Photographer and Boing Boing reader Fred Facker of Houston, TX shares this image with the Boing Boing Flickr pool. "Just a floating log next to our canoe."

"You can go get the canoe," he writes. "I'll catch up." ]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/07/14/gator-and-canoe-texa.html/feed 13 http://boingboing.net/2011/05/09/8-year-old-plays-fli.html http://boingboing.net/2011/05/09/8-year-old-plays-fli.html#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 15:05:26 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder

[Video Link] As one YouTuber commented: "First time I've ever seen the Millennium Falcon next to a taxidermied fox."]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/05/09/8-year-old-plays-fli.html/feed 38 http://boingboing.net/2011/04/20/bury-dont-shred-your.html http://boingboing.net/2011/04/20/bury-dont-shred-your.html#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:23:17 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder

I had 52 pounds of documents that I needed to get rid of securely. My wimpy shredder would choke on that much paper, and the quotes I got from onsite shredding services were too costly for me.

So, I dug a hole in my backyard and buried the papers. I'm curious to find out how long it will take for the papers to decompose.

I wasn't sure that the hole I dug was big enough to hold all the papers.

It turns out there was room to spare! I mixed in as much dirt as I could to accelerate the composting process.

I filled the top foot of the hole with dirt. Mission accomplished, along with some pleasant outdoor exercise!]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/04/20/bury-dont-shred-your.html/feed 155 http://boingboing.net/2011/04/20/to-do-in-austin-tx-t.html http://boingboing.net/2011/04/20/to-do-in-austin-tx-t.html#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2011 05:50:37 +0000 Xeni Jardin

BB reader J. Woods says,

If you're in Austin this Saturday, check out the third annual Funky Chicken Coop Tour--there's no food more sustainable and local than eggs from your own backyard! We also have an Info Center with a drawing for a free chicken coop, along with other cool chicken-related prizes. It's a free, self-guided tour using maps downloaded from our website. You can also see some of the coops on videos.

Above: Coop #8 on the 2011 Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour map.Video Link.]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/04/20/to-do-in-austin-tx-t.html/feed 3 http://boingboing.net/2011/03/30/to-do-for-free-in-ny.html http://boingboing.net/2011/03/30/to-do-for-free-in-ny.html#comments Wed, 30 Mar 2011 04:45:27 +0000 Xeni Jardin

Boing Boing reader cinemajay says,

My wife and I just returned from NYC where we saw "Infinite Variety," an exhibition of 650 red and white quilts. As the husband of a quilter I'm used to going to craft-related events, but this was absolutely breathtaking in scope and presentation. It was nothing short of magical, and I say that with the seriousness of an Amish heart attack. So if you're in NYC today, (the last day of the exhibit) do yourself a favor and check it out--oh, the event is also totally and completely free.

More about the exhibit in the Financial Times. "Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts" takes place at Armory on Park. Image: untitled work from the collection of Joanna S. Rose, photo by Gavin Ashworth. ]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/03/30/to-do-for-free-in-ny.html/feed 15 http://boingboing.net/2011/03/21/hotline-for-saving-b.html http://boingboing.net/2011/03/21/hotline-for-saving-b.html#comments Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:50:12 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder Backwards Beekeepers, a no-treatment beekeepers club I belong to.

1. Tell us about your organization. The Backwards Beekeepers are dedicated to saving the native honey bee population by teaching chemical-free beekeeping. We have monthly meetings in L.A. and also advise beekeepers all over the world.

2. How are you using Google Voice? We use our Google Voice number for the Bee Rescue Hotline. People all over L.A. call the hotline when they find unwelcome bees in their garages, hot tubs, trees, chimneys and such. We get their message on our Google Voice account and email it to our list of almost 500 beekeepers (and aspiring ones). Someone claims the job, contacts the caller and picks up the bees.

I don't know about you, but I could use something kind of soothing this morning. Please enjoy this 4-minute video journey through the entire Appalachian Trail, and have a happy Monday.

Via the BB Submitterator, reader kentbrew says,

Here is an instructional Flickr set that shows you exactly how to turn the carrots you allowed to grow way beyond the point where they were edible by human beings into something verrrry close to bacon.

