And what do you think would happen if say I didn't measure out parts and have a different ratio of rice liquid and milk? If i had to guess, Id say there were only 8 parts milk. And i used mostly whole milk. some 2%.
If it doesnt work, with a little sugar you'll have a nice rice pudding. This is really a great post. I'm going to follow it to see if it goes anywhere - it seems simple enough - do you really think it will work? I mean really work? be well. jerry.
So following this process, I'm almost at the end and wanted to post some pics. This is what I have after the milk/rice wash has been left sitting for 5 days. This is all in a quart jar (I wasn't sure how much to make since I didn't know how much of this would separate into milk solids.) I'm worried about the milk solids that seems stuck on the side of the jar. I will probably transfer the liquid to another jar(s) in a few more days. Just wanted to specify that I strained my rice wash through a coffee filter after It sat for 8 or so days. Then I added about 4 parts 2% milk, and 4 parts whole milk to the rice wash.
Because I'm lazy/busy and can't do this ALL the time. Maybe once a season or two but anyways... I wanted to some clarification on this part. Do you mean that I can't add some diluted molasses AND put them in the fridge? I would assume the fridge would just slow down their metabolic rate, thus slowing down their food consumption. Also, am I done? How much longer should/can I let it sit before using it? And if I were to be off, would it be safer to err on the 'too soon' side? Or the 'too late' side? And thank you for the "LD Seal of Approval" I often check for before using any product or attempting to culture bacteria.
holynazi, thanks for resurrecting this thread. It is some easy to brew stuff and doesn't require a lot of cash layout. addition of pictures was excellent. JaK
according to Carandang, he personally just adds the molasses/sugar and this way you can store it up to 3 years(ie indefinetely) OR you can store it in the fridge (to make them dormant/sleep). btw you should only keep the semi-transparent liquid (the "serum") and strain/throw the cheesy/floating stuff. what you have is a "concentrated" lacto serum - so you should/can dilute it at 1:20 with water.
Ok. Let me rephrase. If I add molasses to em AND put them in the fridge, will they explode/spoil/sue me? I understand that either/or is fine. But I don't want to find out I didn't add enough molasses. Or my fridge wasn't cold enough so the microbes died after x amount of time. Basically, I just want to be able to use one as a backup in case the other fails. And is it ready to go? It's been 6 days, but they've been kinda cold days. Edit: I apologize for being redundant and bumping this post over and over, but my question still hasn't been answered. Will there be any adverse effects to the lacto bacilli if I added molasses and stored it, airtight, in the fridge?
sorry, for not answering the original question, but.. i really don't know if you add molasses - you don't need the fridge, and if you put it in the fridge - you don't need molasses. frozen with molasses - will it explode? theoretically, no, but then again - read my sig be the pioneer - answer it for us
I loled. I get what you're saying. I actually had enough to put into 1 and 1/2 pint jars. The full jar went into the fridge. The 1/2 full jar was almost filled with molasses, with a splash of water on top. Then shaken/shook? until mixed.
Don't laugh but the solution that I arrived at comes from the bread baking world and the use of wild yeast starters (i.e. sourdough cultures) I collect sourdough cultures from around the world. We mail the dried powdered culture to each other through several web sites. Pretty goofy groups actually. At any rate I have an old refrigerator in the garage where I store about 15 cultures from the Middle East, Europe, Australia, North Africa, etc. If a culture (which contains several lactobacillus strains captured from the air) has been dormant for several weeks or even months then what you do is create a new flour & water mix and add a couple of tablespoons of the dormant culture. The new food will invigorate the colonies and you may have to take some of the new(er) culture and do it again. Sometimes 3 or 4 times and when the fermentation process takes less than 18 hours then you know you're good to go. So here's what I do with the lacto serum that's been stored for several days or weeks. I use the 20-2-2 formula which is 20x clear water, 2x carbohydrate and 2x of the culture. Let it ferment down to < 3.5 pH and you'll know that you're up and running. If you can't hit that number then repeat using the new(er) culture, i.e. don't go back to the original stored/dormant culture. I've had a culture for over 18 months and at one point it had been stored for almost 3 months. It took 3 cycles to get it back up to speed but not much of an effort. I hope that I understood your question correctly and if not let me know. This is a very solid area to learn to grow organically to achieve your garden goals. HTH LD
Aha. So, re-activate as if you were making AEM. For those of you who were wondering, it seems you can't add finished serum to more milk to "keep things rolling". I tried, and ended up with yoghurt, haha. And good job with the brew HolyNazi, looks exactly like mine have been. You'll like your results, this stuff is especially useful if you're recycling soil. Breaks down the root balls much faster than without them.
This doesn't answer the question directly, but indirectly answers a whole lot more for me. It should have been obvious as this is just applied high school biology. Growing a colony out of a culture (the lacto serum). Duh. This does ease my worry of using a bad/useless serum. The pH test helps me because I like to have concrete data with values rather than advice like "if it smells bad, dont use it."
That's pretty much it............. It's the addition of specific plant material(s) which make this all worth the effort. Particularly in the area of IPM, enzyme inoculation (i.e. amino acids), restoring previously used potting soils, fungicide mixes that are unrivaled by commercial products, et al. HTH LD
have you added kombucha before? and if i do a bunch of my own fermenting[tej, mead, beer, kombucha, etc etc etc]will i get the same benefits, or would it be more beneficial to have a non-local source of lacto for this second run in order to increase diversity? thanks heaps IMO
People don't let this thread fade. I'm hooked. Always have to find new ways to annoy the little lady. Would aloe vera juice be a better choice to use than molasses, or vice versa, or they'd work the same?
aloe vera is more of a "fungi" food and a "wetting agent", though it has lots of other useful ingredients. but i don't thhink it can replace molasses (or any other carbon source) as a lacto food
Explain the how aloe vera feed fungi vs bacteria please? I checked the labels and the molasses has more carbs and sugars than the aloe vera, more micronutrients listed in the nutrition facts as well. I understand the carbs and unrefined simple sugars in molasses directly feeds bacteria (I'm using it as food for my lacto), but would like to know more about aloe vera feeding fungal colonies. There has been multiple sources advising against using molasses. Possibly because of the stigma the cannabis community has for overusing nutrients. Possibly because people flush with molasses thinking your plant directly absorbs these sugars and converts them into 'sugary' trichromes. Aloe Vera vs Molasses thread anyone?
I'd be all about that, because I just picked up Aloe Vera from Trader Joe's and still have a big bottle of blackstrap molasses from Whole Foods.