 1:19

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But I had an abundance when I ordered 20 pounds of fresh peaches from Azure Standard this month and I knew I didn’t want to can them. I hate lugging out the canning equipment and doing all the prep work and getting the kitchen so hot while the food processes and then after all of that sometimes the seals fail and I have to eat a jar or two right away anyway.

I knew I LOVE fermenting blueberries, and fermented pears are amazing.

In fact, I ferment a lot of other foods–my top shelf of my fridge has a lot of jars of fermented foods filling it up right now–so it was a no-brainer.

Hesitation or not, I was going to try fermenting peaches.

What do fermented peaches taste like?

The short answer is DELICIOUS. Fermented peaches are a salty, slightly tangy version of fresh… peaches 2.0 honestly. They will be a little mushier than fresh peaches, but truly delicious.

Why would you ferment fruit?

The primary reason I ferment fruit is to preserve it. Canning is too much of a pain, and honestly doesn’t produce results that are as delicious as when I ferment. Not to mention that fermented food is 1000x better for us than any processed food. And bonus, fermented food captures good bacteria in the air and then when we eat it we are helping our microbiomes by replenishing the good stuff in it.

Do you need special equipment to ferment food?

The equipment you will need to ferment food:

• some sort of container to hold the food while it is fermenting (I love using mason jars)
• something to keep bugs out (it can be as simple as a piece of fabric held on to your container by a rubber band)
• a weight, to hold your food under the ferment brine (this could be a rock that you have cleaned and sanitized)

While you can seriously use almost anything around the house for these simple pieces of “fermenting equipment” (a lot easier than canning, yes?), I gotta shamelessly plug my absolute favorite fermenting kit here because it’s that awesome.

There’s no plastic involved, and it adjusts to work with any amount of food I’m fermenting–just a tiny bit or so much I need to squish it in. In fact, these fermenting springs allow me to ferment more food at a time because they compress the food under the brine. If you do purchase a kit, make sure it is a high-grade stainless steel (this one is) or it will corrode over time.

How long does it take peaches to ferment?

Fruit ferments quickly. You want to start tasting it after 24 hours and store it away as soon as it tastes perfect to you. (Keep reading for how to store your peaches.)

How do you store fermented fruit?

Once your fruit tastes perfectly fermented (usually this is right around 24 hours of fermenting for me, but you can let it go 2-3 days if you prefer a more tangy taste), you need to separate your fruit from the brine, otherwise the fruit will become total mush.

Store your brine and your fruit in two separate, sealed containers in your fridge.

Can I save leftover brine?

Always save your brine from your fermented peaches (or any ferment really). I love to use my peach brine to make the most amazing kombucha. Simply add about 1/4 cup of the brine to a 1/2 gallon second ferment of kombucha.  Unbelievably delicious and bonus EXTRA good for you.

If you don’t make kombucha, dive into my free kombucha resources and recipes here and get started! Better yet, take my Simple DIY Kombucha master class and be an overnight fermented drink pro. You’ll eliminate all soda from your family’s diet and improve their gut health in one fell swoop.

You can also add a few tablespoons of your peach ferment brine to a tall glass of ice cold seltzer water. Delicious!

What do you do with fruit after fermentation?

There are so many ways to thoroughly enjoy fermented peaches and all fermented fruit…

• straight up eat it. seriously. it’s a great midnight snack.
• enjoy it on your breakfast cereal. (This might be my favorite way.)
• use the brine, combined with a favorite seltzer flavor, to make a refreshing electrolyte drink. (Ok, maybe this is my favorite way.)
• toss some on a side salad.
• cover a bowl of ice cream with them.
• mix a spoonful in your bowl of yogurt.

Fermented peaches, and fermented blueberries, are truly two of my favorite treats to have on hand. Go here to download my 8-page Pantry Checklist to check out all of my favorite foods and ingredients and enjoy discount codes on many.

Can you accidentally ferment fruit?

If you’ve ever had fruit or jam turn odd tasting it could be you’ve accidentally fermented fruit, but that’s not the way to go…  because there is yeast and good bacteria in the air at all times and because fruit is naturally sugary, accidental fermentation can happen, but trust me you want to do it on purpose… keep reading…

Fermented Peaches

Fermented Peaches Ingredients:

• 1.5 tsp salt*
• 6 tbsp of sugar
• 9 tbsp of filtered, warm water
• 6 tbsp of kombucha (See notes below for alternative)
• 2 1/2 – 3 cups of fresh, sliced or diced peaches

* for the best results, weigh peaches and make a 2% salt brine, based on their weight. My 2 1/2 cups of peaches weighed 15 ounces. I multiplied 15 by .02 (since I want a 2% brine) and got .3, so I knew I needed .3 ounces of salt. Now the math gets a little harder… I know that 4 3/4 teaspoons of salt weighs about 1 ounce. So I multiply 4 3/4 by .3. The answer is 1.4. That’s how many tsps of salt I need for my exact amount of peaches. But you should be fine in the range of 1-1.5 tsp of salt for 2 1/2 cups of peaches.

