Susan and I took a short five-day cruise to Ketchikan. While in Ketchikan we flew out to Swan Lake , where I lived and worked in 1982-84. SEAPA gave me a tour. They have recently added flashboards to the spillway to raise the water level in the reservoir.
Thanks to Clay Hammer, John Stanley, and Austin Tollefson.
For primary fermentation I use a 7-liter approx. 2 gallon tea jar, with a spigot near the bottom. Obtained from Bed Bath & Beyond, etc.
Do not put a tight-fitting lid on the jar. I cover the top with a paper napkin, secured with a rubber band to let air in and keep everything else but kombucha out.
This batch size is about double the batch size of many/most of the recipes I see on the internet, which are about one gallon.
I “download” from the tea jar into 0.5- and 1-liter bottles. I generally get 5 or even 6 liters of bottled tea per batch. I have about a ten liter fleet of swing-top bottles that I got from IKEA and from on-line, probably Amazon. The bottles are durable and contain the fizz!
After the seven-day primary fermentation, I allow 3 more days for secondary sedimentation at room temperature, then the bottles of kombucha may be chilled. I put the bottles in the refrigerator at three days because the faster fermentation process at room temperature may let the bottles ferment too far with messy results.
As the water comes to boil, add the sugar and dissolve it, then throw in the tea bags. I have learned that green tea should not be brewed with boiling water. Let it cool a bit before adding the tea.
While this water boils for the next batch, pull the SCOBY out of the jar of your last batch with your clean hand or glove and put it into a pitcher or large measuring cup. If this is your first batch you will have use the starter that someone gave you or that you bought. Then pour about 2 cups of the now-fermented kombucha on the SCOBY, cover, and set aside to start the next batch. After the jar settles down most of the organic characteristics of the brew will have either sunk or floated. So I think I get pretty good kombucha, even though it is unfiltered. Natural kombucha will probably always have a sediment and few strands of primordial SCOBY floating around.
Let the tea cool until it is below a temperature that will not kill the SCOBY. I don’t know what temperature that would be, so let’s say room temperature or lukewarm. It takes a long time to cool that much tea. I set the pot with the about-2-gallon batch of this very sweet tea into my sink and then pour all the ice out of my refrigerator ice maker over it. Then I still have to wait six to eight hours for it to cool. After this tea has cooled you will be returning it to the jar, plus the SCOBY, at least one to two cups of starter tea, and enough water to fill to the neck of the jar. Starter tea may come from your previous batch or any unpasteurized or whatever kombucha you have.
After the tea has cooled, pour it into the primary fermentation jar. Carefully replace the SCOBY and starter tea on top and add water up to the neck of the container.
I place a paper towel secured by a rubber band to keep all kinds of contaminants out. I use fresh paper towels every batch in an effort to keep everything clean. Wait seven days and begin the bottling process again.
After the seven-day primary fermentation period it is time to bottle.
Have your bottles ready to go. They should be absolutely clean and sterile.
First, with clean hands, reach into the jar and take out the SCOBY and put it into a two- to four-cup pitcher. Add about two additional cups of kombucha from the jar, to the pitcher. This is the “starter.”
This is the point where flavoring, and more sugar, is added to the jar for the secondary fermentation process. Berries, spices, honey, or fruit juices can be added. The simplest recipe I have found is just to add about 2-1/2 cups of grape juice. I use Costco Concord grape juice. This much juice is equivalent to about 1/2 cup of sugar. It is important to not use anything that would stop the fermentation process, so anything with a preservative should not be used. Another easy flavoring is about 2 cups of blueberries and about 1/2 cup of sugar. Boil, mash, strain, and pour into the jar. There are many recipes on the internet that use turmeric, ginger, and all kinds of spices and fruits.
During the fermentation process sediment will accumulate on the bottom of the jar – fruit fiber and yeast. There will also be particles floating around, as well as the SCOBY (usually) floating on top. You can decide how to strain the kombucha when you bottle it. I don’t. I carefully fill the bottles, and pour my glass with the finished product, with a minimum of disturbance.
