POOF! Making Rejuvelac: Post Mortem

My batch of Rejuvelac died between last night and tonight.  When I went to decant it, it had a layer of mold on top of the water.

I don’t know why.  I have two choices: I did not decant this morning, or I did not decant last night.  I don’t know.  I will try again.   I will be exact on the decanting time, i.e., if I start tonight, I will decant on the fifth night.

In all these  years, this is only the second batch that I have ever lost.

Meanwhile, I am going to soak these jars in clorox.

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MAKING REJUVELAC: Days 4 & 5

MAKING REJUVELAC:  DAYS 4 and 5

I stirred the fermenting rejuvelac in the  morning, and at night each day It still smells okay.

Looking forward to DAY 6. That will be the day the rejuvelac is finished!

I want to make some cashew cheeze, and I will start with the brand new rejuvelac tomorrow night.  It will take 3 days tofinish  the aged cheeze.

As soon as the rejuvelac is finished, I will decant it, and start a new batch.  There are so many things you can do with rejuvelac!

Recipes will follow.

REJUVELAC WEEK: Day 2 and Day 3

REJUVELAC WEEK: Making Rejuvelac: DAY 2
In the morning, I poured out the soak water and rinsed the wheat, then drained it and upended the jars on the dish-drying rack.

In the evening, I saw tiny sprouts.  I rinsed, drained, and returned the jars to the dishrack.

REJUVELAC WEEK! Making Rejuvelac: Day 3

This morning, I saw little sprouts.  I rinsed, drained, and returned the jars, up-ended, to the dishrack.

This evening, I had nice long, spidery sprouts.  I rinsed, and drained, and started STEP II of rejuvelac:

• I put a jar of sprouts in the VitaMix (you could also use a regular blender), covered them with 2 inches of water, and blended for about 30 seconds, until the grains were cracked, but not totally ground.
• Then I poured the blended mix back into the jar, and poured 1 C of filtered water into the VitaMix jar, swished it around to catch the remaining grains, and poured it out into the Mason jar.  I saw some more grains left in the VitaMix, so I poured in another C of filtered water, swished it around, and poured all into the Mason jar.
• Finally, I filled the jar to the neck with filtered water, put the mesh cap back on, and set it on the in the corner.

I repeated the steps for the second jar.

From here, I will stir the ingredients in the jars twice a day for three days, once in the morning, and once in the evening..

I am planning to make one jar of plain rejuvelac, which I want to use for making cheeze, and making a rejuvelac wine with the second jar.

If you want to think ahead:

RECIPES FOR CHEEZE & REJUVELAC WINES

FERMENTED AGED CASHEW CHEEZE

CHAMPAGNE REJUVELAC

REJUVELAC WINES

REJUVELAC WEEK! Making Rejuvelac: Day 1

I got 25 lbs of hard red spring wheat berries.  (I ordered whee at berries and somehow thought that the right ones would come)  Going back through my pantry, I found an old bag of hard spring wheat berries, so it does turn out I have made successful Rejuvelac from this kind of wheat in the past.  That is good to know.

MAKING REJUVELAC  STEP BY STEP DAY I

I have two 1/2 gallon jars for the rejuvelac.  Right now, I have 1/2 C of wheat berries soaking in each jar.  In the morning, I will pour off the water, rinse,  and set them to drain on the dishrack.

MASTER CLEANSER: DAY 4 and Counting

Day 4 of my Master Cleanser is just about over. Today was so much easier than yesterday. Gone were the ache-y symptoms, and I never had a hunger attack. Yippee!! After work, I went to the market and bought 10 lemons. (That should hold me for a while). I decided to top it all off with a hot yoga class, and I did fine there, although it was INCREDIBLY HOT. Then, when I came home, that thought just popped right up in my head: wouldn’t a nice glass of wine be good right now. I don’t even drink wine. So here I sit, drinking a nice glass of rejuvelac (I have decided that Rejuvelac will not break my Master Cleanse, and it will not hurt it either – does anyone know otherwise?)

