The difference between store bought & home-fermented products
If you can just buy sauerkraut, yogurt and kombucha at the store why bother making your own?
The short answer is that there are some great fermenting products on the market and there are some very average ones.
Below are a few reasons why I recommend DIY fermenting at home.
7 Reasons why I love home-made ferments
1. DIY fermented foods are back in fashion.
Many cultures have traditionally used fermented foods. However, with the introduction of refrigeration, the art of fermentation and pickling was somewhat lost.
Fortunately for our health, fermenting has become fashionable again.
There is a synergy to fermented foods that you don’t get with probiotic supplements.
Fermented foods are easier to digest and their nutrients more bioavailable.
2. The ‘made with love’ factor
There is something about making your own food and adding some love as the secret and most important ingredient! The same is true with ferments.
3. Ferments make great gifts!
People can enjoy your ferments and use your ferments as starters for their own ferments. What a gift to pass on!
4. A great creative weekend project!
When you make your own ferments, you can personalise them by ‘playing’ with your ingredients.
For example, if you’re making beet kvass, you can add the leaves of fennel plant. Fennel has a calming effect and is considered a digestive aid.
The fennel leaves make a deliciously syrupy kvass!
You can use red cabbage for your sauerkraut, that looks amazing when added to a green salad. You could include juniper berries in your kraut to add a woody flavour.
There are many more ways to personalise your ferments (I can show you how with my NEW Online Home-Grown Fermenting Program).
5. Knowing the sugar content your consuming
Store-bought Kombucha and Sugar Water Kefir generally contain a high level of residual sugars. Those sugars will feed opportunistic yeasts and bacteria, adversely affecting your gut microbiome.
6. Save your dollars
Store bought ferments are expensive! Use the money you save by making your own ferments, to buy beautiful organic or biodynamic produce for your ferments, rather than conventional produce.
7. Not all ferments are created equal!
When purchasing milk kefir or yogurt, ensure the product is made from milk, rather than processed skim milk powder! Making your own kefir ensures you are in control of what goes into your ferment.
Clients who are lactose intolerant, will often comment that they cannot tolerated store bought yogurts, however, can tolerant their own long fermented yogurt.
Store-bought yogurt often has not been fermented for long enough to have all the lactose taken up by the beneficial microbes, hence the reactivity people with lactose intolerance may experience when consuming them.
Many store-bought coconut yogurt products have starches added to them, to thicken them up. It pays to read the ingredients list closely.
The best, most delicious coconut yogurt comes from the flesh of fresh young green coconuts! In some stores, you can purchase this flesh frozen, to use for deliciously thick real coconut yogurt!
TIP: With store bought vegetable ferments, ensure water has not been added to the product post-fermentation.
Join me!
I have created an online fermenting workshop designed primarily for those first starting out learning how to ferment.
Via a series of eight short videos, all less than 5 minutes, and a downloadable recipe book, you will be introduced to fermenting from your own home.
