Valerie RU said: "Blutranes, do not take my comments personally, please. I am far away from treating (or medical treating) somebody. I will take it the same way I get it. Let us find out if the same can be said for you in the comfort of your own home. Apparently some around here insist on confusing "putrefaction" with "fermentation". And too, it would appear that some plan on consuming Bug Juice, BIM, EM, and other organic solutions. However I strongly suggest that one abandon such thoughts and adopt the practice of waiting until crops are harvested before eating/drinking them, not at the beginning of the growing process. These "teas" and all other decomposed organic materials are for use in the soil, NOT at the dinner table. Everyone, please make a mental note; "Compost tea is not to be drank by humans, ever." It may smell good; may even resemble something you drank last night; however, these liquids are again for the soil ONLY. One would be wise in truth to find something else to quench their thirst and live to drink another day. If one is not emotionally strong enough, or does not possess enough self-control to not drink the compost tea, BIM, or EM may I suggest you go and get your organic food from the nearest grocery store. " Yes, there is no LB there. But there are Yeasts. Yeasts are also unaerobic or slightly aerobic microotganisms." It is too late to start copy/pasting now; nor will trying to clean up skewed logic with doubletalk serve any purpose. Dr. Martin clearly states to keep the bug juice brew aerobic: " You have now mixed the ingredients, a handful of good compost and added water. Mix periodically to aerate the mix and leave the bucket in the sun. After one week, start applying the Bug Juice to the compost or table scraps you have collected, or directly to poor soil." The difference is in the amount of time the tea is allowed to brew (12 hours). To put focus on alcoholic mentality (equating everything with getting drunk) has nothing to do with organic gardening or making compost tea. We are talking about creating an environment where clean healthy soil, with an abundance of proactive microorganisms, is correcting the imbalance found within any given soil. To start contradicting yourself at this stage of the game is fruitless, and it changes nothing. "It is impossible to unite aerobic and unaerobic bacteria." Prof. Dr. T. Higa has done extensive research in the field of EM, and has established a worldwide commercial distribution of his organic discovery. At a conference 1989 the good doctor stated: "In particular, we found that zymogenic and synthetic microorganisms coexisting in soil suppressed the generation of heat and gas when fresh organic substances were plowed into the soil, and were extremely effective for the growth of crops and the increase of their yield. As I mentioned before, if fresh organic substances are plowed into soil which has putrescent microorganisms, harmful gas and heat are generated, affecting crops. However, we have observed that, if microorganisms in soil are predominantly zymogenic, organic substances plowed into soil are transformed into amino acids and saccharides, which are useful to plants, and are recycled as source of organic energy." And too: "The main microorganisms working in this process are synthetic microorganisms, such as photosynthetic bacteria and nitrogen fixing bacteria. Generally photosynthesis is the process in which water is decomposed into oxygen and hydrogen inside chlorophyll using sunlight energy, with oxygen being released into the air and hydrogen being used to reduce carbon dioxide to produce saccharides (carbohydrates)." The joining of aerobic (synthetic) and anaerobic (zymogenic/fermented) microorganisms is further explained" " This process can be simply realized by artificially changing the microflora in soil to those of the zymogenic type through the application of zymogenic microorganisms. Although this technique has drawn attention in the area of food and feed, no one ever thought of applying it to crop cultivation simply because the phenomenon is extremely exceptional in nature." Yet still further: " Therefore, if soil is changed to zymogenic and synthetic soil, in which zymogenic microorganisms and synthetic ones coexist, not only can organic substances be effectively used, but also the soil fertilizes itself under proper humidity and temperature. Since such soil can synthetically or zymogenically transform harmful substances produced in natural processes into useful substances, putrescent decomposers and disease bacteria cannot infest plants. As a result, soil becomes clean and healthy, and can withstand sudden changes in its environment." (see link below "8. Potential of Zymogenic and Synthetic Soil") Indeed it is very honorable to attempt to protect the membership with true concerns about techniques that may cause harm. However, to sling unfounded rhetoric without even bothering to review the data that is being discussed is plain foolish. Not withstanding, said procedures are now used world wide with a clear history of critical scrutiny from many areas of science firmly established speaks for itself. Finally, to vainly attempt to combine alcohol used for intoxication with fermentation techniques involving BIM, EM, or aerobic Bug Juice (compost tea) is silly to be kind, and asinine to be exact. Aerobic and fermented microorganisms can and have been combined in soil for growing healthy, nutritious, and safe organic foods. Also, it many areas of pollution control, animal feeds, and human health have said techniques been deployed successfully. Those who disagree with the use of Bug Juice, BIM, EM, and both aerobic/anaerobic compost tea have every right to do so. However, to troll threads throughout the community twisting information that has not even been read leaves much to be desired. Let us trust that such antics will immediately come to a halt so we can go about the business of making and/or using compost, soil, and mulch Blutranes

What Gil taught us at the farm is that it doesn't matter what kind of rice wash you use. You can get technical and experiment with different kinds of rice wash...but for him, it's starchy water (aka CARBS) that are important. There was an American at the seminar (I'm in the Philippines and the seminar was at Gil's farm) who asked if he could use potato wash since he doesn't prepare rice back home. Gil's response? "What do you think?" *wink* We Filipinos eat rice with every meal, so we get rice wash all the time. A woman in the seminar who was lactating even asked if she could use breast milk. Gil said breast milk is the best milk, and if she can afford to pump THAT MUCH milk to make lactobacilli culture, then go ahead...but of course he quipped, "Why deprive your baby of breast milk when you can use the cheapest pasteurized milk in the market for culturing lactobacilli?" He also said that he uses the curd on top of his culture for bread spreads. :) It's basically cottage cheese. When he's feeling "gourmet-ish", he'll pick some herbs in the garden and toss them in with the lactobacilli while it's fermenting and he'd have herb cheese. :)

I make my own soda, most often crafted root beer. Fresh ginger has an enzyme, when provided sugar, propagates (or "ferments") creating CO2. I use the ginger's enzymes to carbonate my homemade sodas. The fermenting process does create minute amounts of alcohol less than 1%. To stop the fermentation, keep refrigerated. The ginger in the soda is great for digestion. In the old days, the early 1900s, root beer stands carbonated their root beer with ginger. That root beer was good for you. Companies removed yeast, ginger and natural ingredients from their recipes partly to comply with "no alcohol" rules, partly to make long term storage easy, and partly to make more money. Now all soda sold commercially now, is quite bad for you. Keep drinking your ginger beverages.

Hope it works for you. Here are a few of my observations and notes. I get some variation in the strength of the ginger flavor. I can grow my own here but this year was sooooo wet that I think the ginger is less strong. Store bought ginger is probably more uniform. You may want to try some different sweeteners but remember this is not just to sweeten the lemon juice but it's also food for the yeast. I don't know if yeast will do equally well on sugar substitutes like stevia. I like the light brown Zulka granulated sugar. I tried honey, thinking it would go great with the ginger and lemon flavors but I wasn't in love with the final flavor. I plan to try honey again, possibly as a blend. The original recipe called for filtered water (to remove the chlorine so as not to kill the yeast) but that recipe also only boiled a portion of the water and added the rest of the water after the cook period. I prefer to boil the entire water quantity since I think it helps to extract the most flavor from the ginger. Finally, remember to add the lemon juice AFTER the mixture has cooled down to near room temp. This helps keep the lemony flavor fresh and bright! Please share your improvements and challenges/solutions if you have any.