Fermented Peaches Directions:

1. In a bowl, add cut up peaches, salt and sugar. Mix and let sit for 20-30 minutes.
2. Transfer peaches to a jar. (I used one of the tall, narrow mason jars linked below.)
3. Add kombucha.
4. Add enough water to fill jar.
5. Weigh down peaches with a fermentation weight that fits inside your jar. I love this kit. All the fruit must stay below the brine.
6. Add your ferment kit lid to the jar (or a loose lid, or a secured piece of fabric, if you don’t have this fancy kit).
7. After 24 hours, taste a few times a day until your ferment reaches the desired taste. It won’t take long. (Fruit ferments faster than veggies.)

Notes on Fermenting Peaches:

• Any fermented starter would work. If you make cheese, use some whey; if you make water kefir, use some of the liquid.
• I use this salt, for the bonus minerals; use code SOULYRESTED for 15% off every order, every time.
• I used raw cane sugar; I have to research if I can use maple syrup next time.
• This fermenting kit has ingenious springs that do an amazing job keeping your food submerged in the brine and lids that keep your ferment breathing yet keep out what you don’t want in your ferment.
• If you don’t have a starter culture on hand, like kombucha, you can still ferment your berries, just grab this 6-pack of starter cultures. You’ll only need a little from one packet for this recipe.
• If you’d like to know how to make your own kombucha, I got ya covered with everything you need to know about Simple DIY Kombucha.

My Favorite Fermenting Tools:

More on Fermenting Food:

• Foods to eat for gut health (podcast episode)
• How to ferment blueberries
• How to ferment cherry tomatoes
• The Cost of DIY Kombucha
• Making sourdough without wasting discard

–> AND DON’T FORGET! … Go here to grab my FREE 8-page Pantry Checklist, loaded with discount codes on my favorite things in my kitchen. You’ll be glad you did.

“He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:9

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And I get it.

The idea of using fresh milled flour at all can be intimidating, add in a live, fermented yeast culture, and even experienced cooks may run to the hills. Or I guess toss in the (kitchen) towel might be a better analogy.

But I got your back. If you want to know how to make potentially the most nutrient-dense, deeply delicious loaf of bread you will ever make, stick with me.

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What does sourdough bread taste like when made with fresh milled flour?

Fresh flour tends to lend a nuttier, sweeter, fuller flavor than refined flour to anything you bake with it, but especially bread.

Then the delicious notes of subtle sourness brought in by your sourdough starter make this bread irresistible.

Combining the sourness of the starter + the sweet boldness of the fresh flour = perfect flavor combination.

Not to mention the health benefits of fresh flour and the fermented benefits of sourdough combined are ideal on your gut, your blood sugar, and your waistline.

What can be bad about bread that tastes amazing and is good for you?

Does my sourdough starter need to be made with fresh milled flour?

If you want this to be a purely fresh flour loaf, you will need a starter made or fed consistently with fresh milled flour. But feel free to use your starter as is too, if it’s always just been feed refined flour. Either way will work fine and give you a delicious loaf of bread.

But when possible, the more fresh flour you use, the better. The higher mineral content of fresh flour produces more acid in your dough, which helps with the fermentation process of sourdough.

And, keep in mind that sourdough starters eat the flour you feed it through a process of fermentation, so you’re not directly eating the flour that your starter eats anyway.

Sourdough Bread Made with Fresh Milled Flour

How to make sourdough bread with fresh milled flour

The most important thing about making sourdough bread with fresh milled flour is knowing how to care for your fresh flour sourdough starter, so we’ll start there…

Unless you’re storing it in the fridge and only bringing it out to use it, you’ll want to try to feed your sourdough starter with fresh flour and water twice daily. (But I pretty much screw this up at least once a week, so keep reading.)

I like to keep my starter the consistency of heavy cake or pancake batter. This leads to less giant “holes” in each slice of bread. If you like a more open crumb (aka big air holes in your sourdough), that’s totally fine, just feed your starter more water than flour and keep it a more runny consistency.

But you will find with fresh flour there is just a little more difficulty in getting the bread to rise. A thicker starter helps combat this problem a little as well.

