Spotted in Philly

Kombucha

A few years ago I was intrigued by a fermented tea in a corner store in Manhattan. It was probably $3 a bottle, but I'm a sucker for novelty, so I laid my money down. Over the past year, I more and more will splurge on a bottle when I'm looking for a boost, so much so that I decided it was time to save some money by making my own.

If you're squeamish, you might not want to read further.

Kombucha is a bubbly fermented tea. It is made using a solid mass of yeast and bacteria, known as a SCOBY, sometimes referred to as a mushroom. (The idea of mushroom tea is enough to put many people off from it. It's definitely an acquired taste, but so is beer, and beer has no shortage of fans.) It is this SCOBY that gets one started making Kombucha. The other ingredients are pretty much just tea, water, and sugar. Apparently SCOBYs multiply, but I couldn't readily locate someone who had 'babies' they were looking to get rid of in my area, so I looked to the internet for ways to make my own. I bought two bottles of GT raw organic Kombucha and tried two different methods. The first involves just pouring half of a bottle into a jar and letting it sit. I let it sit for two weeks before the SCOBY looked like the healthy examples I had seen online.

From there I steeped two bags of green tea in two liters of boiling water and added 1 1/2 cups of sugar. When the mix had cooled to room temperature (so as to not kill the live cultures), I added the Kombucha that I had grown my SCOBY in and the SCOBY itself. Then I covered it with a towel and placed it in a shady warm spot to do its thing.

The second method of growing your own mother involves a full bottle and a cup of sweet tea. It could be because there is more liquid present, but at the two week mark, the SCOBY is clear and bubbly. It smells right, but it doesn't look ready to remove yet.

I'll update this post when I progress in this experiment. I was excited and wanted to throw up what I have.

The Lightbulb Conspiracy

I just got finished watching this video on planned obsolescence and consumerism (and waste). I thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you're at all interested in what I'm doing here with With Hands (or the reasons WHY I'm doing it), you just might appreciate it too.

Lawns are evil.

A Book Review: The Ultimate pH Solution

The Ultimate pH Solution: Balance Your Body Chemistry to Prevent Disease and Lose Weight by Michelle Schoffro Cook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book was one part hokey, one part marketing, and eight parts quality content. And I would have never picked it up if a trusted friend hadn't recommended it highly. After all, she had gotten me drinking lemon water, I should at least understand why.

I like this book because it explains how diet effects health in a body-chemistry way. Eating right to improve your health instead of popping pills is absolutely in line with With Hands!

also: SCIENCE



View all my reviews

A simple solution to a long standing problem.

This is a repost from my personal blog, but felt it relevant to share here.

My cat Igby is a bit of a bulimic. I don't think it's for any concern for her figure, and I don't think she purges intentionally. It's just that she hasn't figured out how to pace herself when eating.

When I think of it and have the time, I limit her consumption by just putting out a small amount of kibble at once. This is super annoying. I don't have a dog because they're too dependent. I needed to find a better way.

I started searchingbthe internet for automatic or cat-powered food dispensers. I was intrigued by this hamster-ball looking thing, but I didn't like the idea of a non-stationary feeding device.

On instructables I found an awesome food dispenser mod, and decided I should go out and buy the little feeding dish base and make it.

Before I got that far, however, I was struck with a far simpler idea. I often see Igby reaching her little paw underneathe some cabinet to retreive kibble she'd knocked there. If I put a bunch of food in something she couldn't get her face in, it would slow her down and solve my problem. BAM.

Jars are handy in so many ways.

It Wasn't Garbage.

I love this so much. A collective dedicated to repairing things instead of tossing them! So much of what ends up in the waste stream is entirely useful, and from what I can gather, the Fixers Collective isn't settling for repurposing so much as restoring to the original purpose. I want to see one of these in every town! #bigdreams