Fermentation

Years ago, we had planned a camping trip with my folks. I had filled the cooler as full as it would go, but I still had a 1-gallon jug of iced tea to take. I figured, hey, no biggie for it to sit out at room temperature for a while. Think of how often we make a cup of hot tea and forget it, and it's fine. Think of how often we leave the jug of iced tea sitting out for hours, and it's fine.

It was a plenty-warm day. We stopped by the library for about an hour on our way to the campground. We stopped by the grocery store briefly. The tea didn't fit in their cooler at the campsite, nor in the little dorm fridge either. So it sat in a shady spot. The next day I anticipated a nice glass of sweet tea, opened the lid, and found white and green fuzz on top. Mold? On tea? In less than 24 hours? Eeeeuuuuuwwww!



The other day, we got to talking about food preservation. Sugar may be bad for you, but it does help preserve food. So do salt and acids (such as vinegar). So does drying. But it's kind of amazing how I can make a jug of sweet tea today, and put 4 ounces of kombucha tea into it, along with a kombucha "mushroom," and a week later there's no spoilage. No mold. No food poisoning. I think about that long-ago gallon of iced tea from our camping trip, and I realize that it's significant that my kombucha doesn't grow mold as it ferments. But that sure sheds light for me on the reasons behind wine-making and beer-making throughout history. Fermenting somehow prevents spoilage.

And I thought I'd learned so much from reading the Little House series. Ma never preserved food that way, though!