How to Turn Carrots into Bacon! (Flickr)]]> http://boingboing.net/2010/08/09/how-to-turn-carrots.html/feed 83 http://boingboing.net/2010/07/05/bamboo-charlie-homel.html http://boingboing.net/2010/07/05/bamboo-charlie-homel.html#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:06:35 +0000 Xeni Jardin

"I love the expression on people's faces when they come here," says "Bamboo Charlie" Walker in this Los Angeles Times profile. "A homeless man with toys? Whoa!"

For the better part of 18 years, Charles Ray Walker, a homeless man from Houston, has made his home near the junctions of the 5, 10, 60 and 101 freeways in Boyle Heights, on a plot with a shock of green bamboo trees. There, he grows nectarines, peaches and strawberries and displays a collection of found objects.

The White House has a very nice beehive. But I think the President should invite my daughters over to teach his daughters how to process the honey themselves!

This beehive on the South Lawn is a first for the White House. The busy bees pollinate the kitchen garden, flora all over Washington and provide honey for the White House kitchen. Take a look at this year's colony, estimated at about 70,000 bees, and listen to how the idea for a beehive on the South Lawn came about.

A quick little goodie from Boing Boing Video. Last night, I sat in on a live recording session at Santa Monica's Village Studios with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, described as "African-American string band revivalists." They were amazing: I have never been so emotionally moved by someone playing a musical jug (and banjos, fiddles, cow bones, and kazoos). Their performance was witnessed by a handful of music biz folks and oldtime music enthusiasts, and made me feel deeply homesick for Appalachia (I'm also craving cornbread and butterbeans today - there's a song for that).

The Chocolate Drops have a new record coming out in 2010, and Boing Boing will be all over it like gravy on grits. If you dig R. Crumb, Smithsonian Folkways recordings of pre-blues and pre-bluegrass banjo music, and love folks who bring new life to authentic American music, you will flip out.

So, the video above: after the Drops' performance and recording session ended, Dom Flemons (of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, seated in center in the video), Blind Boy Paxton (seated at left in the video), and Frank Fairfield (seated far right) sat down together and jammed pure, sweet magic for a spell. I wasn't prepared with a proper camera or crew, but I grabbed my iPhonetraption out of my pocket and got to shootin'. I hope you enjoy it as much as everyone in the room did. Pure magic, these guys.

(Special thanks to Joe Henry; Jeff Greenberg of Village Studios; Tom Osborn, Warner Bros. Records; David Bither, Nonesuch Records, and to Boing Boing Video's tireless editor, Eric Mittleman.)

]]> http://boingboing.net/2009/11/06/nouveau-oldtime-jam.html/feed 9 http://boingboing.net/2009/10/28/goat-rentals-for-cle.html http://boingboing.net/2009/10/28/goat-rentals-for-cle.html#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:51:01 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder
GOOD reports on the Seattle-based Rent-a-Ruminant organization that hires out goats to people who want to clear brush on their property.

[R]ather than spending tons of money and time on diesel-powered machines, filing the proper permits, and administering dangerous herbicides, the Seattle-based Rent-a-Ruminant organization will loan your a team of 100 goats for all your brush-clearing needs--all at a very modest rates. As Serious Eats explains, the benefits of goats are numerous: they eat just about anything, they can work on uneven ground, you don't need permits to use them, and they can clear a quarter-acre in about three days.

A face mask with which to attract hungry, curious hummingbirds, $80 from heatstick.com. The masks do look silly, and the website is nothing if not homebaked. But if the maker's YouTube videos are to be believed, these contraptions do attract the little buggers and make for amazing eye-to-eye encounters with one of the most magical winged creatures on the planet. I'm kind of dying to try one out.

Using and enjoying the feeder is a two step process. The first is to acquaint the hummingbirds with the feeder. We set an old can of paint on a small shelf on the side of the barn and slipped the feeder onto the can. It wasn't long before the hummingbirds found it, and after a little searching, found the feeding station. Then we let them get familiar with the feeder for a few days. Finally we set a chair next to the shelf, removed the feeder from the can, slipped it on and waited. One never forgets the first time a hummingbird suddenly arrives at the feeder right in front of your eyes.

Product: "Eye to Eye Wearable Hummingbird Feeder." The guy behind it lives in California's Humboldt County, and has invented some other neat earth-gadgety stuff, too, like the Veg-a-Lot growing shelter [heatstick.com].

