SCOBY SEASONING SALT

The seasoning in the jar are spices with salt I mixed last month and kept it in this jar.  Why pay for another jar of Jalapeno and Cilantro, when it's cheaper to make it at home. And I added some nutrition from the herbs right?  Same goes for the powdered probiotic SCOBY that I blended  in the mixer till it was a powder.  Mix the two and there, that simple.  Another benefit to note is, herbs mixed with the salt, you end up using less salt and the food is tastier, besides healtheir.

I will share with you an incredibly healthy SCOBY (Symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) Seasoning Salt. Not only is it packed with  probiotics, I have chosen herbs that are known to jump start ones day, alone with their nutritional benefits.  I had an abundant amount of baby SCOBY cultures and I want to put them to good use.  I also get to disguise it's unsightly look that makes most folks shy away from anything that has to do with this culture.  Sad, because it is so healthy, and full of probiotics.  Anyways this is how I do it...

My dried SCOBY cultured I had saved for a rainy day.
I kept it well sealed in a mason jar.

First I add one dried SCOBY cullture with some salt and blend till very fine.  I then add...

• Sea salt
• Cayenne pepper crushed 
• Jalapenos dried
• Parsley dried
• Cilantro dried
• Garlic dried
• Pepper

.Everyone has different taste buds, so I will give you no measurement amounts as to how much of what to put in.  However the main ingredient of course is a mineral salt.  Make sure it is not the regular iodized salt.  That one is harmful.  Use some sort of natural sea salt. If you like it spicy, add more chili.  It's all to your liking .  If you don't have a certain ingredient, no worries.  It's all good anyway.  It's healthy, probiotic , and its tasty.  Here I put it in an empy spice jar.

This can be put on numerous dishes, like salads, soups, rice or meat.  It's a great way to flavor the food.  It's also a great way to get some more probiotics in you without looking at that "mother" of a SCOBY.  By the way I've also added some ground SCOBY to my rosemary herbs too.  Quite good I must say.  So experiment like I did.  So here's to our health.  

Many blessings,

Mary Helen

DEHYDRATED SCOBY FOR A RAINY DAY

DRIED SCOBY CULTURES cut into smaller pieces making it easier to dry.

One motto that I say often is "waste not, want not".  I have an abundant amount of SCOBY cultures, even after l've shared as much as I could.  Hmm. what to do.  So a few months back I did research on is it possible to dry my babies (SCOBY) without harming them and their nutritional value.  So YES YOU CAN, dehydrate them and save them for a rainy day.  I've been doing so since then.  They make a good back up supply for whatever reason.

Very thin transparent, band aid looking dried SCOBY made from brewing my kombucha tea

They can be dehydrated, or sun dried. In doing so they become a concentrated form of probiotics.  I sun dried a few cultures by a sunny window flipping them over daily for a couple of days.  I have also used the oven light to dry them. That took 24 hours, but my culture was thinner.  Both ways have been very successful.  Just make sure you never use high heat.  Well you can but you will kill their probiotic benefits.  If that happens they will only be good for seasoning.

Before I cultured my SCOBY babies till they were almost 1 inch thick.  Now that I am drying them, I like to "harvest" them while they are about 1/8 inch thick. It's easier, and quicker to dry. Then I can...

Dried SCOBY cultures are quite pliable.  I just folded this one
and started stuffing it in the jar.

• Pulverize and encapsulate them.  You would be making your own probiotic capsules or pills.  Fresh too, and you know exactly what is in them.  All you do is grind them to a fine powder. You can pick up empty capsules online, or at most pharmacy's.  If need be you can always go to the local dollar store and buy cheap vitamins, empty 1/2, and add some probiotic powder to it.  Or
• Rehydrate the powder SCOBY in your favorite smoothie, protein shake, juice, soda, or water.  Now it's a real LIVE vitamin water.  Or
• Spice?  Spices are a bit of a spice of life...especially if they are healthy, organic, natural, and affordable.  Dried Scoby has a fragrance of a mild vinegar.  I like to mix a combination of spices including powdered SCOBY to my homemade spiced rosemary sea salts, or jalapeno cilantro sea salts.  It really does have a zesty taste.  It's great on salads.  Or 
• If you have any other idea's please feel free to share.

Now here is where I store them.  I stuff the jar first before I
start pulverizing them.  