Also I find that fresh milled rye flour tends to get my starter more active than other flours. Read more about that below.

People ask all the time why their starter isn’t doubling in size. One answer is that you might just not be feeding it enough flour in your flour/water equation. Try feeding your starter at a thicker consistency and see if that helps.

A few sidenotes:

I tend to forget to feed my starter twice a day, a few days every week. It will survive some neglect. You will just need to spend time “building it back up” to a bubbly active starter, but that’s not too hard to do.

I don’t know the science behind it, but a fresh flour starter does seem to need to be fed more often than a regular starter. If not, it develops a hooch–that gray liquid that covers the top that is the alcohol given off as your wild yeast is fermenting. When you see hooch, no worries, just pour it off the top and feed your starter.

What to do the night before you’re making your sourdough bread, with fresh flour 

The night before your bread-making day, you want to autolyze your flour. That’s a fancy term I learned in one of my latest reads that I’m loving, Flour Lab, by Adam Leonti. Don’t let the fancy term scare you if you’re not a bread chef and connoisseur (not many of us are, me included).

Essentially, when you autolyze flour, you’re letting the fresh milled flour and water get to know each other and rest, before any other ingredients are involved. This brief rest time hydrates the flour (which can be a little tricky to get just right with fresh flour) and activates the enzymes that are so important in the bread making process. Bonus, it makes the mixing a little easier later on too.

To autolyze the flour, all you need to do is get out a medium sized bowl and place in:

1 1/2 cups warm, filtered water 

3 cups of fresh milled flour (I use this heritage grain. About 2 cups of berries, or 375 grams, will be needed in your grain mill.)

Mix just these two ingredients, cover bowl with towel, and let them sit for at least 10 minutes. I tend to let them sit for an hour or so. today 4 1/2 hrs. Then mix in:

1 cup sourdough starter

After mixing, let sit for 10 additional minutes. If the dough is still too moist after resting, add a generous tablespoon more of fresh flour and mix in well. 

Cover your bowl with a towel & let set overnight on your kitchen counter.

What to do the morning that you’re baking your sourdough bread, with fresh flour 

In the morning, you’ll find your dough is taking up more space in the bowl. 

Add these ingredients:

1 tb sugar (I use maple sugar or this organic sugar)

1 tb salt (this salt is my favorite. Use code SOULYRESTED to save)

1/2 cup of fresh milled flour ( I use 65 grams of this heritage grain)

Knead just until all combined and nice texture; not too sticky. If you’ve let your flour soak up the liquids for plenty of time, at this stage you will have a nice, non-sticky dough. If it is sticky, use wet hands for kneading and working with it and you should be fine.

Place your dough in bowl twice its size, that you’ve prepared with a thin layer of oil (I spray on avocado oil using this wonderful tool), and cover bowl with a towel (or plastic wrap that you spray underneath, so the rising dough won’t stick to it). 

What to do the afternoon that you’re baking your sourdough bread, with fresh flour 

When it’s about 1.5x in size, it’s time to work with your dough. (Sourdough doesn’t double. If it does, it’s probably overproofed.)

First, get your oven preheating to 425, with your bread pan in the oven, also preheating. (I love my bread pans.) Then jiggle the dough out of the bowl and onto your counter (believe it or not, there shouldn’t be a need for flour on your counter, but dust some rice flour on if you find you need it).

Gently flatten the dough, using light finger or knuckle pressure. Create a ball of dough by pulling a top “corner” in, pressing down, and rotating your circle of dough 90 degrees. Keep doing this until your dough is no longer stretchy, about 10-12 pulls/turns. You now have a nice ball of dough. Having a nice ball now means a firmer, airy loaf of bread later.

Turn the ball over and lightly dust with rice flour. Cover with a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes. (This is called a “bench rest.”)

After 10 minutes, smooch your ball of dough into a rectangle the right length for your pan (or just a square for an artisan loaf that will be baked in a dutch oven).

I then make a kind of “house” shape then roll the dough, from the pointed “roof,” down, firmly pressing the dough together with each roll. I will pinch the seam and/or pull the log or circle of dough along the counter to try to eliminate a seam.

I place my log of dough on parchment paper inside of the lid of my ceramic bread baker. (While the bottom of the pan is preheating.) I cover it with a kitchen towel and set it in a draft-free area for about 1/2 hour.

You can know it’s done rising when a gentle finger poke doesn’t bounce back. 

Score your bread then transfer to your hot baking pan.

Using the paper to lift it easily, remove the loaf out of the lid it’s been rising in, place it (on its parchment paper) into the hot bread pan, and cover with the lid.

