Back to Eden Natural Health and Wellness

Processing Yellow Dock and Burdock root harvested a few days ago in preparation for getting five gallons of fire cider started for cold and flu season. I don't think anybody makes fire cider with as many tried and true ingredients as Back to Eden does! Can you say "the kitchen sink"? :)

More posts to come as we get farther in to this project.

IT'S A BABY! 😁

I've been patiently watching this jar for quite a while, and tonight I finally saw what I've been waiting for. My baby SCOBY is becoming unmistakable!

This one has kind of a fun story. I bought a bottle of live kombucha from an Amish market and decided to see if I could use the culture still living in that kombucha to start my own. With some sweet black tea, a warm place to live, a little knowledge, and a LOT of patience...here we are.

Technically, that little translucent pancake forming across the top is called a pellicle. The SCOBY, the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, actually lives throughout the fermented tea. But most of us kombucha makers just call that funny-looking little creature a SCOBY. 😊

And this is one of the things we love about traditional fermented foods. They're alive.

The bacteria and yeast consume components of the sweetened tea and transform it, producing organic acids and other fermentation products and, depending on the finished kombucha, living microorganisms. That's why kombucha has become such a popular fermented drink for people looking to add more traditionally fermented foods to their diet.

Making it at home isn't terribly complicated either. Brew sweet tea, introduce a healthy culture and some mature kombucha, cover it so it can breathe while keeping unwanted visitors out, and wait. Taste and time do much of the rest. Once you've got a thriving culture, it can keep producing batch after batch.

The fourth picture shows one of my mature SCOBYs so you can see what this little baby may eventually become. And the last picture shows the considerably more appetizing end of the process: our peach kombucha after a second fermentation with real peaches. 😋

Nature has been fermenting things a lot longer than we've been putting probiotics into capsules. Sometimes getting Back to Eden really can be as simple as learning how to work with the tiny living things God already put here

Not to boast too much, but these are some beautiful pies! We have apple, peach, strawberry rhubarb, and Aunt Faye's chocolate. First come first serve, at the Nevada Farmer's market tomorrow (Saturday), 9am to noon. Come and get 'em!

Who likes strawberry rhubarb pie? We'll be bringing a few to the Farmer's Market on Saturday.

Halfway to Market Day!

It’s Wednesday, which means prep is well underway in the Back to Eden workshop!

Today we bottled a fresh batch of water kefir in grape, pineapple, and cherry, along with a big batch of deliciously zingy peach kombucha. These will all be coming with us to the Farmers Market Saturday!

We talk quite a bit about probiotics around here, but here's something worth remembering: not all fermented foods and drinks bring the same microbial community to the table.

Water kefir, kombucha, yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and other living fermented foods can contain very different collections of bacteria and yeasts, along with different fermentation products.

And when it comes to your gut, diversity is a GOOD thing.

In fact, if there's ONE place DEI really does make sense, it's in your gut! 😂

Your gut microbiome interacts with your immune system, metabolism and even your brain through what scientists call the gut-brain axis. Gut microbes can produce or influence compounds involved in neurotransmission, while sending signals through neural, immune and metabolic pathways.

That's one reason we don't think the goal should be finding one probiotic food and calling it good.

Mix it up. Experiment. Be bold.

Try kefir. Try kombucha. Try kraut. Try fermented vegetables. Try something you've never heard of before. And if you can't find it locally, learn to make it! Many traditional ferments are surprisingly simple once you understand the process.

Your gut is an ecosystem.

Feed it like one. 🌿

And if you'd rather let us do some of the fermenting for you... we'll see you Saturday. 😉

There is a breath of air hidden inside every chicken egg.

At the wide end of the egg, between the shell and the membrane, is a tiny pocket of air called the air cell.
If that egg contains a developing chick, this little pocket has an extraordinary purpose.

Near the end of incubation, before the chick can break through the shell, it first breaks through the inner membrane into this air cell. There, inside an egg that still appears completely sealed, it takes its first breaths.

Those breaths buy it the precious time it needs to begin breaking its way through the shell and into the world.

Think about that.

Before the chick ever needs to breathe air, the air is already waiting for it.

We cracked this egg for breakfast this morning, and there it was. A tiny detail most of us have seen our entire lives without ever knowing why it was there.

The closer we look at God's creation, the harder it becomes to call anything ordinary.

🌿 Another “weed” becomes medicine...

If you've driven Missouri backroads in summer, you've almost certainly seen chicory. Those beautiful blue flowers grow along roadsides, fields and forgotten places everywhere.

We've talked about chicory before, but this week we harvested a big batch of the leaves, stems and flowers and started something new: chicory tincture!
Chicory has a very long history as a medicinal plant. Its aerial portions have traditionally been used to support the liver, gallbladder and digestive system, including as a bitter digestive tonic and to encourage healthy bile activity. Modern research has begun finding some interesting support for those old uses as well.

But here's something we found particularly fascinating.

Researchers studying the aerial portion of chicory isolated a naturally occurring compound called 28β-hydroxytaraxasterol and discovered that it had moderate binding activity at the body's CB1 cannabinoid receptor.

Yes, cannabinoid receptor. And no, that doesn't mean chicory is ma*****na. 😄

Your body has its own endocannabinoid system, and CB1 receptors are part of it. This system helps regulate things like mood, stress response, appetite, pain, memory and sleep. Our bodies actually produce their own molecules that communicate through this system.

