Fizzy, Fun Fruit Kvass

Marge (00:00:06) - In this week's episode of Bite Me, we are doing a fruit kvass beverage. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host and Certified Ganjier. Marge and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here. And thank you for joining me today. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Bite Me, the show about edibles. Thank you for being here and taking the time out of your busy day to share it with me. I really appreciate it. If you're tuning in for the first time, let me know how you discovered the show. I love to hear from new listeners, and if you've been with me for a while, thanks for joining me on this wild ride. We just celebrated five years of Bite Me episodes just last week, and of course it was also my birthday, Summer solstice, Father's Day. What a busy week it was last week, and of course I celebrated with cake and I celebrated with lots of cake.

Marge (00:01:09) - So I'm all caked out for a while. And as many of you have been requesting some low carb, diabetic friendly, small ingredient lists, breakfast foods, savory stuff, we're going to be focusing on some of those in the upcoming weeks, and I think that's going to be necessary for myself as well, because as much as I have a sweet tooth, I do recognize that sometimes you got to back off the sweets a little bit, and I think I must have put on £5 of cake wake cake weight over the last week. That cake, it was delicious. If you want to try it out because you're looking to do a specialty cake or something a little extra for a special event that you have coming up. This celebration cake is worth a shot, but it's rich, it's hearty, it's got white chocolate right in the cake batter, whipping cream, cream cheese like it is rich. It's decadent and it's delicious. Now the recipe as it's written, I finally did get it up onto the web page for the episode.

Marge (00:02:14) - I'm going to be uploading it also into the recipes page very soon, so you can find it there as well. This cake, as it's written, makes a big cake. It will serve the rest. I didn't realize until too late that as written, it serves 40 to 50 people according to the recipe book. Now, I didn't use the same size cake pan when I made that cake, as they recommended in the book. So I ended up with five cakes, five cakes from cake tins, and so I ended up doing two two layer cakes and a single layer cake. And yeah. So I've been eating and sharing lots of cake with with lots of people, but I digress before we get into this week's episode, trying to think if I had anything to report, I don't have any fan mail to read or recent reviews. So of course, if any of you want to give me something to talk about in next week's episode, by all means please share. I thought we would do something we haven't done in a while.

Marge (00:03:16) - Stone or trivia? That's right. We did a segment for stoner trivia for a little while, and then I went to Germany and I forgot my cards. I was doing things you can make with hemp. I sort of went through that for a while, to which I really enjoyed that segment as well. But they say there's like 25,000 different things you can make with hemp, which is pretty incredible in my opinion. When you start to really drill down, I think I covered a lot of the big ones. And of course, one of my favorite things you can make with hemp is 8000 kicks. The sneakers that I recently discovered when I was looking for ethically made clothing and apparel and shoes fell into that category. And when, of course, when I found out they were made with hemp, I had to have Bernardo on the show. So that was really cool. That was like a full circle moment. Stoner trivia. We haven't done this in a while. I thought it would just be fun to pull up the cards for old times sake.

Marge (00:04:13) - What do we have for today? This is a knowledge question the author considered the master of horror. Oh, sorry. Let me try that again. This author, considered the master of horror, said, I think marijuana should not only be legal, but it should be a cottage industry. That was either Eli Roth, John Carpenter, Stephen King or Anne Rice, who said, I think marijuana should not only be legal, it should be a cottage industry. If you guessed Stephen King, you are correct and master of horror. He indeed is. I haven't read a Stephen King book in quite some time, but maybe I should pick some up. He's been pretty prolific that that fellow writing all kinds of books. Can't remember the last Stephen King book that I read, but it actually wasn't that long ago, and I remember being very compelling. I actually did read the Stephen King wrote a series of short stories, and I read one of his short story books from very early in his career, and they were fantastic.

Marge (00:05:18) - That man has a gift. But of course, that's why he's Stephen King. And I agree with you, Steve. If I may, if I may. I agree with you that marijuana should be a cottage industry. I think in a lot of ways, even in Canada, even though it's legal and I'm blessed to live in a place where cannabis is legal, the rural rules and regulations around cannabis sometimes are so stringent they treat it as though you're dealing with explosives. It feels like sometimes, and I long for the days and it will be more on par with alcohol. I mean, how wonderful would it be when I can go to the bar instead of ordering a beer or a glass of wine or a cocktail, I could order a cannabis beverage. I think that would be a real game changer, because I do enjoy alcohol, like most people, like many folks. But I am so aware that I have to really limit the amount that I drink because it doesn't make me feel good. And I know I'm getting older and that's probably contributing to it, but even when I was younger, I would notice, you know, the morning after a night evening of drinking and an evening and drinking could be like 2 or 3 beverages.

