Middle Earth Ranger Forum

A few months ago I began playing with symbiotic cultures of bacteria and yeast. They are very exciting.

Their most popular function is to stimulate fermentation in a sweetened tea. Basically, after insertion into the tea, the culture will consume the sugar and produce magical healthy stuff throughout the fermentation. After one to three weeks, depending on various factors, the result is a delicious (at least I think so; it tastes rather like Miruvor) drink that people on the internet claim can cure or prevent cancer, alzheimers, zombie apocalypses, sore throats, the Black Breath, and generally whatever we can think of. In reality, there have apparently not been any seriously professional studies into its health benefits, but users tend to attribute much credit to the general health benefits of "kombucha tea." I have no way of knowing how much of it is true, but personally, it did seem to help with a cold I had a couple weeks ago. And if live bacterial cultures aren't good for us, how come they are always advertised as being added into our yogurt?

Once the desired balance between bitterness and sweetness is achieved (you might taste the drink every day after a week until you find the quality you like) the cultures (which usually look like little slimy pancakes) can be removed and the drink even flavored further with fruit. An example of pineapple flavoring in my refrigerator:



Green tea is the most popular choice, but you can use just about anything. Here is a picture of a few of my fermentation jars (coffee filters on top so the cultures can breath) including black cherry tea, peppermint tea, black tea, green tea, and some other random teas that were Chinese so I couldn't read the labels.



Yes, the drink is slightly alcoholic due to the fermentation, but it is usually only 0.5%, which is one tenth of the normal alcohol concentration of beer, and not nearly enough to be legally recognized as an alcoholic beverage. You couldn't get drunk on it if you tried.

If it ferments for more than three weeks, it will become "kombucha vinegar," which can be used for all the normal applications of more common vinegars, probably to greater effect in many cases. Most popularly it is used in vinaigrettes, or as a natural hair tonic/shampoo/conditioner substitute.



The maple leaf shaped container is where I keep my vinegarized kombucha. I use it in my hair, and it's great. Also pictured is a larger jar going into deep fermentation for replenishment of my vinegar. The two cloth-covered containers are for the growing of particularly large cultures for use in seamless constructions. Scroll up and notice how all of my fermenting drinks have a slimy pancake floating on the surface as well as one sitting on the bottom. The cultures reproduce during every fermentation, growing a new culture to fit the shape of the container's surface. My circular container is currently growing a culture which I hope to make into a sort of drumhead thing. The rectangular container is growing one which will be made into a pouch.



The cultures dry out into a leatherlike consistency. If a pattern is cut out and assembled over a mould, it will effectively stitch itself together as it dries. I came across this idea from a woman named Suzanne Egg who is a fashion designer and makes clothing out of this stuff.

The other day I cut out a pattern for a pouch thing from the bacteria in my rectangular vat, pinned it around a box shaped mould, and hung it to dry in front of my window. It will require some patchwork and other additions after it dries, but it will eventually be a functional piece of equipment.



After this first project is complete I am planning to try growing a pair of shoes.



If any of you are interested in experimenting with this, just PM me your address, and I would be delighted to mail you a culture and provide you with further instructions on how to safely make use of it.

Oh, also you can eat them. I used a culture as a pizza topping the other day. Yum. But I think they are better in pasta.

That's insanely creative. "I think I'm going to try to grow a pair of shoes." Can't stop laughing. Great stuff!

Wow, Ernildir, just wow.
Growing an edible pouch with no seams! Amazing!

Is the stuff waterproof, or a least slightly resilient? Is it comparable to any type of material apart from leather?

Awesome work.

Seriously, this is impressive. How does the dried culture stack up to leather? As Dirhael asked, is it waterproof? Or if it gets wet, does it turn into slimy mush again? How tough is it? Could you *really* make a functional pair of shoes? How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? What's the meaning of... Oh, sorry, got distracted there.

Unfortunately, it is not waterproof. That's the one major drawback. Once dried, it is very absorbant, and would turn back into slime and potentially fall apart with prolonged exposure to water.

The strength and malleability of the material is dependent upon the thickness the culture grew to before drying. If it was too thin, it would come out undesirably brittle. Generally thicker is better. From my limited experience so far, though, I would say that leather is just a more efficient material. I've yet to come out with some bacterial material that was superior to leather in some way. But maybe I will change my mind later. I'm still new at this and there is more to be seen.

A functional (as long as we're not stepping in any puddles ) pair of shoes has been made in this way before, so I know it's possible.

(the thing on the left is the shoe's mould)

That's amazing! Sounds like you've got your next project at hand.

Neat stuff!

Hey, I just had an idea. Would it be possible to seal some jerky, dried mushrooms, etc. into one of these pouches, then just drop the whole thing into a pot and make (sorta) instant soup, as the pouch falls apart in the boiling water and releases its contents?

Dang, now I really want to try this...Maybe the local health-food store has kombucha culture. Does it need to be refrigerated?

EDIT: One Google search later, found out it doesn't need refrigeration. Actually, this appears to be a project I can do in a dorm room, using stuff I already have.

Southwind wrote:Neat stuff!

Hey, I just had an idea. Would it be possible to seal some jerky, dried mushrooms, etc. into one of these pouches, then just drop the whole thing into a pot and make (sorta) instant soup, as the pouch falls apart in the boiling water and releases its contents?

Dang, now I really want to try this...Maybe the local health-food store has kombucha culture. Does it need to be refrigerated?

EDIT: One Google search later, found out it doesn't need refrigeration. Actually, this appears to be a project I can do in a dorm room, using stuff I already have.

That's an interesting idea. The one difficulty I see is that in order to seal the dried food into a pouch, you would need to envelope it in a not-dry culture. It will only be able to seal itself as it dries. Since it would initially be not-dry, it might make your dried food also be not-dry, possibly destroying its longevity. Although I would not imagine a significant amount of liquid to be able to seep from the culture into the dried food, so it might be okay.

I know some health-food stores at least sell kombucha tea, and I have read about people who managed to produce small "culture pancakes" from the liquid alone, which can of course be used to breed larger pancakes which could be used to make pouches. You could check google.

Or I suppose what you could do to ensure the dryness of your food is form an open container from the culture, allow it to dry, then insert your dried goods and seal the container by drying another piece of culture on top. Though it's rather a lot of trouble when we could just have our food in a leather pouch and pour it into the boiling water from there. But I admit an edible, self-opening pouch would certainly be more interesting.

How about a drawstring pouch instead of a sealed pouch ?

Kombucha is awesome, healthy stuff... never thought about wearing them though - will have to tell all my kombucha buddies! Thanks for the laughs (and the other ideas)! Sindara

Wouldn't THAT be a handy way to get shrooms over the border.
Turnip.

Scan the Chinese labels you mention and I'll have my wife translate them for you, if you'd like.

This is wickedly awesome!!! Good job! do you have a pic of the pouch once it finished? I'd love to see it!!! Is the stuff durable like leather as well as look?

Addreonynn Lightfoot wrote:This is wickedly awesome!!! Good job! do you have a pic of the pouch once it finished? I'd love to see it!!! Is the stuff durable like leather as well as look?

I am actually still working on the pouch. >.< I have had the difficulty of being unable to produce thick cultures over a large surface area, and I've been too busy to put in the effort required to figure out how to get the consistently thicker material. So there has been a good amount of layering/patchwork to get the durability to an acceptable level. The stuff takes a while to dry too, so it's taking some time.