Bake both on center rack at 425 for 20 minutes. Then remove lid and leave an additional 10 minutes or so, until crust is done. 

If you’re a visual person…

I documented my bread making on my instagram stories. Find the whole bread-making process right here.

While you’re there please say “hi” and follow my page. Instagram is my favorite “hang out,” & I’d love to see you there.

The hardest part of making sourdough bread with fresh flour?

This last step is possibly the hardest part of the entire process… At least it is for Bill.

You have to wait before cutting into the loaf.

If you slice into your loaf right away, you will have doughy, squishy bread. Wait 20 minutes, and you’ll have a firm, airy piece of bread that you are bound to love.

How to have the best crust on your sourdough bread?

For added amazingness, brush an egg (with a little water added) to lightly coat the top of your dough after its 2nd rise but before baking. Then sprinkle everything seasoning all over top. YUM.

Go here for my recipe for making DIY Everything Seasoning.

Want to know even more about fresh flour?

Go here to dive into my free e-course all about fresh flour. You’ll be glad you did.

I talk about my grain mill, as well as the 11 other kitchen tools I seriously would hate to be without, in this episode of my podcast… Click below or listen on Apple Podcasts here.

Your Questions About Making Sourdough Bread with Fresh Milled Flour

Which flour is best for feeding a sourdough starter?

It’s all a matter of preference. While I typically feed my starter fresh milled rye flour (made with these wheat berries), I will also use whatever flour I have some extra of. Go here for a full list of all my favorite grains and how I love to use each fresh milled flour.

In my opinion, rye flour has the best results, making my starter nice and bubbly. It makes sense, because rye is naturally rich in yeast. More here on feeding a fresh flour sourdough starter. And more here on making a fresh milled flour sourdough starter.

If you want to feed your starter store-bought refined flour, I won’t judge you. In the end, sourdough starters eat the flour you feed it through a process of fermentation, so you’re not directly eating the flour that your starter eats anyway.

Can I use plain flour instead of fresh flour for my sourdough starter?

If by “plain” you mean store-bought, white refined flour, yes, you definitely can. Honestly, you can use any flour you would like to feed your starter, even if you plan to only use fresh flour for making your bread. Conversely, you can use fresh flour to feed your starter and then use refined flour to make your bread. Any way you “do” it, it’ll work, and it will be 100% better than buying store-bought sandwich bread.

Can you bake with milled flour?

I bake with fresh-milled flour all the time. I share all my favorites here. 

Here’s my recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies made with Fresh Flour

How do you use fresh milled flour?

That’s a great question with a longer answer than I can give you here, but dive into my totally free recipes & resources.

Products I Love Using for Making Sourdough Bread with Fresh-Milled Flour

Pssst… Want in on my real food secret? I get all the best ingredients & healthy snacks by doing my monthly food shopping with Azure Standard. Their quality and prices can’t be beat, I haven’t found quality wheat berries anywhere else anywhere near their prices, and we love to get staples there that I can’t even find at the local grocery store. See if they deliver near you. 

More on Fresh Milled Flour:

• Why You Should Grind Your Own Flour (cost, health benefits, and more)
• Homemade Tortillas With Fresh Milled Flour (recipe)
• Why I Started Milling My Own Flour (and 5 tips for you)
• Chocolate Chip Cookies Made With Fresh Flour (recipe)

–> AND DON’T FORGET! … Go here to dive into my free recipes & resources for fresh milled flour. You’ll be glad you did.

“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.”
Isaiah 55:2

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Foods to Eat for Gut Health (S5 E20)… Where to Listen or Watch

Listen on Apple Podcasts here: 4 Ways to Improve your Gut Health (& why it matters), Season 5 Episode 20 of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy Podcast

Or listen here:

And watch here:

Foods to Eat for Gut Health

In this episode:

• The life-changing event that made me start thinking about gut health
• The important role of the good gut bacteria in our microbiomes
• The connection between gut health and dopamine and serotonin (study)
• Many studies show a disrupted microbiome affects our immune response, causes weight gain, and paves the way for all sorts of pathogens
• Why the fiber in our fruit and veggies is so important
• What it means for us that polyphenols aren’t always digestible
• What are true “whole grains” and why are they good for us
• Fermented foods and probiotics
• The best salt to use when fermenting and why it’s important
• Why you should taste your ferments daily
• Storage options for fermented foods
• Kahm yeast (see picture below)… if it’s good and what to do with it
• Ways to use fermented food

