Can I Grow a SCOBY?



Can I Grow a SCOBY for KOMBUCHA?

I have recently been drinking kombucha purchased from my local health food store. What is kombucha?  It is a fermented black tea drink that supposedly has good gut health benefits because of the probiotics that are in the drink.  But at nearly $4.00 (current price as of this writing)  for a 16 ounce bottle of kombucha it can get a bit expensive.  So, I decided that I wanted to try to brew my own.  To do that I needed a SCOBY and kombucha starter. 

What is a SCOBY?  Well SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast.  So basically it is a culture.  And in the case of a kombucha SCOBY, it is made up of yeasts that thrive on black tea and sugar. 

If you have a friend who makes their own kombucha you may have a resource for some starter and a SCOBY, but after asking around all I got were blank or confused looks and questions like what IS kombucha and what IS a SCOBY.  Next, I  looked at my local health food store but I could not find a SCOBY there either.  I know that a SCOBY and starter can be purchased online but my thinking (right or wrong) was maybe I grow my own SCOBY?    Once upon a time  I used to make make sour dough bread and I had to use a starter culture in my bread making.  So,  I figured that maybe I could make my own starter for my kombucha.   If it can be done for sour dough bread starter, then maybe it can be done for kombucha.....of course not the same starter as used for sour dough bread, but a starter and SCOBY used for the making of kombucha.

So after doing a bit of research this is what I did to try to make my starter and to try to grow a SCOBY.

I sterilized a one half gallon Ball canning jar and the utensils that I was going to use. 

Ingredients that I used:

6 cups (48 ounces) of bottled purified drinking water
one tablespoon of  loose organic black tea
1/2 cup of raw organic sugar
one cup of GT's Original Raw Organic Kombucha (at room temperature)

I brought the water to a boil and added the loose black tea.  I steeped the tea for about 10 or 15 minutes.  I strained out the tea leaves and added the sugar while the tea was still hot, stirring until the sugar dissolved. I let the tea cool to room temperature.  After the tea cooled I added one cup of room temperature GT's Original Raw Organic Kombucha.  I did not put a lid on my jar,  but instead I covered my jar with an unbleached coffee filter and secured it with a rubber band and then covered it with a cotton flour sack material (I got that at Walmart years ago).  I will keep it sitting out on a shelf or counter where it does not get any direct sunlight. 

SO, this is a test! An experiment!  I am not sure how long it will take for my tea to ferment and for the SCOBY to grow.  In fact, I don't even  know if  I will be able to grow a SCOBY.  But I am giving it a try.  If you are interested and want to grow your own, check back and see if I am successful.  I will update this blog to let you know what happens! 

I am keeping my fingers crossed!  I am even whispering sweet little things to it as I pass by ......like......"hello my sweet little baby SCOBY " and "grow my little baby SCOBY, grow!"  Not sure if it will help, but I talk to my plants too...... Yes..... I do.


******UPDATED 8/23/15:  Yes, I was able to grow my own scoby using the above method! I have been happily making and drinking my own homemade kombucha ever since!  As of today, August 23, 2015 I have two very full scoby hotels full of healthy scobys!  Give it a try if you love kombucha and skip the nearly $4 per bottle cost by making it yourself!

Tutorial How To: Make A Needle Felted Crown

Here is a great way to use up some of your fiber that you have left over from other fiber projects.   Make a needle felted crown!

What you will need:

A crown shaped cookie cutter

  Felting needles or a Clover Felting tool

A Clover Felting Mat or a piece of thick foam

    Embroidery floss and an embroidery needle

beads

a tiny satin rose

optional - any other embellishments that you would like to add such as buttons, sequins, etc.

Directions:

1.  Place your cookie cutter on top of your Clover felting mat or a thick piece of foam 

2.  Place some fiber into your cookie cutter. 

3.  Using your Clover Needle Felting Tool or felting needle begin to poke gently at the fiber, being careful not to hit your felting tool on your cookie cutter.  Watch out for your fingers!! Those felting needles hurt so be extra careful! Ask me how I know........

4. Continue poking your fiber with your needle felting tool or felting needle,  turning it over and poking your felting tool on both sides until the fibers have felted together nicely.

5.  Now make a second felted crown.  

6.  Enjoy the stress relief that all of that jabbing and punching is freeing you of! 

7.  Embroider, add beads, and a tiny satin rose, or other embellishments if you would like such as buttons, sequins, etc.  I only embellished one side of the crown because I wanted to add a pin back to the back side of the crown so that it could be worn as a brooch or to be able to use it as a removable embellishment to a bag, scarf or whatever.  

 8.  Place the two crowns together.  I took a single felting needle to slightly felt the two hearts together, a bit.....being careful to not jab my felting needle into my embroidered design, beads or little satin rose. 

9.  Sew the two crowns together using a blanket stitch or whatever stitch you would like to use. 

10.  Sew a pin back to the backside of the heart if you want to make it into a brooch or a removable embellishment that you can pin onto a scarf, hat, bag or whatever!