KOMBUCHA SCOBY FACE MASK/TONER

So here's the situation.  I have loads of Kombucha SCOBY Cultures. SCOBY is the acronym for Symbiotic Culture for Bacteria and Yeast They have been my babies for a few months now constantly reproducing.  I have been searching for creative ways to prepare kombucha SCOBY, besides kombucha tea, and  to eat, in an appetizing way.  So if you have any ideas please feel free to let me know.  Meanwhile I found sites where folks not only bathe with kombucha vinegar.  I've read where they get the kombucha SCOBY's and put it directly on the face.

Well, here is my recipe for a great way to help rid acne, and close those open big pores, and heal from the outside as well as the inside.  I really like the way it tingles my face each time I apply it. It feels like something is going on.  It is because it's very much alive and a raw probiotic.  The SCOBY to Kombucha, is like the Mother to vinegar, healthy.  Mother knows best, right?. It also acts like a gentle chemical peel. softening, (tenderizing) the skin. Just like it cleanses and softens the inner organs.  It helps rid your body of any invading bacteria that can cause acne or just clogged pores.  It just doesn't sit on my face. I take the opportunity to lie down and rest while it is drying on my face for about 15 minutes.  Why?  Well, I'd rather have the gravity pulling my skin in my  favor right? Lol.  I like it because it does tend to pull similar to a mask when it is fully dried, and I get the soft and tender looking skin. It rinses off well with warm water too. Speaking of tender skin, tenderizing my skin comes to mind with this cream. Hey for a woman my age, my skin looks better every month for a year now.  Nice to know that I am not getting older, I am getting better.  Haha, I least I think so:)

Probiotic Face Mask/Toner with SCOBY.
 It looks sticky but it's not.

It blended in quite well.  Velvety

What gave me the idea to make this probiotic facial mask is that I read that they also use SCOBY'S as a natural bandaid for cuts, burns, even surgeries back in the old days.  It has been known to help heal the wound by acting like a layer of skin. It helps bind the skin  by regenerating new cellular construction when the SCOBY was applied to the wound.  Furthermore, it does not allow any other bad bacteria to enter the wound as well because it creates a  tight seal, and the live acetic cultures living in the SCOBY.   Anyway I figure if the SCOBY can regenerate new cellular construction, well, let it be on my face too,  Guess what?  I'm liking it.  I like the way it makes my skin  feel on the outside, which is by the way the largest organ in our body.  So now I feel I got it going on in the inside and outside as well. Not perfect, but hey who is? And to me, that's all that matters. If it works, i'll holler.  So, I'm hollering!  Lol. Now if it could only remove all this excess fat on my body.  Actually using probiotics this last year has helped me shed off 40 pounds, but it took a long time to get this big and unhealthy, so it's going to take a while longer of being consistant in my probiotic/gt kombucha/kifer/fermented foods regime.  One day at a time.

So back to this Probiotic Facial Mask/Toner.  I used...

I extracted the micro-nutrients from the green/mint herbs
 in healthy oils.
My SCOBY before it was rinsed.

• 8 oz scoby culture fresh
• 1/8 c kombucha vinegar (loaded with probiotics.)
• 1 tbsp of your favorite oil.  (I used my mixed green tea/mint coconut/ghee/grapeseed oils that I had previously extracted the micro nutrient rich antioxidants like phyto-chemicals that were in the herbs.
• one clean glass or plastic container, with lid to hold one cup of this toner
• very powerful mixer.  I am fortunate to own a Vita-mix and am so happy with the way it creams it so quickly.

Wash your scoby well with water making sure to remove anything stringy.  That "stringy" dark threads is spent yeast from the green tea, and sugar that the scoby used to make the probiotic gt kombucha.  Now make sure you wring it out well.  Add all the ingredients and blend on high speed for 3 minutes or until it comes out creamy and is quite spreadable.  I now put this in a 8 oz jar.  Any leftover's I add to my homemade edible body butters, and use that on my face as well as my body.  I don't wash that off,  my skin just sucks up all the available micro-nutrients. I find myself washing my face more often just for that tingly feeling.  Silly me, but, Isn't that great?  I think so.  So now you try it.  I do have extra creams, and cultures just in case anyone is interested.