Recipes for Fermented Food

Fermented Blueberries

Fermented Cherry Tomatoes

Fermented Peppers

Fermented Cauliflower

The value of DIY Kombucha

All My Favorite Kombucha Recipes

How to Use Fermented Food

How to use fermented foods? Click each one above for more specific ideas, but in general, here are some great ways to use your fermented foods and improve your gut health immeasurably:

• On a tossed salad 
• Mixed in in the last minute to scrambled eggs
• In a sandwich, with sprouts and meat
• With hummus
• Mixed into guacamole
• In soup,
• In alfredo sauce, over pasta

Research on Gut Health and What We Eat

Why gut bacteria matters? Here are some studies about the important roles of our microbiomes:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25860609/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25873374/

Research suggests that whole grains can promote the growth of good bacteria. One study concluded this:

Once understanding the impact of whole grains on satiety (sa TIE a TEE)  and microbiota is more developed, then particular grains might be used for better appetite control. With this information at hand, healthcare professionals could make individual dietary recommendations that promote satiety and contribute to weight control.

In study after study (I’ll link a few), whole grains also increased feelings of fullness and reduced inflammation and certain risk factors for heart disease.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4939539/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32178621/

Kahm Yeast on Fermented Foods

Rest easy, kahm yeast (pictured below) is good. Read more about kahm yeast on fermented cherry tomatoes and more here.

Other Articles & Resources You Might Enjoy:

3 Ingredients you should Rethink (podcast interview with the CXO of Azure Standard)

Everything you want to know about grinding your own flour (An article & full guide to fresh flour)

5 Things you need in your Natural Health Medicine Cabinet (podcast interview with Elizabeth Parsons)

My 7-page Pantry Checklist (free download)

Eat your food with gladness. Ecclesiastes 9:7

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post Foods to Eat for Gut Health (S5 E20) first appeared on Souly Rested.

So I thought it was time I break down the details… no fluff…

Can you Double a Sourdough Bread Recipe?

Yes! Not only can you, I’d argue you should double your sourdough bread recipe! This is how to make two loaves of amazing sourdough bread at once.

But consider yourself warned. You might be a sourdough addict in no time flat.

If you’re new to sourdough or bread making in general, start here: How I Make Sourdough Bread WIthout Wasted Discard That’s a thorough run down of everything you need to know.

Sourdough Bread. Doubled.

Today I’m giving you the one-stop page to pull up whenever you want to make a few loaves of delicious homemade bread for your family. For me, it’s once a week. And yes, I refer to this page every stinking time. Nope, I don’t have this recipe memorized, I just have it bookmarked. If you like to pin your recipes to find them easily, pin this one right here.

The Night Before

In an extra large bowl (this is mine), add these ingredients:

3 cups warm, filtered water 

2 cup sourdough starter (I explain how to make a sourdough starter here)

6 cups of flour (If I can’t mill fresh flour, I like this flour, but I get my wheat berries here)

Mix & let set overnight in bowl on your kitchen counter that you’ve covered over with a towel.

You don’t even have to mix it super well. It doesn’t need to be like true dough.

In the Morning

In the morning, you’ll discover your dough has risen to fill (or overflow) your bowl.

Add these ingredients, right on top:

2 TB sugar (I use maple sugar)

2 TB salt (this salt is my favorite)

2 cup of flour 

Add a little more flour if needed (no more than 1 more cup).

Knead in the bowl a little, just until all the ingredients are incorporated. This is what your dough should look like at this stage:

Drop your dough onto the counter and kneed a little more (just a minute or so) until you have a nice texture. No need to overwork the dough. It won’t be smooth, but will look like the picture below. Then place it in a clean bowl you have oiled well. I like spraying my bowl with avocado oil, using this sprayer. Cover your bowl with a towel and let the dough rise until it’s about 1.5x it’s size.

In the Afternoon

Jiggle your beautiful dough out of the bowl and onto the counter, where you can divide it. Create two “balls” by pulling a top “corner” in, pressing down, and rotating your circle of dough 90 degrees. Keep doing this until your dough is no longer stretchy, about a dozen pulls/turns. You now have a nice ball of dough, which will lead to a firmer, airy loaf of bread.

Turn the balls over and lightly dust w flour. Cover each with a towel and let have a bench rest for 10 minutes. 

After the bench rest, I pre-heat the oven to 350, place my bread pans in to preheat, and prepare the loaves to rise one final (much shorter) time in the lids of the bread pans. Read more about the final rise of your sourdough bread here, if you need some pointers for this stage.

Baking Your Sourdough Loaves

When oven is nice and hot (and after the final rise), score your dough, transfer the loaves from the lids to the hot pans in the oven (I line my lids with parchment paper, which makes the transfer super easy) and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Remove lids and let loaves brown another 8-10 minutes.