Have fun and happy needle felting! 

Off the Spindle: Handspun Blue Faced Leicester

Handspun Blue Faced Leicester (BFL)

Blue Faced Leicester is a long wool breed of sheep.  It has a nice long staple length usually 3 to 6 inches long.

I recently purchased some beautiful hand dyed BFL roving in a colorway of brown, blue and grey.  I spun and plied it completely by hand using one of my tibetan style hand spindles. This particular fiber had a stable length of a little over 4 inches and a micron count of 25 - 28 microns but to me it felt softer than what the micron count would indicate.

From the 4.2 ounces of fiber I ended up with approximately 340 or so yards of two ply yarn.  So I should have enough yardage for a pair of fingerless gloves, a hat or a scarf. 

If you are interested in learning to spin, I think that BFL would make a nice fiber for the beginner spinner.  But it is certainly not just a beginner fiber.  It is a beautiful fiber with lovely drape and this particular fiber was quite soft too!  BFL makes for some lovely handspun yarn. 

Thrifty Seed Starting Tips

This time of the year, a few warm days and a bit of sunshine and the local gardening centers start calling out my name so I recently stopped in to check out all the new bedding plants that are coming in. I can not help but want to get these hands into the soil when I see all of the beautiful bedding plants! Color, color everywhere!!

One thing that I love to do when I have the time is to grow my plants from seeds or from cuttings. This means planning ahead! During the winter I order seed and bulb magazines and dream of what I will be planting the upcoming spring season.  I enjoy the process and it helps to keep my mind dreaming on what my garden will look like come spring.  There is just something about planting a seed and having a beautiful plant grow from it that makes my heart sing!

When I was looking at all of the beautiful bedding plants I realized that along with everything else the price of them has gone up.  Some money can be saved by implementing some of the thrifty gardening tips that I am going to share with you.  If you're a gardener you probably know about every tip here, but if you are new to gardening you may learn a bit!  And I will have more gardening tips in future posts, so come back and visit again sometimes if you have an interest!

1.  Plan ahead.  Order seed catalogs early.  It is much less expensive to plant seeds than to buy plants.  Many seeds do well when sown directly into the soil.  But it is always a good idea to start your seeds growing inside ahead of time. 

 

2.  Save those egg cartons! Although any of the egg cartons can be used to plant your seed, I prefer the biodegradeable cardboard ones. When you get ready to transfer your plants to the garden you can just put them right along with the plant into the garden.

3. Cardboard toilet tissue tubes and napkin tubes can also be used to plant your seeds. Just cut and fold in the cardboard on the bottom to hold the soil and insert your seeds. Again, biodegradeable so plant it right into the ground once your seedlings are ready to go into your garden.

4. You can even roll newspapers and fold them to make a bottom and use the newspaper seed starting pot to plant your seeds. And when you are ready to transplant the seedlings you can plant them in the ground  along with the newspaper pot because it is biodegradeable too! I don't use newpaper for food type seedlings because I am just not sure of the safety of the ink used in the newspaper print, but I do use them for flower seeds.

5. Save your film cannisters and medicine bottles. Wash and sterilize them and dry them well and you can reuse them to store seeds for next year's plantings.  Labels to identify the type of seeds and the date that you collected them. Store in a cool, dark place.

6. Eggshells can be washed out and you can break away the tops of the eggshells, insert your seed starting soil and plant your seeds in them. Again....... biodegradeable!

7. Save your popscicle sticks to use for plant markers. They can be washed and recycled. Write the name of the seeds, the variety and the date sown on the popcicle sticks.  Another recycling tip for making your own plant markers is to save plastic food containers.  You can cut the lid and the packaging into strips and write on them with a marker.

8.  Plastic food containers from yogurt, butter, non-dairy topping, etc. can also be used to plant your seeds.  Wash the containers well and then sanitize them by soaking them in a 10%  bleach solution for ten or fifteen minutes so that they are clean and free of germs.  Make sure that you put holes in the bottom of the containers so that they have adequate drainage and place them on some sort of tray to catch water.

9. Follow the directions on the seed packets.  A tip to check larger seeds for viability is to soak them in water for a few hours. Some seeds have a thick coating and may need to be nicked prior to soaking. You can accomplish this with a pair of clean, sterile nail clippers or by slighly sanding the surface of the seed with a bit of sand paper. In most instances the seeds that are still living will sink to the bottom and the ones that are not usable will float to the surface.

10.  Plant your seeds in pre-moistened seed starting mix and plant more seeds than you think you will need because all of them may not germinate or you may just loose some of the tender seedlings for whatever reason and also because you will want to be able to choose healthy seedlings when you begin to thin out the weaker or smaller ones.  Once you have sown the seeds in in your seed starting container of choice make sure that the soil does not dry out.  And once the seedlings emerge make sure they get plenty of light.

