High
@LaquerHead (I love that name - I see a well manicured wavy and jet-black coif that wouldn't budge in a breeze!)
OK, so i seem to have deleted the pics I took of the first 2 stages
but I think (hope!) describing will work.
Wash rice or some other starchy grain. I use warm or hot water and the last 2 times I've let it soak for an hour or so and had better results. I usually use about half a cup of rice and about a cup or so of hot water (boiled). Swish it around a few times while it soaks. Then strain and keep the liquid. Put the wash liquid into a jar that you can cover without sealing. It needs to be protected from bugs and stuff getting in but needs to be accessible to the 'freewheeling' bacteria floating around in the air. I did this with a mason jar and some cheesecloth doubled over.
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Once the ricewash is in this jar arrangement let it sit somewhere warm-ish with fresh air. Wait for anywhere from 2-5or so days - this process can depend a lot on environment. Sometimes it happens faster than others. What you will notice is that a lot of powdery looking stuff will settle on the bottom (sediment) and a very thin film will form on the top. This film should be pronounced but it is very thin, and may have some tiny mould particles in it, this is ok but if there's lots of mould you need to start again. Use your judgement here - if you think you can see a film on top, wait a day or so and you'll probably see it clearer. It should smell vaguely yeasty and sour at this stage.
The next step varies by person - some say to just strain it out, others say to siphon. The second 2 times I have siphoned using a syringe with a long plastic tube. This was much better. I got a cleaner liquid. What you're after is the liquid from the middle of the jar - not the sediment or the film.
Now add 10 parts fresh milk to every 1 part sour water - so if you have 100ml sour water, then add 1litre of milk. I use an organic unpasteurised from literally down the road but I think any milk will work (just not powdered or long-life, use fresh). This time you want to cover it so that no air can get in but air pressure can escape (that's important - imagine the explosion!).
Again, set it somewhere slightly warm-ish. And agin - the time this stage takes will vary depending on environment. Warm conditions will make it happen faster I think. At first it just looks like big jars of milk, but slowly over a few days it starts to separate. These have been 6 days in the jars and are nearly ready... (notice those lids - they're just placed on. If you use mason jars, for this stage you could use just the centre lid part without screwing it on - that's what I did last time and it worked well)
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How great is that culturing!? My partner said the other night that it was really active - who needs a lavalamp - just make lacto!
Wait till they're fully separated. What you want here, is the whey - the clear-ish liquid left under the curd - that's the good stuff! I'll probably siphon it out using the syringe, because these jars are hard to scoop the whey out of. Or I might just strain it through 2-3 layers of chesecloth.
Store it in the fridge. You can keep it at room temp but only if you add sugar or molasses to it at a 1:1 ratio (for the micro-herd to eat). I did that the first time and didn't like it so much so nowadays I just store in the fridge and this seems better - the microbes go a bit dormant I think, and then wake up when you use them.
So there - apologies I deleted, or simply couldn't find, my pics of the early and middle stages. When we get blogs back, I'll do a new one and blog it for posterity (or until the next site upgrade!
). I hope that's descriptive enough to help. Holler if you're trying it and need help!
Oh and you can use this as an accelerator for your fermented plant juices, if that's the way you're going, or just add it to your feedings and/or foliar sprays - it's a great anti-fungal.
MerryAnna's guide for use is this:
- soil feed: 15-30ml /gallon of water
- foliar spray: 15ml /gallon
- compost activator: 30ml in the heap
- making Fermented Plant Juice - add 30ml to the FPJ mix, quicker fermentation and less smelly by FAR.
- Fermented fish & seaweed extract: add 30ml to yucky stinky fish mix to lessen odour
(I think i've used it a bit stronger 1:10 in soil feed and 1:20 in foliar - my plants seem happy. I've used it in nearly every feed since mid veg and nearly every foliar too. And it was used in the seaweed ferment and the stinging-nettle ferment that I made)
The LAB is an organic, anaerobic bacteria culture which quickly digests biological waste, so you can even use it to unblock your drains... I've tried it - it works. You can also use it as a diluted spray around the house to eliminate odours (it's the true odour eater!). I go though it - which is why I made a double batch this time.
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