Page 67 - Spring2008

LACTO-FERMENTED BEVERAGES FOR EVERYONE

FERMENTED SUN TEA
I remember helping my mom make sun tea when I was a little girl. There was nothing better than a tall glass of
ice cold tea after a day of playing outside in the hot Arizona sun. Here is a healthier fermented option! This recipe was
created by Terry, an adventurous kitchen scientist in Ohio.

3 tablespoons of whey (see Nourishing Traditions for directions)
4 tablespoons of granular sugar
1/4 of lemon or lime or orange (squeezed)
12 teabags of your choice (half caffeinated and half herbal is nice)
Filtered/spring water

Mix all your ingredients into a gallon-sized canning jar and secure the lid. Let your mixture sit out in the sun for 8
hours. For your next batch, add 1/2 cup of the fermented sun tea to the gallon jar, add 4 tablespoons of white sugar or
another sweetener and the teabags of your choice. Add mint leaves from the garden or any herbal amendments.

APPLE CIDER
1 quart unfiltered apple juice
2 tablespoons of home brewed cider or kefir grains or kefir starter

Place apple juice, starter and a dash of salt in a quart jar. Top with a lid and leave at room temperature for 12 to 24
hours or until it gets bubbly. Cover tightly and refrigerate. Taste your cider at different stages to notice how it changes
over time, starting out sweet and rich, then turning more acidic. Reserve two tablespoons of this batch or use the kefir
grains to start another batch. Mix things up by adding a cranberry or blueberry concentrate.

DOM’S KEFIR D’UVA (GRAPE JUICE KEFIR) AND THE WATER BUTTERFLY
1 part grape juice to 1 part water
Kefir grains
A few fresh mint leaves or spices such as cloves, optional
Optional post-fermentation additions: milk kefir, coconut kefir

Fill the jar 2/3 full and then add the kefir grains. Secure an airtight lid on the jar and ferment for 24 to 48 hours at room
temperature and strain. The refreshing beverage is bubbly like Champagne. In fact, when including a little green [unripe]
grape juice, a healthy Champagne alternative can be prepared. Try mixing 1/4 volume of the unripe grape juice with
3/4 ripe grape juice by volume, in the recipe above. An alternative to green unripe grape juice is lemon juice. Add the
juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon to every 2 cups of grape juice, and then brew as explained above. When brewing kefir d’uva,
one may use bottled grape juice, as long as the juice is 100 percent organic pure juice, without any added preserva-
tives. Make what Dom calls “the water butterfly” by adding 1/3 cup kefir or coconut milk kefir to 2/3 cup kefir d’uva
with a swirl of honey. Also, try making various flavors by changing the fruit juice base—try black currant, black cherry,
blueberry or pineapple.

prepared juice. Raw juices are not only fresher juice is revitalized with enzymes and lactobacilli to build one’s inner
and retain more nutrition than pasteurized op- ecosystem and contains much less sugar than the original beverage.
tions, the native microflora they harbor enhance There are several ways to ferment pasteurized or fresh juices. The

the microbial level of your finished brew. Never- first is with kefir grains (as discussed above in the Water Kefir Grain Soda

theless, while fresh, unpasteurized juice is ideal, section). In fact, in his fascinating work Wild Fermentation, Sandor Katz
not everyone has a juicer, or the time to make it explains that virtually any fruit or vegetable juice, including nut milks,
from scratch, at least not every time. There is no can be fermented with kefi r grains although the grains won’t reproduce
doubt that commercial pasteurized fruit juice is as rapidly as they do in milk. Be prepared for the kefi r grains to take on
simply sugar-water and certainly not a healthy the color of intensely hued juices such as cranberry! Use excess grains for
beverage for children, or for adults for that mat- more adventurous creations and always reserve a backup batch of grains
ter. However, when fermented, the pasteurized in their original state in the off chance of a mishap. This is especially wise
SPRING 2008 Wise Traditions 67