(Thanks, Dean Putney!)]]> http://boingboing.net/2009/10/24/wearable-hummingbird.html/feed 23 http://boingboing.net/2009/10/21/wwoof---world-wide-o.html http://boingboing.net/2009/10/21/wwoof---world-wide-o.html#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:30:12 +0000 ConnieKimchi

Boing Boing guestblogger Connie Choe is a health and culture writer by day and a professional kimchimonger by night.

Having lived in suburbia for the past 20 years, I often hear desperation-tinged fantasies (my own, mostly)of wanting to flee this neatly manicured existence to someplace that is rather different and very beautiful, but that's not too expensive and preferably not mucked up by other travelers.

For anyone else who seconds this emotion, I believe the answer to our yearnings is WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). Here's how it works: You choose a host organic farm in whichever country you like and arrange a temporary stay (ranging from a few days up to several months) during which you will work without pay in exchange for food and shelter. It's all the fun of being an indentured servant or migrant laborer without all the obligations!

If you're thinking that this is mostly the sort of thing that middle class 20-somethings do right after finishing their undergrad education, you are probably right. But why let them have all the fun? There's always an excuse like, "I lack the strength and heartiness of a farmhand" or "I really enjoy being under fluorescent lights for 50 hours a week" but I would venture to say that if you think those excuses are valid, maybe you never really wanted to leave home in the first place.

Here's an example of one farm listing in Denmark:

We live on a lovely 100-years-old traditional farm with horses, cats, bees, ducks and sheep. Close to the sea, centrally located in sunny Halsnæs. Near by is Dyssekilde eco-village and the costal cycling path. Eco bed & break-fast and basic camping facilities. In addition, we have a wood-carver and two blacksmiths on the farm.

Work: there is plenty to do; building, chopping wood, tending the animals, cutting willow, developing the garden, general farm work, weeding, all depending on the season. We often go for a (morning) swim in the sea.

Hardworking guests are welcome during in January (willows) Spring (gardening), Summer (weeding) + building/renovating. Experience in farm work and/or building preferable, as is a genuine interest in organic farming and environmental issues.

Accommodation in a cosy wagon.

We speak English and a little German and even less French.

If this sounds half as dreamy to you as it does to me, I encourage you to make it happen ... I double dog dare you.

WWOOF - World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

Photo courtesy of Howard F. Schwartz, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org / CC 3.0 ]]> http://boingboing.net/2009/10/21/wwoof---world-wide-o.html/feed 18 http://boingboing.net/2009/10/13/ghost-town-tour.html http://boingboing.net/2009/10/13/ghost-town-tour.html#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:00:29 +0000 Maggie Koerth-Baker

Ransom Riggs, over at the mental_floss blog, has a great pictorial tour of Bodie, California--America's quintessential ghost town. I remember reading about Bodie in my Childcraft Encyclopedias back in the day, and I'm excited to finally see the whole thing up close...

A mining boomtown, it was the third most populous city in the state of California in 1880. By the 1940s sickness, wars, bad weather and exhausted mines had led to the town's desertion, and its isolated, inhospitable location made certain that it stayed that way; no one eyed this high desert waste, 8,000 feet above sea level between Yosemite and the lonely Nevada border, and imagined a shopping mall in its place.

Only five percent of Bodie's structures are still standing, but considering how large Bodie was, that's still a lot for a ghost town -- more than two hundred. And unlike Tombstone, Calico or any number of other "preserved" ghost towns in the West, it's not a tourist trap where you can buy cotton candy from gunfight-staging actors playing oldey-timey cowboys; the town is kept in a state of "arrested decay,"

Gloriously haunting photos (pardon the pun) and some nifty history await. Check it out.

Image courtesy Flickr user mulmatsherm, via CC

Homegrown Evolution has an interesting story about Asian citrus psylid, and ant-sized insect that could spell doom for California citrus.

The Asian citrus psylid is not a problem in itself, but carries an incurable bacterial disease called huanglongbing (HLB). HLB, first reported in Asia in 1919, renders citrus fruit inedible and eventually kills the tree. Parts of Africa, Asia and South America are infected with HLB and in some regions of Brazil the disease is so bad that they've given up growing citrus altogether. HLB is in Florida and is adding to a nightmarish collection of other diseases afflicting citrus in the Sunshine State. Now California growers are panicking with the appearance of the psylid.

