What have I been up to? I haven’t been doing nearly as much preserving as I’d hoped. But I have been enjoying lots of outdoor fun with my family, so that’s been great. Lots of park visits and barefoot walks in the neighbourhood.
We visited the beach one evening, which was divine:
And I’ve also prepared various in-season fruits and vegetables for the freezer.
Peaches:
Zucchini (for stews and omelets in the winter):
And green peppers:
I’m brewing my first-ever batch of kombucha, using a SCOBY I grew myself using store-bought kombucha. I’m totally excited!
(The white film floating on the top is the SCOBY. Isn’t it beautiful?)
I’ve got a jar of dill pickles fermenting, too. Next up, I want to try fermented salsa.
And my crazy mom canned 16 jars of tomatoes for me. (I’m super-spoiled). We still want to can some plain tomato sauce and possibly pasta sauce, if we have enough tomatoes.
On Monday, I joined five other young women for our first quilting bee meeting. We’re turning these fabrics into a quilt for Lydia. Whee!!
In the last few days, I’ve also been working on a series of posts on how we’re trying to be a low-media family, and sharing some ideas I’ve tried for keeping a toddler busy.
So I’m aiming to get back into regular blogging by next week.
It’s been fun to focus on home stuff lately, but I’m bursting with new things I want to talk about with you. I hope you’ll join me!
I had no idea you could grow a SCOBY using store bought kombucha! I would love to know how you did that :)
Agnes: I didn’t know, either, until an online friend told me over Instagram. It is so simple, it hardly counts. :) Just buy a bottle of unflavoured, unpasteurized kombucha (I got the GT’s brand from Whole Foods). Pour it into a clean mason jar and cover it with a towel, cloth, or coffee filter. Let it sit in a dark, warmish place for a couple of weeks. A film will form on the top, which will eventually thicken into a decent SCOBY. It’s ready to go when it’s about 1/4 inch thick. My SCOBY grew in about 2 weeks. I’ve been “brewing” it in sweetened black tea for about 4 days, and I’m already seeing a new “mother” growing on top of the new one. Fun!
That’s so easy. Thank you for the instructions!
That’s basically how I got my scoby, too. I added my jar of GT’s to a pint of sweetened black tea and let it get it’s growth on. So awesome and cheap. I love komboucha, it’s so science-experimentish. Lacto-fermented salsa is also great fun – to make and eat.
I look forward to you new posts! (Especially on keeping a toddler busy…)
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