Tonight, I am looking for new recipes.

My New Year’s Plans

The black-eyed pea sprouts are in the refrigerator! I started them Saturday night, and they just grew like nobody’s business. I thought that I would have time to get them last night, but they had already gotten longer than the bean. (It seems to me I remember that they are supposed to taste better if they are only bean length) Whatever! Last night I scooped about a cup of them into a bowl, added about 1 t apple cider vinegar, 1 T extra virgin olive oil, 1 chopped up campari tomato, 2 T minced onion, and some of my dehydrated garlic powder, and left them to marinate (I wasn’t sure you can marinate sprouts, but I figured it was worth a try. I ate them about an hour later. Yum! Yes, marinating works on sprouts.

I also started some wheat sprouts for rejuvelac on Saturday night. Yesterday morning, I began to despair that the wheat would ever sprout, but this morning there were the littlest sprouts showing. When I got home, the sprouts were almost the length of the wheat berries – time to stop them and make the rejuvelac.

My plan for the New Year is to start a Master Cleanse on the night of January 1st – I have to eat my black eyed peas and collards on January First without fail, so I will start that night.
I don’t know what I will do with this rejuvelac I am making – I did not take that into account when I was doing my planning. Maybe I will drink some along with the Master Cleanse and see how that works. We’ll see. I do not know anyone who does rejuvelac, or I would give it to them.

Getting Ready for New Year’s

I went out today and go the supplies to make my little New Year’s celebration.  I’m planning to spend time alone on New Year’s Eve.  I don’t get a lot of quite time alone, but my room-mate is in Japan with her family, so I am going to luxuriate in the quiet.  I may even take a bubble bath…

Tonight, I have started some rejuvelac wine to celebrate.  I don’t know that I am going to make champagne rejuvelac this year. I’ll decide tomorrow when I start the rejuvelac.

I have also started soaking some black-eyed peas to sprout for my traditional good-luck black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day.  I also have a small bunch of collards which I will prepare on New Year’s Eve and let marinate until New Year’s Day.

I’ve also laid in 10 nice big lemons, some sea salt, a jug of Grade B organic maple syrup, and some herbal laxative tea, so I can begin my Master Cleanse on New Year’s night — I think it is better to go ahead with my traditional New Year’s good luck meal, and then get started with the Master Cleanse.  (I have heard of a powder that you can use for the Master Cleanse, and, when I run out lemons, I may buy it and see how it works– that is still up in the air– I have enough lemons for most of the first 10 days.

NEW YEAR’s RECIPES (with raw food you need to plan ahead…)

Where I am from in the South, traditionally, we eat black-eyed peas, collards (or other greens, like kale), and pork, on New Year’s Day.
The collards are green, like money, and symbolize prosperity in the New Year. The black-eyed peas symbolize good luck, and the pork also symbolizes prosperity (because the pig is the only animal which eats while it is moving forward)

I don’t eat pork, duh, but I do keep up the tradition of greens and black-eyed peas.

BLACK-EYED PEAS
1 C dried organic black-eyed peas
1 – 2 T minced onion (to taste, optional)
1 – 2 T minced garlic (to taste, optional)
1 – 2 T extra virgin olive oil (to taste)
1 – 2 T apple cider vinegar (to taste)
sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste (optional)

Sprout black-eyed peas for 3 – 4 days (soak for 12 hours,
drain, and sprout, rinsing twice daily for 2 – 3 – 1/2 more days)
Mix sprouted black-eyed peas with minced onion and a minced garlic to taste (optional).
Add olive oil and vinegar, and mix well.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can also find these COLLARDS RECIPES elsewhere within blog. They are re-listed here for your convenience.

