My family has been making changes over the past few years in the field of health that covers a broad spectrum in living. We've combatted mold in our house by gutting the entire HVAC system and installing a new, better engineered system. We've tossed all our chemical filled cleaning agents and exchanged them with enviro-friendly products. I buy organic meat and produce and have even started my own garden. It's been a fun, interesting process educating ourselves on the why's and how to's of accomplishing a better lifestyle.
Although the changes have been good, we still run into health dilemmas. It seems a constant battle trying to be healthy in this day and age of modern industrial living. Our bodies take on a lot of stress through outside stimuli in the form of chemical soup concoctions found in our air, water, food and pharmaceutical systems. Our mechanized culture adds to this onslaught of stress through technological demands that go against our natural make up. Sitting at desks in front of computers, radiation emanating from cell phones etc. are just a few examples.
When you take time to really look at modern life it really seems like a Sci-Fi novel found its way off the page into reality. I've been trying to slough off this toxic lifestyle for over a decade and it has been a challenge that has made me encounter spiritual, relational, political and cultural questions that leave me with answers I don't like especially for our future generations.
Before I go off on another tangent, I'd better get to the point of this post. Breaking out of a mold you've been conditioned to sometimes requires taking a step backwards (or maybe it is really forward's but we've been so conditioned to a way of thought we think it is backwards).
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| Farmer's Market By: Crystl 'Beautiful Beets' |
Food for thought:
My husband and I owned a restaurant in our not to distant past. During that time you have been trained to handle food with protocols for health safety. God forbid you fail a health inspection, it'll sink your business and fast. This is all important and good, sick people due to food born illness is not a goal in any business venture.
Refrigeration, shelf life and proper cleansing protocols have been the tools of choice to combat the food born illness issue. This is necessary with the way our food system is set-up using processed foods trucked in from far away etc.
I noticed a good paradigm shift recently in my household regarding food and its preparation and storage. With all the reading and educating I've been doing I always seemed to stop myself from trying those old ways of preserving and the process of fermentation just scared the bajeebee's out of my husband, "You're going to leave that out on the counter for how many days," he'd ask. I don't blame him, we ran a restaurant where leaving food out meant waste and money lost.
Yes, there is an art to these old ways. When reading the recipes for sprouting or fermenting, you have to know what you are doing, know the source of your ingredients and it takes fine tuned real food that isn't contaminated. It sometimes feels like a highly intricate chemistry class experiment. If done correctly the process makes some amazing, flavorful, health boosting food you can't find anywhere else.
So, I decided to celebrate the old ways by making a time-tested traditional drink with health benefits galore from a country my ancestors once lived in. Somehow, I just want to toast to my health when I drink my home-brewed Beet Kvass. Ahh, yes! It is a fitting thing to do. Say it with me!
Будем здоровы! [vashee zda-ró-vye] – Your health
Beet Kvass Recipe: For 2- Enough to toast to and enough to make you want more
2 organic beets (peeled and diced into chunks)
1 TBSP Himalayan Salt
Filtered Water
*1/4 Cup Whey
Glass Jar with lid
Small mixing bowl
Place beet chunks in bottom of glass jar. Mix salt, whey and 1-2 cups filtered water in small mixing bowl. Pour over the beets. Fill the glass jar with filtered water to within an inch of the top. Seal tightly with a lid and place on your counter, out of direct sunlight for 2-3 days to ferment. After fermentation place in the fridge. You can use the beets again for another fermentation process or chop up in a salad or use as a garnish.
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| Beet Kvass on the Counter Photo by: Chandra Brown |
* I took 1/2 a pint of Organic, Plain Yogurt and placed it in a thin, clean dish cloth (washed with no perfumes, chemicals or dyes) and cinched the top of the dishcloth with a rubber band, hung it from my cabinet knob with a stainless steel bowl beneath the 'yogurt bag' and let gravity do the work of pulling the whey from the yogurt.
Yes, I let it sit on my counter for 1 full day in order to render as much whey as I could.
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| Making Whey Photo by: Chandra Brown |
Note: If you do not have whey or want to make whey, double the salt to help in the fermentation process. Allow longer time sitting on the counter for best results.
Note: Don't throw away the left over yogurt, it has now become cream cheese. It was extremely tasty. My daughter used some of it to make a desert topping.
Fun Beet Kvass Articles:
The Miracle of Russia
Beet Kvass by Hidden Pond
What fermented foods have you made?
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