 

If you are anything like me when you see those little seeds pop their little heads out of the soil  you will rejoice and be glad of a job well done!  Ah.....it makes my heart SING with glee!!

I hope that you found a tip or two to help you along in your seed starting adventures.

Til next time......



Many thanks to Stone Cottage Adventurers for featuring this post on her wonderful blog! Hop over and check out her lovely blog!

 

How to: Make a Needle Felted and Embroidered Heart - A DIY Tutorial

 

 

 



So, you have a bit of fiber and want to make a quick something?  Go grab yourself some felting needles or a Clover Felting tool, a Clover felting mat or piece of  thick foam, a heart shaped cookie cutter, some embroidery floss and an embroidery needle, and let's get started!

 

 

1.  Place your heart cookie cutter onto your Clover Felting Mat, or a block of  thick foam.

 

2.  Place some fiber into your cookie cutter. 

 

3.  Using your Clover Needle Felting Tool begin to pounce gently at the fiber, being careful not to hit your felting tool on your cookie cutter.  And be extra cautious to keep your fingers out of the way of the felting tool!  Let me tell ya, that thing hurts!!!! It has lots of little barbs on the needle and is very, very sharp! OUCH.......

 

4. Continue pouncing and punching (don't get aggressive now.....haha!) your fiber with your needle felting tool, flipping it over and pouncing both sides until the fibers have felted together nicely.

 

5.  Now make a second heart.  

 

6.  Enjoy the stress relief that all of that jabbing and punching is freeing you of! 

 

7.  Free hand embroider a design onto one or both of your hearts.  I only did one side because I wanted to add a pin back on the back side so that it could be worn or added to a bag, scarf or whatever.  But if I were going to make an ornament or something out of it, I might have chosen to embroider both sides.  I just embroidered a few little leaves, a vine and embroidered French knots to represent flowers.  Do whatever you wish! It's yours to play with and have fun with!

 

 

 

8.  Place the two hearts together.  I took a single felting needle to kind of felt the two hearts together, a bit.....being careful to not jab my felting needle into my embroidered design(s). 

 

9.  Sew the two hearts together using a blanket stitch or whatever stitch you would like to use. 

 

10.  Sew a pin back to the backside of the heart if you want to make it into a brooch or an embellishment that you can pin onto a scarf, hat, bag or whatever!  

 

You can also add beads, buttons, ribbon or whatever other little embellishments that you wish to incorporate into your design. 

 

Just have fun and enjoy being creative!!

 

Happy needle felting!

 





Enjoying the Journey - Handspinning Fiber Into Yarn

 

 

As the hustle of the daytime settles down and the calmness and peaceful quietness of the night settles in,

 

 

 

what a joy it is to pick up my spindle and spin my cares away. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I find comfort in the feel of the fiber as it passes through my hands. 

 

And I find contentment and joy in the making of a  handspun yarn.

 

Simplicity is satisfying.

Life is good.

 

Yes, .......very good.

 

I am enjoying the journey.




 

Knit Stuff Owl Toy A Handmade Gift Idea

Cute owls..... they are everywhere! On bedding, purses, clothes, socks and so much more! And it is no wonder! They are adorable!  So, while I was over on Ralvery I saw the cutest little hand knit owl pattern.   Wouldn't it be cute to knit up several of these and attach them to a knit I-cord for an owl banner for the baby nursery!  Or as an owl ornament!  Cute, cute cute!!!  And they don't take very much yarn or very much time at all. A very thrifty gift that is sure to be loved by a wee one on your gift list!

Instead of using felt for eyes, as the pattern suggested, I just hand crocheted a circle and added cute buttons to the center. Make sure to use safety eyes if the owl will be used by a child. 

Want to make a knit stuffed owl for someone on your list? You can get the knit owl pattern for FREE!   Many thanks to Jenna Krupar for sharing her pattern! You will need to sign up for Ravelry first to access the pattern.  It's free to join Ravelry and there are lots and lots of free patterns there and many that can be purchased too.  You should check it out!

Have you made any handmade toy gifts this season? I would love to see if you want to share!

Happy knitting!

Flower Loom Flowers

Loom Flowers

What to do with little bits of left over yarn?  Make Loom Flowers! They are as cute as a button, simple little bundles of colorful joy!  They look so cute on little flower clips and hair pins, and as embellishments on  all kinds of things like bags, t-shirts , hats, scarves! Think scrapbooking embellishments or decorate a gift package. Make a garland, or a blanket with them......Well, you get it! Lots of fun stuff to do with them!

And making them keeps little children's hands busy. And busy hands are happy hands and happy hands keep little ones creative and out of mischief!  And that's all good in my book!

I made mine using a Boye Bloom Loom.  You can order one on line or find them at your local craft and hobby stores. Use those craft store coupons and this is near nothing in cost. 

Remember.... busy hands are happy hands!

What do you do with your loom flowers?