Remove from oven and place loaves (without parchment paper) on a cooling rack, covered with a kitchen towel. Let rest for 10-20 minutes then enjoy.

10 Tips for Doubling Your Sourdough Bread Recipe

• Feel free to experiment with any old bread pans you have, glass, cast iron, stone, whatever you have. After years of trying all of the above, I found these pans produce far superior, consistent results I’m looking for. Since I’m baking a few loaves of bread every week, I just don’t want to waste time on sub-par baking results.
• In this article I explain how you can also make two different size or shaped loaves.
• Don’t forget to score your loaves… it might sound silly but once I started doubling my amount that I was baking I somehow was much more likely to forget this step.
• Place a cookie sheet on the bottom rack of your oven, below your bread pans, to keep the bottom of your loaves from getting overcooked. (While the above loaf was delicious, I forgot to place the cookie sheet under it in the oven and you can see my loaf bottom got a little too done.)
• Feel free to double this recipe and make four loaves if you’d like. If you only have 2 pans, it’s perfectly fine to bake 2 at a time, back to back.
• Also feel free to half this recipe and make a single loaf of bread.
• While this recipe works with any flour, sugar, and salt you have on hand, some options do indeed give superior results. Go here to grab my complete Pantry List that you can print out and use to help you make sure you always have the ingredients on hand the you need, when you need them.
• Watch me make two sourdough loaves in this instagram highlight.
• The best way to know if your loaves are done is to check the internal temperature with a digital thermometer like this one. It should register around 190-200F.
• See my favorite ingredients in my kitchen (including the flour, sugar, and salt I often use for this sourdough bread recipe).

Watch Every Step of the Process

I documented my process, from starter to bread, one day on my instagram stories and saved the whole bread-making process right here if you’d like to watch.

While you’re there please say “hi” and follow my page. I find instagram to be my favorite “hang out,” and would love to see you there.

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your amazing sourdough bread @souly.rested.

A Few Things I Use for Making Sourdough Bread

Want more sourdough?

Sourdough Pizza Crust

Sourdough Bread Bowls

How to Make Sourdough Without Discard

More info & recipes you’ll love:

Fermented Drink Recipes

How to make real butter.

How a homesteader makes French toast.

Products I LOVE that can turn every kitchen into a homestead-kind-of kitchen.

Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands. I Thessalonians 4:11

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2022.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post Doubling Your Sourdough Bread first appeared on Souly Rested.

So today I’m sharing my #1 go-to recipe for homemade pizza crust.

I do have a fool-proof sourdough pizza crust recipe that I love, but today I’m sharing the recipe I use when I forgot to plan ahead. I still toss in some sourdough discard… cause of course… but that is totally optional with this recipe.

So, yes, if you’re just searching for a good, regular-ole homemade pizza crust recipe, you’re in the right place.

If you have a little yeast and a few cups of flour, you got this.

This recipe makes one very generous sized pizza, for filling this favorite pan. But I always double it and make 3 medium-sized pizzas, with different toppings. The dough also keeps very well, so feel free to double the recipe and wrap 1/2 of the dough in saran wrap and tuck it in your fridge until next week’s pizza night. Seriously. It keeps a week in the fridge.

Homemade Pizza Crust

Pizza Crust Ingredients

2 tsp yeast

2 tsp sugar

1 and 1/3 cups warm water

1/2 cup sourdough discard (totally optional)

up to 3 cups flour (I often use fresh milled flour, but any all-purpose flour will do fine) *

1 tablespoon oil (I use this avocado oil for everything)

1 tsp salt (I always use this one)

Garlic powder (optional)

Oregano (optional)

Pizza Crust Directions

1. Proof water, sugar & yeast by placing yeast in a large bowl then adding sugar and the water (I call it “bathwater-warm”) on top. Let this sit, unstirred and untouched until it’s foamy. Usually about 5 minutes.
2. If you have sourdough discard, add that in here, after water has turned foamy. (But, again, trust me, this is totally optional. And feel free to add more or less than 1/2 cup as well. Trust me. This recipe is very forgiving.)
3. Add oil, salt, optional garlic powder and oregano, and flour. But add your flour slowly. Most likely you will NOT need all 3 cups. You may need as little as 2 cups. *
4. Knead dough just enough so it’s all together and somewhat smooth. (This just takes a minute or two. This is the stage the dough is at in the photo above.)
5. Turn oven to 100 then turn off. Oil glass bowl and roll dough oil in bowl, so it’s covered in light coating of oil. Cover bowl with a towel and set it in the TURNED OFF oven (or non drafty, warm location) until it doubles in size. (Usually this only takes 1/2 hour, maybe even less.) The photo below is the risen dough, ready to be turned out and shaped into pizzas. (Those lovely bubbles in the dough are thanks to the sourdough discard I tossed in.)
6. Turn out and shape dough and wrap and refrigerate any extra. (I shape dough on parchment paper and then use a peel to transfer the pizza, on the parchment paper, to my pre-heated pan, in the oven.) Add sauce, toppings, and cheese, and bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes.