It doesn’t hurt to consume the yeast, bits of fruit fiber, or SCOBY, but some people don’t like to. Some people don’t even eat bread crust. This is personal preference. I carefully drink unfiltered kombucha because I haven’t found an easy and effective way to strain it.
Fill the bottles from the spigot of the jar. When you get down to the dregs, you are done bottling this batch. Pour it out, wash it out with plain water. Never contaminate the inside of the jar with anything but kombucha.
After three days, just put these newly-filled bottles in the refrigerator and enjoy.
I place a paper towel secured by a rubber band to keep all kinds of contaminants out. I use fresh paper towels every batch in an effort to keep everything clean. Wait seven days and begin the bottling process again.
Every summer there are forest fires and if you listen to the news you get the idea that the world is going to end and we’re all going to die. The media loves fires because it gives them a lot of good TV footage.
Here’s a prediction for a few months from now:
It’s going to snow in the mountains and it will be shown live on TV.
I’m not going to Oregon to see the eclipse because I saw the last one in 1979. It wouldn’t be worth it. , and if you have seen one, …
I was working on a highway construction project a few miles south of Hood River, Oregon, on the Mount Hood Highway. There was a few inches of snow on the ground so there wasn’t much work activity on the project that day. I was in the job office trailer shuffling paper. I had heard about the coming eclipse and what a once-in-a-lifetime experience it was to be.
When the time approached, I left the job office trailer and walked across the road, out into a bright, snow-covered pasture for the best, unobstructed view I could get. There were some hills around, and trees, but the action was pretty much straight overhead as I recall. I think it was probably 11AM +/-. You could look it up.
Then the moon started to obstruct the sun. You could see that it was getting dimmer out, even though it had been a very bright blue day.
Just as the eclipse was nearing totality, I noticed rippling light waves on the snow, like the ones at the bottom of a swimming pool. This was the only special effect that I noticed. The other one was that at the moment of totality, some people reported hearing a “click.” I didn’t hear that. I can’t imagine what would have caused that.
It did get pretty much as black as night. I don’t remember seeing stars. I don’t really recall looking straight at it. The warnings had been out not to do that.
Totality didn’t last very long. The process started reversing, then it was over. I don’t remember how long the whole thing lasted.
That’s all there is to a solar eclipse.
Really, don’t bother.
Although it’s a rare event for us, eclipses have been happening since the beginning of the universe, predictably and consistently. Not as common as the sun coming up in the morning, but
It will be over and you’ll wonder, “is that all there is?”
I was resigned to Hillary winning. “All” the polls had her ahead. I literally prayed for the grace to accept whatever happened in the election and to have faith that we would survive.
The Trump haters are bummed. I endured eight years of Clinton and eight years of Obama, so I know how you feel. I don’t really like Trump that much either, but at least he beat Hillary
It really doesn’t matter who you voted for. You are only one out of millions. You are the minority, this time. You may still choose to believe that you are not wrong.
We still have laws and the President doesn’t make new ones. Obama has been doing all he can to pronounce executive orders, but hopefully Trump will rescind most of them immediately. It really doesn’t matter who is the president. There is an almost-balanced congress and there will be an almost-balanced Supreme Court.
The effects of government actions are not known for years, if not generations. For example, the consequences of Obamacare are only now becoming obvious. It was rammed through by a Democrat congressional majority and president. Gridlock would have been better. Social security is not bankrupt yet, even though that has been forecasted for years. Deficit spending accelerates exponentially but we still don’t have the rampant inflation and economic collapse that has been predicted for decades.
With close balances in both houses of congress and almost as much opposition to Trump from Republicans, we’ll have a lot of gridlock, or should I say compromise, which will prevent further debacles such as Obamacare.
So cheer up, look out your window and notice that you can’t tell who runs the government. Unless of course you are in one of the places that have been run by Democrats for generations, such as Detroit or Baltimore, where there is now probably rioting in the streets.
If you, too, believed that Hillary was ahead in all the polls, may this help you to understand what people have been saying about the bias of the mainstream media.
So cheer up. Pot was legalized in several more states!
