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It seems that Kefir and Kombucha is not only a healthy fermented food, full of some of the best natural probiotic elements on the planet, there also seems to be quite a social aspect to this stuff.  For the impatient, you can buy your Kefirs and Kombucha, but if you can wait, I believe you will eventually find someone who will has something to share.  Mail order Kefir and Kombucha has been advertised for as much as $15-35 with another $10-15 of shipping.  That’s outrageous in my opinion.

Early this spring, Carol found a local gal who had milk Kefir.  She advertised her surplus grains in Freecycle.org.  She got the grains for free an passed the savings to others like her.  We acquired our water Kefir through the mail.  A gal sent it with her name and address and we simply reimbursed her for the cost of postage.  Shipping was just a few bucks.  SIDE NOTE: Carol and I tried to convert milk kefir to water Kefir, but were unsuccessful.

This is a mature Kombucha SCOBY

I then did some reading on Kombucha (kum-boocha or kum-bo0-ka) and the health benefits of it.  What is Kombucha?  It’s a fermented tea and in some instances, is considered an alcoholic product (up to 3% by volume).  If you do some internet research on Kombucha, especially videos, you will see that Kombucha looks nasty.  The Kombucha SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast) is very much like a Mother of Vinegar.  It is not pretty.  It’s a lot like a big rubbery piece of brown snot… others say it simply looks like a pancake.

We recently placed an ad on craigslist to locate one of these round beauties.  As of yet, we haven’t gotten one, but have been contacted by two individuals.  Unfortunately, they are of some distance away.  We’re hoping one of these sources of Kombucha works out.  It seems like most folks who consume natural probiotic foods are a very friendly bunch.

For more info on Kombucha see: SeedsOfHealth.co.uk,  How to Make Kombucha, How To Grow A Kombucha SCOBY

Related posts:

1. Making Water Kefir
2. Making things from our raw milk