*If you’d like to incorporate fresh ground flour into this recipe (I love making my own fresh flour with this grain mill), read more below.

Special Instructions for using fresh flour

If you’re using fresh flour to make this homemade pizza crust (with or without the optional sourdough discard) here are some additional tips:

Out of 3 cups of flour, I will use 1- 1.5 cups fresh flour. One cup hard white wheat berries makes 1 1/2 cups fresh flour if I’m using this grain mill. For the rest of my flour, I’ll use 1-2 cups of organic flour.

The most important thing to do if you want to incorporate fresh flour into this recipe is to be sure to add the fresh flour first, lightly mix everything, and then let your shag set for 10 minutes before adding the rest of the flour. This is because fresh flour absorbs more moisture than standard flour will and you want to give it time to incorporate the moisture so you know how much more flour is needed.

Also, with fresh flour your dough will always be a little more sticky. That’s okay. You don’t want to over-add flour, so slightly sticky is okay. Just use a little oil on your fingers if you need it to knead the dough.

OR go here for exactly how I make my brick oven pizza with 100% fresh milled flour (my personal favorite way to make it): Fresh Milled Flour Pizza

If You’d Like to Know More About Fresh Flour…

My favorite products for making homemade pizza crust with optional sourdough discard:

Click on any image to know more. –>

Other articles you’ll love:

Super Easy Way I Make Sourdough Bread without Discard

Why & How I Mill My Own Fresh Flour

How I Make Bread Bowls for Soup

Tools I Wouldn’t Want to be Without in my Farmhouse Kitchen

“He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:9

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And if you stumbled upon this article but don’t know how to make your own kombucha yet, check out Simple DIY Kombucha. It will fill you in on every detail you need to be off and running fast and effectively, saving lots of time & hundreds of dollars a month.

Can I use tap water for making kombucha?

The answer is a wholehearted “yes,” you can use tap water for making kombucha IF your water isn’t treated with chlorine.

So, essentially, if you have well water coming into your home, you can make your kombucha with water right out of your faucet.

The only real problem with tap water in kombucha is the chlorine.* While it’s great at killing bad pathogens in our water (see more info here, if you’re interested) it’s also great at killing all bacteria, including the GOOD bacteria that makes up your scoby.

*EDITED TO ADD: A follower on my instagram page pointed out that some tap water now contains Chlormine, which is more stable than chlorine and therefore not removed by evaporation. I dug into a few scientific studies about this additive (here’s one study). And I found that you can filter chlormine out with a charcoal filter (like a pitcher filter), or neutralize it with tablets (like sodium- or potassium-metabisulfite Campden tablets).

Does tap water harm my SCOBY?

Since chlorine, found in all treated water, doesn’t discriminate and isn’t able to discern the good bacteria in your scoby from the bad bacteria that might be present in the water, you definitely don’t want any chlorinated tap water near your DIY kombucha.

Yes, the chlorine will kill your scoby, over time.

Is there any way to use treated water for making kombucha?

There are 3 ways you can safely use treated tap water for making kombucha.

Having explained all that, I’ll fill you in on one more detail… if you have well water (which we do), you don’t need to worry about any of this. Because, of course, you don’t treat your well water with chlorine.

But if #3 intrigues you, I DO have an RO system, if you’d like to know more about what we do with our RO system, this is my most popular post ever–all about RO and how a sugarmaker uses an RO system.

And here’s all the rest of The Tools I Use the Most in my Farmhouse Kitchen.

Other Articles You’ll Enjoy:

How to Give the Gift of Kombucha

My family’s favorite kombucha recipes of all time

How much money will you REALLY save by making your own kombucha?

Save hundreds of dollars & hours of time every month when making kombucha

 

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me (with the hashtag #simpleDIYkombucha) on ig to show me your delicious kombucha flavors @souly.rested.

 

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“Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Isaiah 55:1

 

Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

And check out the time-saving, stress-reducing things I wouldn’t want to live without in my farmhouse kitchen, sugarbush, gardens, and more.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

 

The post Can I use tap water for making kombucha? first appeared on Souly Rested.

