September already??

Well, apparently, working an extra day a week for about 2 months can really put a drain on your desire to do anything but get to work, eat, knit, and sleep.  Yes, I definitely still knit, even when drained.  Except I haven't actually finished a single project in ages.  I've got a bunch of stuff I'm working on, but I think I'll save those posts for later.  For now, I'd like to share this with you:

What is this disgusting thing, you ask?  Kombucha!  Or rather, homemade kombucha.  That gross thing that you think should not be in something you consume is a mushroom that is commonly referred to as a SCOBY.  This is the tea in it's first fermentation state.  It has since been transferred into a sun tea jar; it is much easier to decant just the liquid from there.

Here are the quick steps to kombucha:
- Put sweetened tea with SCOBY.
- Ferment for 5-7 days
- Decant tea into another container and add fruit or other flavor enhancers, let ferment another day or two.  Add new sweetened tea back with the SCOBY to start a new 1st fermentation batch.
- When 2nd fermentation is ready, decant through a coffee filter into your drinking vessels (we use either old glass drink bottles or mason jars).  Let the drink sit for another day to get some fizziness.
- Refrigerate
- Drink

It's turning out pretty good so far... Flavors we've tried are:  mango/ginger, peach/ginger (friend made this one), and blueberry in green tea (the others were in black tea).  We are currently flavoring a green tea with nectarine jam (just wanted to see how it would work), a black tea with strawberry/ginger, and a black tea with apple/honey.  This is a fun experiment!

Oh, and, I am done with working the extra days, so hopefully I can get my energy back and post a bit more of my projects up here.  :o)