Seneca [author of Letters from a Stoic] would say, do what is in your power to do and don't worry about what you can't fix. Taleb [author of The Black Swan] would advise always maximizing upside potential while minimizing exposure to the downside. My unsentimental conclusion: don't try to grow citrus. If I had a mature tree I'd leave it in place and rip it out at the first sign of HLB. Despite the state's offer to replace any HLB infected tree with a free citrus tree I wouldn't take them up on the offer. In our case we have three small, immature citrus trees that are already chewed up by citrus leafminers. I'm pondering pulling them up and replacing them with fruit trees unrelated to citrus. This follows our stoic, get tough policy in the garden. Planting a tree entails a considerable investment in time. It can take years to get fruit. Why not plant pomegranate instead and let other people worry about citrus diseases? If a pomegranate disease shows up, rip it up and plant something else. Following this approach will eliminate habitat for the psylid and negate the need for pesticides.

The Smithsonian Institution has an online collection of seed catalog art. If King Corn ever runs for president, I'll vote for him, because his crown is cool. (Via City Farmer) ]]> http://boingboing.net/2009/09/22/gallery-of-old-timey.html/feed 19 http://boingboing.net/2009/09/08/photos-from-kraut-fe.html http://boingboing.net/2009/09/08/photos-from-kraut-fe.html#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:22:24 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder

About 160 heads came to Kraut Fest 2009, held at Machine Project in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 6.

Of those 160 heads, 40 were human and 120 were cabbage. The humans were there to learn how to change the cabbage into sauerkraut (based on my Russian grandmother's recipe), kimchi, and choucroute garni (a "meat fiesta" from the Alsace region in France).

I recognized the nice couple in the photo above from Picklefest 2008, which was held last year at Machine Project. The couple that ferments together stays together!

Many thanks to Machine Project founder Mark Allen for hosting the event, Slow Food LA for sponsoring it, Urban Homestead authors Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen for organizing it, Granny Choe for the kimchi lessons, and Jean-Pail Monsché for the mouth watering choucroute garni!

Photos of Krautfest 2009]]> http://boingboing.net/2009/09/08/photos-from-kraut-fe.html/feed 17 http://boingboing.net/2009/09/02/i-will-teach-you-how.html http://boingboing.net/2009/09/02/i-will-teach-you-how.html#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:14:46 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder

If you want to learn how to make sauerkraut, kimchi, and choucroute garni, head over to Machine Project in Los Angeles this Sunday, September 6, for Kraut Fest 2009!

I'm teaching how to make sauerkraut (ridiculously easy) but I really am looking forward to learning how to make kimchi from Granny Choe!

UPDATE: the class is now SOLD OUT. If you signed up, I'll see you there!

Taught by Mark Frauenfelder, Erik Knutzen, Kelly Coyne, Jean-Paul Monsche, and the winner of Critter’s 2009 Kimchi Competition, Oghee “Granny” Choe.

Come learn how to make your own sauerkraut, kimchi, and choucroute garni, the signature dish of Alsace (described to us as a ridiculous meat fiesta).

11am - Making Sauerkraut - click HERE for a list of ingredients to bring!

12pm - Making Kimchi - click HERE for a list of ingredients to bring!

1pm - Choucroute Garni presentation & sampling

You can register to make either kimchi or sauerkraut for $10, or both for $15. Registration gets you a “kraut kit” consisting of a bucket, a plate to fit in the bucket and a limited edition, hand-silkscreened poster (see here).

Participants will need to bring their own ingredients (we’ll provide the shopping list). Funded in part by a grant from Slow Food LA. Thank you Slow Food LA!

Alan Graham's home made automatic chicken door has mine beat by a country mile, because he can run it from his iPhone. His hens sure are cute.]]> http://boingboing.net/2009/09/01/alan-grahams-automat.html/feed 8 http://boingboing.net/2009/09/01/gallery-of-chicken-c.html http://boingboing.net/2009/09/01/gallery-of-chicken-c.html#comments Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:44:23 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder

"Beautiful coop built by Jeff Taylor and his granddaughter, Jayda, pictured."

My Pet Chicken (the place I ordered my baby Barred Plymouth Rocks hens from) has a gallery of chicken coops built from scratch.

Also, My Pet Chicken has a great "Cash for Cluckers" sale. They'll send you 25 chicks (all hens) for $41.50 with free shipping. That's a great deal, because the regular price is $100.