Marge (00:06:31) - We're not talking like anything excessive, but I might wake up with like. A mild headache. I can feel it in my fingers. My rings would be a little harder to get on like that. Puffiness in the fingers, sometimes in the under eyes. A little bit of this, you could almost feel the inflammation. And so that's just right there. That tells me that. Alcohol is really not that great for you. And of course in Canada they recently changed the guidelines for how much alcohol you should be drinking, and it's a lot less than people would think. I can't remember what it is offhand, but it's sort of like for women drink no more than like a drink or something like that at one sitting, which isn't very much, but I would love the opportunity to go to a bar and instead be able to consume a cannabis beverage and edible. I mean, that would be. That's my ideal, but I digress. Today we are talking about beverages though. Speaking of berry kvass, if you weren't familiar.

Marge (00:07:37) - And I'm having a glass of it right now as I record this. I made this several days ago. It keeps for a week in the refrigerator. It's feeling very summery here as of late. And I love cannabis beverages. I've done a number of interviews with people about cannabis beverages on the show. I have one coming up that I'm really excited about, but you don't have to wait, and you don't have to go to the dispensary to buy to make yourself a really effective, tasty cannabis beverage. And fruit kvass is a fermented drink as well, so it's delicately fizzy with the gentle, berry rich sweetness. This fruit kvass is delicious and refreshing. It's a perfect use for your summer fruit, and makes a healthy drink that's low in sugar, brimming with nutrients and rich and beneficial bacteria. And that is the description for fruit kvass from Nourished Kitchen. And that's where I pulled this recipe from. I really love Jenny and her work. I have thought about reaching out to her to have her on this show, just because she's really into the slow food movement and cooking from scratch.

Marge (00:08:46) - But also she has a lot of recipes that aren't necessarily super complicated when you think of cooking from scratch. Because as much as we all want to do that and incorporate that more into our lives, sometimes it's just not that feasible when you have a lot going on in your life, but this particular beverage is not going to add a lot of time and energy to your day. And that's one of the things that I really like about it now, she says in the post. That where she writes about this recipe, that it's a fermented drink from Eastern Europe. And typically kvass is made by fermenting rye bread in water. However, several variations exist, including beet kvass. Now, I own a couple of Jenny McGuire's cookbooks. She is the author and the the culinary mind behind Nourished Kitchen and her cookbooks are awesome, and I've made a number of fermented drinks from her first cookbook off hand. It's really escaping me. The name of it. Even though it's like a super simple name, it might even be something like Nourish Kitchen, but I'll link to it in the show notes so you can find it.

Marge (00:09:51) - And I have made a number of fermented drinks from that book, and that's sort of where I first discovered making things like a ginger bug, which is something that you can use. It's a it's like a ginger slurry. It's a sugar and ginger fermentation you can use to make sodas and stuff. And I have made a beet kvass in the past more than once. And I can tell you, if you enjoy fermented drinks and you enjoy beets, you might really enjoy a beet kvass, but it does taste very much like beets. So if you like that earthy earthiness of beets, it's it's very much like that. It has that earthy flavor that beets offer, which is kind of unusual to drink. That's what was interesting about it, because we are not accustomed to usually drinking beets, even though beet sugar is used in a lot in the industry to sweeten things up, because beets can be made very sweet when you add some sugar to them. But it was an interesting beverage to try, and I don't know when I made it if I was really as into sparkling water as I am now, because I really I've become a real lover of sparkling water, and I feel like the beet kvass could be something that would be really nice with a sparkling water, to sort of tone it down a little bit and stretch it further.

Marge (00:11:09) - And I have done that a little bit with this berry kvass, this fruit kvass, because I added some of the berry kvass with a little sparkling water. And it kind of reminded me of like drinking Lacroix, if you like those types of flavored, flavored sparkling waters, because I tend to buy plain sparkling waters myself because I'm always like, what are they using to actually flavor these drinks? I'm not really sure, but this one. I think this one, obviously, when you're out of your own berry kvass, you fermented yourself, you can be pretty safe. That's going to be good for you. And essentially this recipe calls for three ingredients. It's going to call for fruit. Salt. And that gives you the bit of electrolytes and supports a healthy environment for the fermentation and honey, which feeds the beneficial bacteria that transform the fruit and water into the kvass. And this is where you can use some of your infused honey, which is what I did. There is some research on kvass, but there isn't a lot of research.