Here's where things get really interesting.
Some herbalists also report using tincture of chicory's aerial portions as a gentle mood-lifting herb. That particular use hasn't been established in human clinical trials, so we're not going to tell you science has proven something it hasn't. But discovering that a compound in the plant interacts with CB1 certainly gives us an intriguing biological clue worth paying attention to.

And THAT is one of the things we love about herbalism. Sometimes traditional and experiential knowledge points toward something interesting long before science gets around to explaining why.
The plants in these pictures are now chopped and beginning their transformation into tincture. 🌿
It'll be a while before it's ready, but when it is, Back to Eden chicory tincture will be joining our offerings.

Stay tuned. 😊

Something new is brewing at Back to Eden. 😊

If you followed our recent posts about water kefir, meet one of its fermented cousins: **kombucha**.

Kombucha is typically made from sweetened black or green tea and a living culture of bacteria and yeast. Most people call the rubbery-looking layer floating on top the **SCOBY**, although more precisely that layer is called the **pellicle**. The living culture itself is also throughout the tea.

And yes, the pellicle looks a little strange. 😂 Thankfully, the finished drink is much more attractive!

The bacteria and yeasts work together to ferment the sweet tea, transforming it into a pleasantly tart drink containing organic acids, tea compounds, living microorganisms, and other fermentation products. Like water kefir, it is another easy and delicious way to bring naturally fermented foods into the diet and support a healthy, diverse gut environment.

I especially love making kombucha as a **continuous brew**. I keep mine in a gallon jar with a spout, like the one in the photo, and can simply pour myself a glass whenever I want one. When the jar gets about halfway down, I brew another batch of sweet black tea, let it cool, and pour it in. Within a day or two, it is usually back to the tanginess I like.

The culture keeps growing, too. Eventually there will be more pellicles than I need. At that point I can keep extras in what kombucha makers affectionately call a “SCOBY hotel,” share one with a friend so they can start their own batch, or even give extras to our chickens as a treat.

Kombucha can also go through a **second fermentation** after bottling. Add fruit, juice, herbs, ginger, spices, or other flavors, seal it in a pressure-safe bottle, and the continuing fermentation can naturally carbonate it into a wonderfully fizzy drink.

I have actually always loved my kombucha plain and have never bothered with a second ferment. But now that we are going to begin **bottling kombucha for the farmers market and for direct purchase from Back to Eden**, I want to start experimenting!

So, kombucha drinkers, I need your help:

**What flavors do you love?**

I am already thinking about peach and maybe even chai, but there are SO many possibilities. Ginger? Berry? Cherry? Pineapple? Apple spice?

Tell me what you would buy!

And one day we may have to talk about **Jun**, another fermented tea drink I used to make years ago and absolutely loved, traditionally made with green tea and honey instead of black tea and cane sugar.

God created some extraordinary partnerships between tiny living organisms, plants, and the foods we make from them. Fermentation is one of my favorite ways to watch that design at work.

Our little water kefir family has officially multiplied enough to split into TWO jars! 🎉

That may not sound terribly exciting unless you have been following along, but for us it means something very practical: we can now make twice as much water kefir at a time.

If you missed our earlier post explaining what water kefir is, what those strange little crystal-like grains actually are, how fermentation works, and why we are so excited about it, scroll back and give it a read:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GtjdajjdG/

The short version is that these living colonies of beneficial bacteria and yeasts ferment sugar water, then we use that fermented kefir water to start a second ferment with fruit juice. After a couple of days, we end up with a naturally fizzy, fruity drink that makes a mighty fine alternative to ordinary soda.

And the best part is that the grains keep growing. What started as one little dehydrated starter packet has now multiplied enough for us to divide the colony and keep two quart jars working at once. God designed some pretty incredible little partnerships in creation, and this one is especially fun to watch.

Now we need your help.

What water kefir flavors would you like us to make?

We usually work with whatever good organic juice we can get our hands on. So far we have made grape, tart cherry, pineapple, fresh-juiced pineapple, and fresh Pink Lady apple juice from our Nama juicer.

But there are LOTS of possibilities.

Peach? Blueberry? Mango? Pear? Blackberry? Pomegranate? Something totally different?

Drop your ideas in the comments. If we can find the fruit or juice, we may just give it a try! 🍎🍍🍒🍇

Okay, remember those hand pies we teased you with a couple weeks ago?

Well... IT'S OFFICIAL. They're coming to the Farmer's Market this Saturday! 🥧

We've been experimenting, tweaking, baking, tasting, and perhaps most importantly, recruiting willing friends and family as test subjects. 😂 After several batches and some very enthusiastic reviews, we think these beauties are ready to leave our kitchen.

We're starting with two classics:

🍎 Apple
🍑 Peach

Both fillings are handmade, tucked inside our homemade sourdough pie crust, brushed with egg wash, and air fried until beautifully golden and flaky.

Why air fried? Because if we can make a delicious, crispy hand pie without dropping it into a vat of extra oil, that's exactly what we're going to do.

We've also been working out the process behind the scenes so we can make these consistently without cutting corners. Every crust is made, portioned, pressed, filled, sealed, and cooked by hand.

And yes... we already have ideas for more flavors. 😁

But apple and peach get the honor of going first.

Come see us at the Farmer's Market this Saturday and be among the first to try a Back to Eden sourdough hand pie!

We have a feeling these may not last long. 🥧❤️