Equipment & Resources
Here you will find a few handy links to get everything you need for fermenting success! For overseas participants, most of these links are Australian specific, but we recommended searching for fermenting Facebook groups in your country or town. One thing we have learnt is that the fermenting community is super generous and everyone wants to share their starters, culture, grains and scoby’s.
You have joined a secret club!
Please let us know if there are resources that you find particularly useful for sourcing equipment and advice and we will continually add to this list. But for now, we are starting with what we have used and the communities that have been most helpful to us.
Supplies
SCOBY's and kefir grains
In the Extra Support section below you will see two online communities sharing grains and SCOBY's. Attempt to source things free first!
Gumtree is also a great place to share and source free items. The fermenting community is very generous.
If you do have to purchase yours, then I trust Buchi, The Raw Food Mum and Store, NourishMe Organics,
Kombucha (bottled)
Most wholefood stores now stock ready-to-drink kombucha. Of course our favourite brand is Sarah Lantz’s Buchi and you can find that in some IGAs.
Kombucha Crock:
Head here to check out the gorgeous Kombucha crocks from the lovely people at Durand.
Glass Jars:
We use both the Ball Mason jars and Fido glass jars. Nick prefers the Fido jars (flip lid) as the pressure in the Ball Mason (screw top) can get pretty intense. We also save all glass jars that come into our home.
Coconut Oil flip top lid jars are great, but require a really good clean out to get rid of the smell. Anything with a lid is awesome. You don’t need to be super fancy!
Ball Mason Jars can be found here. Fido Glass jars are Nick's choice and this is the cheapest I can find - though the shipping can be expensive.
OR
Perhaps purchase glass jars from your nearest Ikea (the flip lid) or Big W (the screw top) - cheap as chips!
Extra support
Source kefir grains and SCOBY’s for free:
Join the Preserving Fermenting Australia FB group and check out this doc to find someone near you who is interested in sharing kefir grains and kombucha SCOBY’s.
Check out the amazing Pinkfarm’s Cultured Community. Simply click on your state, in Australia, and see if someone lives close to you!
Wild Fermentation is another great FB group that you might want to join for support and ideas.
Many local communities have their own fermenting FB groups as people gather and share their starters, cultures, grains and SCOBY's (it seriously is a secret society!)
Further reading
The Art of Fermenting by Sandor Katz - this really is the Bible of fermenting and has had a very good workout on our learning journey.
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon - full of useful advice and a fabulous book to add to your collection. It was one of the first books I purchased in my wholefoods journey.
Simplicious by Sarah Wilson has a few cracker fermenting recipes too.
Nick’s - Things I Have Learnt