OT: Probiotics

[Guest guest]

Hi Ron,

 

I'm pretty new to the fermentation thing myself. I hear you on the temperature

question. I

was making water kefir while on the road this summer, and was fairly successful,

but then

the weather turned and my vanagon was no longer warm enough to keep those

critters

happy. Now I'm living in a real house, and also keep the temperature lower and

have been

seeking ways to keep things warm as well.

 

There are also some threads about this on the 'kefir_making " group right now,

people

having kefir batches that used to finish in one day taking two or three to

culture 'properly'

in the winter time. People there note that you can kefir things in the fridge

even, but it

just takes much longer - like 1 week instead of 1 day. I believe this is true

for all

ferments....things do keep fermenting, they just take longer. So don't be

dissuaded by the

wintertime temperatures, just keep flexing those 'patience' muscles!

 

In the " Wild Fermentation " book, Sandor speaks about making yoghurt using an

insulated

'cooler' with bottles of warm water in it to keep things toasty, changing them

out if they

get too cold. I've been putting my ferments on top of the fridge, as the heat

exchanger on

the back is always pumping out some heat. I also have tried putting jars near

to my heater

ducts, with some success. I've heard of people using their ovens with just the

light on as a

warm space, or just the pilot light for the older gas ones. I remember our linen

closet

when I was growing up was always toasty warm as it shared space with the water

heater. I

wish I still had one of those!

 

So I encourage you to get creative for how to keep the critters warm.

Alternatively, I made

a batch of pickles at a friends, and forgot to take them with me. They put them

in their

unheated hallway until I returned ~1 month later. The recipe had said to leave

them for

two days before refrigerating them, but after a month of cool hallway temps they

were still

edible, even yummy!

 

Another resource might be to connect with other local 'fermenters'. I know

folks in PDX

from the workshop I did there, but have yet to find local folks (not that I have

tried yet).

I'm happy to share more off list, as I don't want to upset people by getting way

off topic.

 

Good luck, and be well!

 

Jen

 

, " dukkadon " <dukkadon wrote:

>

> Jen,

>

> Thank you very much for all the good suggestions about fermented,

> probiotic foods. Running down all these leads should take me quite

> some time.

>

> One more problem I have, however, is the heat in my apartment. I have

> tried to culture yogurt and saurkraut in my apartment previously and

> nothing happened. I found out that my apartment is too cold for too

> long a period each day (while I'm away, and while I'm sleeping) for

> bacteria to grow (because I turn the heat down to save on my heating

> bill). I found out that most bacteria will not grow below a

> temperature of 65 degrees. So I'm going to have to get a yogurt

> warmer or bread warmer of some kind to keep the temperature between

> 100 and 110 farenheit for the bacteria to do well.

>

> What do you do about this problem?

>

> Ron