Chicken coops

Kirk, the leader of our Backwards Beekeepers club here in LA, shows how to harvest honey. Film made by fellow bee club member Russell Bates.

Backwards Beekeepers TV: The Honey Harvest ]]> http://boingboing.net/2009/08/17/how-to-harvest-honey.html/feed 28 http://boingboing.net/2009/08/13/my-favorite-nearby-w.html http://boingboing.net/2009/08/13/my-favorite-nearby-w.html#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:18:16 +0000 Xeni Jardin

Here's a quick video snapshot I took over the weekend from one of my favorite local hikes here in Southern California: the Solstice Canyon trail above Malibu. The video's nothing special, but as I was shooting it (on my iPhone 3GS, with a twig for a tripod) I thought "this might be an inspiring little ambient morsel for BB readers to zone out to during their work day. So here it is. I mention the device used because I was pretty wowed by the video and audio quality. Here's my Flickr set of more video snapshots from the waterfall (others are higher-quality and less compressed than this).

There are some spots on the trail where you can look out over the Pacific, and if the season's right you may view a migrating gray whale or two. According to an LA Times article published in 1988 when this land became a state park,

[The site] was formerly used as a laboratory to test payloads for space shots for TRW Inc. and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. (...) [T]he aerospace firms picked the site because they needed a "non-magnetic setting," or an area far removed from telephone lines and electrical cables. One of the buildings had a removable roof so that heavy equipment could be lifted from the structure.

Above, what was once the view from the breakfast nook in the now-destroyed Roberts home. The building was constructed in the 1950s, and burned down decades ago. There are lots of wildfires in this area, even a big one just last year.

Snip from a website about the architect who designed it:

In 1952, Fred and Pearl Roberts bought land in Malibu Canyon and had Paul R. Williams design a rustic but elegant home for them. The house was built of stone and wood, fitting naturally into its canyon environment. This interior photograph illustrates a Williams' architectural feature, bringing the outside in as part of the design. Assemblyman Fred Roberts, a lifelong Republican, was a contemporary and political sparring partner of the progressive Charlotta Bass, owner and editor of the Eagle, an influential African American newspaper in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Roberts died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident before he and Pearl could move into the house Williams designed for them.

Happy mutant architect Wilfred J.O. Armster designed this fabulous spaceship/boat/floating orb residence from steel, copper and concrete. One of the factors that influenced the design of this building was the need to fit it within a very narrow site. The home was even featured in a 2002 Zippy the Pinhead strip. Snip from NYT profile of the man and his house, by Penelope Green:

"Monstrous," is how a few described the project in an article in The New Haven Register. In the local public school, an eighth-grade teacher held up the article, which was accompanied by a picture of the building's design, and proclaimed, "This is the kind of building that should not be built here." What the teacher didn't know was the name of the architect -- perhaps she hadn't read the article carefully -- so she was unaware that his daughter, Nicola, was in the classroom. "Nicola stood up and debated her," Mr. Armster said proudly.

The public hearing to approve the project has become a local legend, said Mr. Portly, the engineer, who remembered it vividly.

Guilford residents packed the town hall, and stood up one by one to announce their objections: that the structure wasn't Colonial enough, that it didn't fit into the town's heritage, that building it was a kind of heresy. One woman said it would ruin her view as she sailed on the sound. When the litany of complaints had finished, Mr. Armster began to speak.

"I said something like: 'I know you're all Republicans and businessman and I know you think I'm a communist or a socialist. But it seems to me that you are objecting to this building because you don't like the way it looks.' "

Yesterday, Mister Jalopy reported a swarm of bees under the seat of one of his bikes for sale at Coco's Variety in Los Angeles. Upon hearing the news, neighbor Amy Seidenwurm headed over to the store, donned her bee suit, and bravely herded the bees to a cardboard box, transferring them to "greener pastures where the flowers are dripping with nectar and hives are clean and commodious."