Marge (00:12:18) - But when you're looking overall at the benefits of a fermented food or a fermented drink, those that research is well documented. They're rich and beneficial bacteria. And when they're made from fruit, they're also rich in various antioxidants. And that's what does give the berry kvass. In this instance we're using berries. So I'm going to call it berry kvass and fruit kvass interchangeably. But it does give it a really rich rose color, which I really love. Fermenting fruit also enhances its antioxidant capacity. So you sort of making your fruit turn into a, a, a real powerhouse fruit juice that is rich in probiotics. It can also support cellular health and combat inflammation. And of course, its rich and beneficial bacteria because you're fermenting it. And these this fruit kvass is really easy to make. And I'm going to note that because I've done I've done fermented drinks, I've done fermented sodas. I don't know if I've told this story on this show before, but I do recall, I wish I can remember which soda it was that I was making, but it was red in color and I was making a soda.

Marge (00:13:27) - It might have been based with a ginger bug, because you can use the ginger bug to make these fermented sodas. And I remember this was when I was still living at the old house before I moved out. And this was several years ago, but I had this soda that had been fermenting on my countertop for the pre for the amount of time that was required. And I was heading out and my daughter was home with me and we are going to be leaving. But before we left, I was like, hey, would you like to try a glass of this before we go? And she said, sure. So I went over to this jar, this deep red soda that had been fermenting on my countertop, and I used one of those flip top bottles, and those are the ones with like, the cork or the cap with the metal frame thing that really closes it tight to create a great fermentation environment. And oftentimes in these types of recipes, you have to burp it a couple times a day to allow some of the pressure out that can build up in these.

Marge (00:14:25) - And I had been doing that, but I don't know what exactly led to this particular happening. But I got out a couple of glasses from the cupboard, and I drew the bottle towards me because it was at the back of the counter and I flipped open. That flip top cap and that so much pressure had built up in that bottle that it guys hard out of the top, like it hit the ceiling and came down and made a huge mess. And it looked like a literal crime scene in my kitchen right before we had to leave to go somewhere. And of course, I'm furiously trying to clean it up. My daughter's helping me. We did manage to save some of it. Not everything guys are out of the bottle, but we were able to enjoy a glass of this delightful soda in the kitchen after a hasty cleanup before we had to leave the house. And of course, that's the only time that that's happened to me. I've never had a flip top bottle. Oh, I've never had an explosion like that happen to me before.

Marge (00:15:28) - Even though I've read that many times. That can happen. You do have to be careful with the bottle. Sometimes you want good quality bottles because the pressure buildup can be so much that they can break sometimes too. I've never had that happen either. It's pretty easy to find good quality glass bottles for these types of projects, and you can pick them up almost anywhere, but these are a couple of things you do have to be aware of. And I have made kombucha. I've made water coffees. I've made homemade sodas, I made kvass. So when I saw this one, I was like, you know what? I'm starting to see berries out at the market. I've actually managed to make it to the market the last few weeks in a row because I made I hadn't been making it to the market. The berries have been lovely and they're rich and color and they smell so good. It's always I love walking into the market and then just smelling the fresh strawberries in the air. So it's really easy to make.

Marge (00:16:17) - And basically you toss some berries into a jar, you pour some of the water over it and that's it. That's that's pretty much it. So use the best quality fruit that you can. You want to avoid mushy, blemished fruit that's at the end of its shelf life because you don't want any unwanted bacteria in your kvass. You want to burp your jar every day. Carbon dioxide builds up during the fermentation process, and this burping allows you to release some of that extra gas. You can avoid having a geyser into your kitchen like I did that one time, and you're going to gently shake the jar every day. I was doing it sort of morning and night just to keep in, a habit. But I mean, if you did it more often than that, I don't think that would hurt. And the practice is just to help to help prevent mold from forming and potentially making your kvass go bad. And if you are going to be making some of these types of beverages on a regular basis, investing in flip top bottles for fermented drinks and natural probiotic sodas is a good idea.

Marge (00:17:20) - You only need like a couple. You can get them usually in a 750 milliliter or a liter size, and that will work just fine. And they capture the carbon dioxide that builds up during the fermentation process to make your drinks naturally bubbly, without the use of having to use sparkling water, for instance, or a soda stream either. In this particular recipe, it calls for strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, four cups of water, a half teaspoon of sea salt, and your two tablespoons of honey. I used infused honey for this one, and of course, if you didn't want to do that, the other option is to just to stir in a little bit of your infused honey into the drink when you're ready to enjoy it. And that way you can tailor it to the preference of anybody who happens to be drinking this berry kvass. Anyone who's lucky enough to have it shared with them. So basically you're going to and I think when I made this, actually, I, I was at the market and I bought strawberries and they looked so delicious, but they didn't have raspberries.