I’m paddle boarding daily, before the New England lake water gets too frigid for my bare toes. I’m in the garden. A lot. And I’m drinking all my favorite summer flavored kombucha.

Don’t forget about the first ferment…

Before I list the best summer flavors for kombucha, I have to point out that while the second ferment flavor is fun to experiment with, it’s your FIRST ferment that can truly make or break your kombucha.

• You want to use the right teas for the taste your family loves. I list all our favorites here.
• You want to know how to ferment it for the right amount of time, both in the first and the second ferments.
• And you want to consider what first ferment teas go best with your second ferment flavors.

DIY kombucha is easy! (unless it’s not…)

Don’t let my little list above overwhelm you. I spent years learning and perfecting all of these details.

…I threw rotten-tasting kombucha down the drain.

…I used the wrong teas.

…And, I killed a scoby.

But once I realized the easy tips and tricks to perfect kombucha every. stinkin. time. I knew I had to share everything with you.

Because it’s SO EASY guys! I created This Resource For You to walk you through all I wish I had known when I first started making kombucha.

Since I released this resource (which was years in the making!), folks from around the world are messaging me that they had no idea just how easy perfect DIY kombucha could be, and their families are loving their brews.

Success.

5 tips for making the best flavors of kombucha:

1. Experiment with your first ferment teas. Don’t think you should always and only use black tea. Not only is that not true, but you will eventually run into some difficulties with your brew and you’re missing out of so many possible, wonderful flavors! (I explain all you want to know about choosing your first ferment teas in my master class: Simple DIY Kombucha.)
2. Try some dried flowers in your second ferment. Seriously. (You’ll strain them out before you drink it, but the flavor they leave behind can be wonderful.)
3. Add your favorite fruit juices in your second ferment. Heck, combine a few of your favorites in one bottle of kombucha!
4. Start with the best teas. Both the 3 Sisters and the Mossy Rock teas you’ll find here are wonderful teas that compliment many second ferment flavorings.
5. Consider adding flavored teas for second ferment flavor. This one is one of my favorites!

If all of this seems like jargon…

• Maybe you’re not sure what first and second ferment means,
• Or you have no idea how to build up a carbonation in your kombucha,
• And maybe you bulk at what flavors to use to make delicious combinations…

No worries! I put this all together for you in one simple place.

And, bonus, after you’re made just a few batches you will have more than saved the cost of this Master Class! You’ll be making your own DIY kombucha for just pennies a batch.

Read here for my cost analysis of DIY vs. store-bought kombucha. It’s really crazy how much you save by doing it yourself.

What are the best flavors for DIY kombucha in the summer?

There are so many wonderful kombucha flavors that taste perfect in the summer. (Please leave a comment on this post and share YOUR favorites!) But here are some of our family’s favorites:

• Orange & vanilla (think creamsicle!)
• Peach basil
• Ginger
• Ginger peach
• Lemon
• Blueberry
• Blueberry ginger
• Blueberry mint
• Raspberry
• Raspberry mint
• Blueberry raspberry mint
• Grapefruit rosemary

What is THE best flavor for summer kombucha?

My favorite DIY kombucha flavor that yells “summer” to me?

Lemon Lavender… the chunks of lemon provide such a refreshingness, and the lavender is YUM. This kombucha tastes like floral lemonade y’all, and it’s perfect to sip while sitting in the shade on a gorgeous summer day.

Lemon Lavender Kombucha (perfect for summer!)

Make your first ferment using a combination of white, rooibos, and black teas (I link to my favorites here.)

Then, for a 1/2-gallon second ferment, add:

1 TB organic lavender lemon tea

1/4 tsp lemon juice

Let sit for 24-72 hours then enjoy, when the carbonation and taste is just the way you like it.

Totally DIY version, for similar flavor:

1 TB dried lavender

1 tsp lemon juice (or a few chunks of fresh lemon)

And a Lemon Lavender Chamomile that is wonderful:

1 TB organic lavender chamomile tea

1 tsp lemon juice (or a few chunks of fresh lemon)

Other Articles You’ll Enjoy:

My favorite DIY kombucha flavor in the SPRING

My family’s favorite kombucha recipes.

How much money will you REALLY save by making your own kombucha?

Save hundreds of dollars & hours of time every month when making kombucha

The Tools I Use the Most in my Farmhouse Kitchen

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me (with the hashtag #simpleDIYkombucha) on ig to show me your delicious kombucha flavors @souly.rested.

The post The Best Summer Flavors for DIY Kombucha first appeared on Souly Rested.