2 Wheels, 2000 Bees ]]> http://boingboing.net/2009/08/06/bees-swarm-under-bik.html/feed 25 http://boingboing.net/2009/08/06/keeping-the-googling.html http://boingboing.net/2009/08/06/keeping-the-googling.html#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:59:08 +0000 Xeni Jardin

We covered Doug Fine's radical off-the-grid lifestyle experiment last year on Boing Boing TV -- embed above. He is the author of Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living, and he's still going strong out there on the Funky Butte Ranch. When he's not out in the fields turning the compost heap or feeding chickens, he's working on his next book, which I'm looking forward to reading. Doug has a thought-provoking piece out in this Sunday's Washington Post Outlook section, here's a preview:

I have a fiancee and a son to provide for, so I decided to take a hard look at our prospects for survival if our consumer safety nets went away. For now, my green lifestyle choices at my remote 41-acre outpost in the American Southwest are optional. You know, growing lettuce instead of buying Chilean. Using organic cotton diapers instead of buying Pampers. But what if one morning in, say, 2049, I wake up to milk my goats and find out that supplies are no longer streaming in from China and California? What would I do if both box stores and crunchy food co-ops suddenly were no more? In other words, I'm examining my place in a hypothetical post-oil, post-consumer society 40 years in the future.

Now, I'm not rooting for such a thing. Slave labor, forest depletion, climate change and global resource wars aside, globalization has a lot going for it. I love that I can email a musician in Mauritania and ask to download his latest album. And anyway, lots of people still see globalization as the economic model for the foreseeable future. But when I was covering the former Soviet Union as a journalist in the 1990s, every single person I met told me that they'd thought pigs would fly before the Politburo crumbled.

Pat Race of Alaska Robotics, whose "Buy Back Alaska" video was featured here a couple years ago, has created a new video about crushing absurdity of national economics. It's embedded above, and I think it's sweet and funny in a homey, dorky, "I made this!" way.

From the land of Sarah Palin, meth shacks, and aerial elk-massacres, he emails Boing Boing:

Alaska Robotics is Pat Race, Aaron Suring, Lou Logan, Sarah Asper-Smith, and whoever else falls into our cast of friends and family. We live in Juneau where we make short films, draw comics, and eat halibut. We organize screenings of locally made short films twice a year and also work to bring filmmakers, animators and writers north to teach workshops.

If you're interested, there are a bunch of other films on our site, I like these ones: Socks, The Big Joke, Butterfly Kisses, Town vs. Valley, Nipple Fire, High Five.

• Paul Stamets: "The danger of misuse should be a prevailing concern for us all"
• CDC: Unexplained severe illness possibly associated with consumption of kombucha tea
• Journal of Intensive Care Medicine: A case of kombucha tea toxicity

Why do I drink it? Because it's fun to make and the flavor is almost addictive. The benefits outweigh the risks, at least for me. Here's how I make it. (Click on photos for enlargement.):

1. Get some live kombucha. I foolishly paid $25 to an online store that sells the culture in little vials (as seen above). As I later found out, you can buy a bottle of kombucha for a few dollars at grocery store and use that as your starter. If you have a friend who makes it, ask them for a "mother" (the floppy, blobby, disc that floats on top of a batch of kombucha) and a cup of the kombucha tea.

2. Collect the ingredients: sugar, vinegar (or a half cup of the kombucha tea from your last batch), tea bags (any kind). I used green tea for my first batch, but I'm now using decaf black tea.

3. Add 4-8 tea bags into a little less than one gallon of water. I used filtered water and a ceramic crock. I've heard you shouldn't use metal containers to make kombucha. Let it steep for a while. You can use hot water to steep the tea, but let it cool down before you add any culture (to prevent killing it).

4. Stir in 1 or 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar. The sugar is the fuel for the kombucha microbes. I have been using one cup of sugar, but in the batch I started yesterday I used one and one-half cups because I want it to be stronger and more vinegary. I have heard that the more sour it is, the more resistant it is to bacterial infection. (How do you like my hand carved spoon?)

5. Stir in 1/2 cup of kombucha from your last batch, or 1/4 cup of vinegar and a vial of expensive kombucha culture you foolishly purchased over the Internet.

6. Cover crock with cloth for a week. If a "mushroom" (not a real mushroom) has grown on the surface, that means it worked! Save the mushroom and use it to cover your next batch. In a week, the mushroom will have another mushroom attached to it that you can peel off and use, discard, or give away.

7. Transfer the tangy, fizzy beverage into a bottle and refrigerate. Some websites say not to store kombucha in plastic but I like this one gallon bottle.

If you have any tips to share about kombucha, please put them in the comments. ]]> http://boingboing.net/2009/07/29/how-to-make-kombucha.html/feed 94