Marge (00:18:21) - So I just use strawberries and blueberries for this particular recipe. Raspberries would be nice as well, but you know, you got to use what you have on hand or what you can get. You just dump the berries into a jar. Then you're going to whisk the water, salt and honey together in a medium sized pitcher. And then you pour it over the berries. You had a little bit of headspace about an inch, and then you discard any remaining brine. And it's called brine basically because of the salt in the water. And then you seal the jar and shake now sadly. I didn't have my flip top bottle, so I did it in a regular jar so it didn't get as bubbly as I would have liked it myself. I have flip top jars, I think somewhere in a bin because I have a whole bunch of kitchen, stuff that's still packed away. Because when I moved to my new house, I was moving in with my father, and he's got all kinds of stuff, and I didn't.

Marge (00:19:14) - We just don't really need two sets of a bunch of things, because as a fun fact, he hasn't really done it in a while. But my dad loves to bake, and I think that's because he too has a sweet tooth and I know exactly where I got it from. But he loves to bake and he hasn't been doing it as much, like I said in the last couple of years, probably. But he used to win baking competitions at his church like 2 or 3 years in a row, and he really does enjoy the process. So he had a lot of baking stuff already. A lot of the things that I own that I left packed were glass or a lot of glass, and so they're all wrapped in newspaper, and I really didn't have the energy to go through for totes of kitchen supplies that. Just for flip top bottle that I couldn't exactly remember if I had. Like I used to own a quite a number of them because I was really into making kombucha and water kefir and things like that, like several years ago.

Marge (00:20:10) - I know I didn't bring them all with me when I moved out of the old house, but I must have brought 1 or 2. In any case, the flip top bottles really do make a difference as far as dizziness goes, but they're not a requirement. I used a regular jar. They don't. It's not going to get as bubbly, possibly. But again, this is where you might want to add, say a little a little sparkling water to it to add that fizz. Or you can drink it a little more flat, which is what I'm doing right now. And basically once you put together this concoction, you allow the fruit kvass to ferment at room temperature for about three days. So I would shake it, give it a shake in the morning at night, and that's when I would burp the jar as well. And once the three days has passed, you strain the kvass through a sieve and you discard the fruit, or you compost it, and then you can transfer it to a clean bottle, serve it right away, or store it in the fridge for up to a week.

Marge (00:21:05) - And it's that simple. So that's why I like these. Sometimes these sort of fermentation projects, because you have a little bit of hands on time and then yeah, you have to wait a few days before it's ready. But then once you do like the actual hands on time during that process is pretty minimal. So that's why I like this recipe. And I think you will too. Now there's a couple of substitutions you can try. Why not? Diced peaches, nectarines and plums, cherries to make a stone fruit kvass. And I think that sounds really nice. It'd be interesting to try that. It would be a very different flavor. You could also swap diced apples for the berries, or add a stick of cinnamon or a few pods of star anise. Or is it nice? I never really know which it is. There's also the suggestion to add herbs, mint, camomile, or two suggestions. I think mint would be lovely with this berry. Kvass probably would work well with the stone fruit.

Marge (00:21:59) - The camomile would be nice with the stone fruit as well. Now she does give the recommendation on the Nourish Kitchen website. How much should you drink? And if you're not used to drinking or eating fermented foods, you need to start slowly to prevent unpleasant side effects. I've never really had that issue myself. Of course, I've been enjoying fermented foods for a long time, and I find things like, sauerkraut is a great way to get say something like cabbage into your diet that's fermented and offers all these like beneficial bacteria. And I love the sauerkraut on things like burgers and hot dogs. Not that I eat a whole ton of hot dogs, but just the idea of it sounds delicious to me. And so if you're not really used to eating or drinking these types of foods, you want to avoid the unpleasant side effects. So she talks. She recommends starting with two tablespoons diluted in water and working up to a quarter cup to a cup at a time. Now, she says. You can also use frozen fruit.

Marge (00:22:55) - I've never tried it with frozen fruit and frankly, at the time of this recording were in June and you can go to the grocery store or local farmer's market, and there's lots of options for fruit available that's really fresh and often local. Maybe the frozen fruit might be something I would try in the winter time, when I have less access to the fresh stuff. And that's basically it. It takes three days. I mean, maybe you could do an extra day, but and you have a lovely summery drink that you can impress your friends with. You can dilute it a little bit with your favorite sparkling water. I'm thinking summery. It feels so summery. It looks so pretty and I think that you would really enjoy this recipe. So if you try to let me know how you find it, if you came across any challenges while you're putting it together, if you found yours particularly bubbly, if you have any questions, by all means please let me know. I'd love to hear from you all because I feel like it.

Marge (00:23:55) - It reminds me that I'm not talking to myself or out into the ether. So if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone you care about. Because sharing is caring. And of course, you know what won't explode when you try to open it and enjoy it. The products and services on the Marge Recommends page, which if you use those, it helps directly to support the show. I'm your host, Marj. And until next time my friends stay high.