I hope you like this one and can put those extra SCOBY'S to good use.  This is so easy and very inexpensive to make.  I used to pay $100's of dollars for expensive name brand creams.  Not anymore because, mine work better.  Try it for yourself.  Anyway, until the next time...see you real soon.

Enjoy and Many Blessings,

Mary Helen

COCONUT WATER KIFER

Coconut Water Kifer

When I saw my first bottle of coconut water kifer at Whole Foods Market my jaw dropped to the ground.  They were selling  a 16 oz bottle of coconut water kifer for $13.99!!  That is when I realized I was sitting on something really wonderful.  First of all, we all know that most of the probiotics are killed in order to maintain some control when marketed.  Especially if it is just sitting on a shelf that is in a isle.  Real water kifer is very much raw and alive, so it has to be refrigerated or it over-ferments and becomes more of a dry alcoholic beverage. If that's the case, then they can't sell it to the public, as in no alcoholic beverages to  minors.  Right?

$13.99?  Of course it all makes sense now.  If coconut oil is good for alzheimers, memory, digestion, ulcers, and many other ailments, besides promoting healthy skin inside and out.  I also read it's beneficial to bathe in coconut water and, if you can bath in coconut water, it must be safe to drink.  Hahaha. Right?

So in my research I read that that coconut water alone is similar to our bodies plasma.  It is loaded with electrolytes and has minerals like Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphate and Chloride.  It's naturally low sodium, and low in calories.  It promotes good digestion, and is great for circulation.  Wow, in my books, it's all necessary ingredients to harmonize with one's body for optimum health.  Water is good, but this is better. We also know the health benefits of probiotics too.  Right?  Good.  Now I see why Whole foods sells it for $13.99.  But if you make it at home, it would only cost you the price of the coconut water, And guess what...it all still a living probiotic water.

Besides cutting open a young green coconut, which by the way is not easy, especially if you don't have the proper tools...or money to buy the coconuts, just to get the water.  Have no fear.  Here is another way to make your coconut water kifer with no fuss, no mess.  After all, it's still coconut water kifer.

Here I used...

3 tbsp Water Kifer Grains
12 oz. Coconut Water (any kind)
1 clean bottle with lid.

Today I opted for this 99 cent store brand which only has 85% water. The rest is water, sugar, and pulp.  Perfect for my grain.  Although, it has only 85% coconut water, it will all come out a probiotic water.

Note I have been making water kifers for over a year now.  I've fermented many brands of coconut water.  I have paid anywhere from 99 cents to $4.00 for 12 oz of coconut water kifer.  It all tastes the same in the end.   And it's all probiotic, and good too.  I just want to show you that you can do it yourself for only pennies if necessary.  Just do it.  I hope you like this one...

Many blessings,
Mary Helen

GRAPE WATER KIFER SODA

Grape Juice Water Kifer Soda

Last night about midnight before I went to bed,  I put my water kifer grains  to soak with ...
3 tbsp. Water kifer grains
1 cup of Grape Juice (more or less, depends on your taste)
3 cups of water
1 tbsp sugar (I used brown)
1 quart size jar
12-18 hours.

Note that this is just the first stage.  Had I decided to go for more bubbles I would cap this in a bottle, tightly so that the air bubbles don't escape.  This works great if you like that wine taste.  I don't, so I stop at 12 hours and I will drink this as is.  It is now that I will see if it is too dry, or not sweet enough, then I will add, water, juice, or sweetener. Or you can leave it as is.  Your choice  Hey, I like taste
too:)

Fermented grape juice water kifer

It's still naturally carbonated, but not as much.  However it's still a healthy probiotic drink.  It's not as sweet as it was before the ferment, which makes it a great drink for diabetics who usually have to leave the fruit juices alone because of the natural sugars already there.  Therefore they don't get all the antioxidants and phytonutrients that are in the juices.  It is these healthy chemicals along with the probiotic kifers that are going to help control the diabetes, like it did mine.

Note 2:  Never throw your ferment away, because it over ferments.  This will make a great base for a delicious grape vinaigrette.  Don't you agree?  Yummy!  I can just imagine.

See how easy it is?  So natural, healthy, and cheap.  What a way to go. Now you try it:)  Let me know how it comes out.  Enjoy and...
Many blessings.
Mary Helen

Grape Juice Water Kifer on the rocks