The Preservationist

The Preservationist Kombucha, Kvess and Kefir

Refreshing and nutritious fermented drinks—and how to make them at home

By Jordan Champagne

Autumn is a wonderful time to get into making fermented beverages like kombucha, the effervescent, fermented sweet tea that has swept much of the good food world. The exciting summer fruits and vegetables are winding down, and we settle into short days and want to spend more time in the kitchen. Here on the Central Coast, the weather also tends to be at its driest and sunniest, so it’s also a great time to create something that’s refreshing as well as healthful and delicious.

The kind of lightly fermented drinks we’re talking about here are loaded with probiotics that support our health—and the standard American diet is largely lacking in foods containing these probiotics. The drinks are also simple and can be made in very small batches and easily tailored to your own palate. You can use fruits and vegetables and spices to flavor your fermented drinks into endless combinations.

There are many great recipes and books out there, with Sandor Ellix Katz’s recently published The Art of Fermentation being the most complete and interesting. Sandor is my hero. In his book and by his nature, he empowers you with his library of knowledge and inspires you to get started in your own kitchen right away.

I recently interviewed Sandor when he was in the middle of a four-week fermentation workshop and he had all sorts of unique fermented beverages going, including bread kvass and plum-flavored, water kefir.

When I asked him why kombucha—the most in-demand fermented beverage of our time—is so wildly popular, he said, “It is through the grassroots mechanisms of the ‘mother’ (kombucha’s ever-growing starter) needing a home. It has a built-in pyramid scheme to it. When the mother reproduces, people are trying to sell their friends on it to share their mother…it is the power of mass marketing.” It is no coincidence that fermented foods are “cultured” foods and that culture is something that we look to share with friends and hand down generation to generation. “When fermenting food, we are taking traditional ideas and recombining them in ways to keep them current. This is how we keep these cultural legacies relevant—we recombine them and make them our own,” Sandor says.

This is so brilliant to me and really exemplifies how we morph old traditions into our modern kitchens and why that feels so good. These fermented drinks give us a chance to connect with traditions all over the world in simple ways and to nourish ourselves in a delicious way.

While kombucha is tasty, supportive of good health and a great choice for your first beverage-fermenting project, Sandor points out that there is a great, wide world of fermented beverages out there and he argues we should not neglect them just because kombucha happens to be such a favorite.

Sandor has fun with fermented beverages and shows you that you can get really creative. He jumps around from kefir (traditionally a fermented milk drink) to kvass (traditionally made from rye flower or bread) and noni (a fermented fruit drink) as if they are common knowledge, and emphasizes that each can be altered and adorned by what is available seasonally.

There are many possible ways to get the fermentation process started, including cultures and yeasts, Sandor points out. There are

even organisms found on all fruit to initiate fermentation. In his book, he speaks of “rasp bubble,” a creation by a woman using raspberries, water and honey where the organisms on the raspberries are what starts the fermentation process. It can be that easy!

At the end of our conversation, Sandor and I started to celebrate how food brings people together and builds community. Every step of the way is a chance to develop relationships in growing or procuring your food, working with it in your kitchen and sharing it with others.

“Food is where people come together and if we look at it, it is where the microorganisms themselves also exist in communities,” Sandor says. There is not a single isolated organism in the complex communities and dynamic structures, and they even have defense strategies. Communities are reflected in these foods on a lot of levels.

Jordan Champagne is the co-owner and founder of Happy Girl Kitchen Co. She has a passion for preserving the local, organic harvest and loves sharing her secrets at the workshops she teaches across the region. And if you have trouble with your kombucha, she’ll serve you her own at Happy Girl’s cafe in Pacific Grove, where kombucha is always on tap.

Happy Girl Kitchen Co. • 173 Central Ave., Pacific Grove 831.373.4475 • www.happygirlkitchen.com

Fruit Kvass

Adapted from a recipe by Hannah Springer in The Art of Fermention, by Sandor Ellix Katz. Used with permission from the author.

Pick out a combination of fruit, berries and fresh herbs or spices that you think would go well together, and get started. Be sure to use organic ingredients for best fermentation.

In a 1 quart/liter wide-mouth mason jar, combine the following:

A big handful of berries 1 sliced “core” fruit (such as apple or pear) 1 tablespoon grated ginger 1/2 cup/125 ml raw milk whey Enough filtered water to fill the jar

Combine all ingredients, top off with water and place a weight of some sort on top of the fruit to keep it submerged and close tightly. Leave on a counter in a warmish place for three days, and then transfer to the fridge. When the liquid gets low, you can top off the jar with filtered water and a splash of whey until all the fruit has been fermented.

This recipe can be varied by using different fruits, citrus juices, fresh herbs or even vegetables.

Springer’s blog can be found at www.healthyfamilychronicles.blogspot.com.

Courtesy Jordan Champagne, Happy Girl Kitchen Co.

Yields 1 quart Many folks have had an experience with this mysterious beverage. It’s slightly fizzy and tangy, so unique and alive tasting that you know it must be good for you! Thought to have originated in China, this elixir of health has traveled the world since then, taking root in Russia alongside kvass and finally starting a craze here in America in the mid-1990s. Kombucha is sweetened black tea that is then cultured with a “mother,” or starter, fermenting into a sour, living tonic. The mother is a symbiotic colony of yeasts and beneficial bacteria that reproduce themselves while each batch is made, giving rise to a new gelatinous mass and the production of organic acids, enzymes, probiotics, antioxidants and polyphenols. “These nutrients help harmonize and revitalize each individual’s unique condition for optimal health,” explains my friend Adam, who produces thousands of gallons in Santa Cruz through his company, Kombucha Botanica.

1 quart pure water ¼ cup sugar 1 tablespoon loose black tea (or two tea bags) ½ cup kombucha mother (kombucha starter)

Bring water and sugar to a boil, mixing thoroughly in a cooking pot. Turn off heat, add the tea and steep approximately 15 minutes. Strain the tea and let cool to body temperature. Transfer to your fermentation vessel. Glass seems an ideal container, so you can enjoy the mysterious SCOBY (symbiotic community of bacteria and yeasts). Using a container that has a wide top compared to depth allows a larger culture to grow on the surface. Having a bottom spout allows you to easily drain off tea.

Add the kombucha mother, with the opaque, firm side up, along with the liquid it is stored in. Cover with a cloth and let mature in warm location, around 70–85° F. Taste the liquid after a few days to 1 week, depending on temperature. A skin will develop on the surface—the new mother is taking shape. The tonic becomes more acidic the longer it ages. When it develops the sourness you prefer, it is finished. Take out the mother and store in a jar with a bit of liquid (up to a couple months) until you’re ready to make another batch.

Store the finished kombucha tea in the fridge; you may leave it there for a month or so. Flavor it to add depth or sweetness as you like—ginger juice to add zing, pomegranate juice, maple syrup, orange juice or others.