MARINATED GREENS
MARINADE
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
1/4 C sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
1/4 C scallions, white parts only, finely only
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t red pepper flakes
2 t sea salt, divided
1/2 t black pepper
1 bunch collard greens (or other greens)
1/8 C olive oil

1 – Mix apple cider vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, scallions, garlic, red pepper flakes, 1 t sea salt and pepper. Set aside.
1 – Roll up 2 – 3 leaves into a cylindrical “cigar” shape.
2 – With a sharp knife, thinly slice the rolled greens crosswise into ribbons.
3 – Cross-chop the “rounds”
4 – Place in a large bowl.
5 – Repeat steps 1 – 4 until all greens have been chopped.
6 – Add in olive oil, remaining 1 t salt, and marinade mixture.
7 -Massage all ingredients until mass is reduced by half.
8 -Refrigerate and marinate for 1 – 24 hours

MASSAGED MARINATED GREENS
this comes out enough like old-fashioned Southern greens to satisfy your longing for Grandmamma’s cooking.

1 bunch greens (collards, kale, beet, turnip)
5 – 10 kalamata olives, finely chopped
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, slivered
fresh garlic, finely chopped, to taste, or garlic powder (optional)
chili seasoning, to taste (optional)

1 – Roll up 2 – 3 leaves into a cylindrical “cigar” shape.
2 – With a sharp knife, thinly slice the rolled greens crosswise into ribbons.
3 – Cross-chop the “rounds”
4 – Place in a large bowl.
5 – Repeat steps 1 – 4 until all greens have been chopped.
6 – Add remaining ingredients to bowl and mix.
7 – With hands, ‘massage” greens until bulk is reduced by half.
8 – Set aside to marinate for one hour (or up to 24 hours).
Alternatively, eat right away.

Just in case you missed it – find my CHAMPAGNE Rejuvelac recipe here.

Get moving!!! There are only 5-1/2 days until New Year’s Eve. Yes, you CAN celebrate in style!!!

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION: Start the New Year with Master Cleanse

Right now, at this moment, today, I am planning to start a Master Cleanse in the New Year.  I qualify it so because I may start before. My start day could be this Saturday, i.e., two days from now.  My start time depends on my my room-mate’s departure. She is leaving tomorrow for Japan. I could start on Saturday, but I like Mondays or Sundays for starts.  At the latest, I will start on January 1, which, although it is not a Monday, is a very special start date.

I am doing a Master Cleanse now for a number of reasons.

I started one a while back but I had to stop because my roommate had stopped eating.

I need to do a Master Cleanse.

I need to lose 15 lbs.

I want to clean up my act.

RAW SOUL’S CHEF TRAINING

Aw, man! Another thing to add to my wish list! Raw Soul is doing a Raw Chef training,in New York City, and I just know it is going to be fabulous! The raw food training I attended at Raw Soul was so fabulous that I KNOW I want to do their Raw Chef training.

Since I won’t be able to attend the March training, which I believe is the first (because I will be attending another training at that time, as well as paying for my CSA membership for 2009), I am going to have to hope and pray that all goes well and that the training is a big success, so that there will be more, and I will, hopefully soon, be able to plunk down the $1800 investment. I hope that the word will get around — they don’t seem to be publicizing much — about this program, which I am sure will be fabulous.

Sadly, on my visit to check on this training, I see that, apparently, Lillian Butler has discontinued her fabulous Raw Food training. This was the only raw food lifestyle training available in New York City, and it will be missed. I imagine that their failure to publicize this program may have contributed to demise of the program. Hopefully, Raw Soul will find a way to publicize their programs more actively and widely, and soon.

I would also recommend Raw Soul’s new book, Raw Soul Health Journey, by Lillian Butler and Eddie Robinson, the powers behind Raw Soul.  I  have only had one opportunity to look through the book, but it looks like just about everything that Lillian presented in her raw food trainings is detailed in this book, in addition to a healthy selection of the recipes Raw Soul serves daily.  This book would be a good addition to anyone’s library of nutrition, lifestyle, and food prep books. (This is not available on amazon.com — you will have to go directly to the publisher, Raw Soul — although I do think I may have seen it at the Integral Yoga bookstore in Greenwich Village, in New York….)