In 2017, we moved across the country from Kansas City to Southern California to be closer to our two older children. Our family – Ron, me and our three kids and our son-in-law – are thick as thieves. I’ve always lived far away from my mom and dad and sisters who mostly reside on…(Read More)
Sometimes I wonder how I got here. Symptoms of disease struck my life almost two decades ago and it broke me. Those symptoms shook me to my core and I didn’t know that my body was desperately trying to get my attention to help me heal. And heal I did. With a grateful heart…(Read More)
Female hormones are complex and beautifully made. But take those hormones and ignore them, and they will get your attention through symptoms of discomfort that can lead to disease and believe you me, they can wreak havoc on your life. There is no giant step that accomplishes this, just a lot of little steps that…(Read More)
Spend a day and immerse yourself into the world of making and eating cultured foods. Donna combines an inspiring day of information with lessons on how to make our trio, The Trilogy: kefir, kombucha, cultured vegetables, and extra info on sourdough bread, and water kefir. You’ll receive a delicious lunch and you’ll be…(Read More)
Probiotics have become an exciting frontier in health and wellness. Most people only think about probiotic supplements in a bottle, but today we’re talking about foods that have probiotics in them. These probiotic foods have billions more probiotics than supplements. I think supplements are very good, but so often they are killed by stomach…(Read More)
Let me tell you about Mary. She sat on the front row of one of my classes and cried throughout my class while I talked. Right after class, she came up to me and explained how much these probiotic foods I teach about had changed her life. Sick with digestion and depression and feeling hopeless…(Read More)
Food cravings — why do you have them? We tend to think food cravings are normal and there is not much we can do about them, but there is much more to it than this. This is a time of change. A time to look at the way we function in this world and do…(Read More)
Fall through winter is the time of year they call “flu season.” People are really afraid of it but I have often said, “The flu should be afraid of me!” When you build up the good bacteria in your body, you create an army that goes with you everywhere you go and touches every person…(Read More)
Many people wonder if probiotic pills provide the same benefit as probiotic foods since they seem to be marketed in the same way—healthy bacteria for our guts. However, probiotic foods work significantly better because of their construction. To get into the small intestine and colon, where they do the work of breaking down and…(Read More)
Sleeping is fundamental to our wellbeing and health, and I have my own experiences with sleep and health. In 2001 when my daughter Holli was born eight weeks early and weighed in at four pounds, I was a woman on a mission to help her. Babies born this early don’t get the mom’s…(Read More)
I have seen some pretty spectacular results when men take to eating and making cultured foods. I’ll explains how it can also do things for men that it can’t do for women. Listen in to find out all the details…(Read More)
Fermented pickles are the best pickles. Cultured pickles are super powerful, but so is the brine they are made in. The powerful bacteria in cultured veggies is called Lactobacillus plantarum. It is a powerful weapon against pathogens that try to invade the body. It will steal nutrients from pathogens and they will die unable to…(Read More)
Sauerkraut is an incredible food. I teach people to make it at all my classes. It can be life changing along with kefir and kombucha and I’m pretty intense about it. It changed my life and I have watched it change thousands of other people too. I received three letters just this week from…(Read More)
It was early 2002 and my sixteen year old daughter climbed out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen. “How do you feel this morning?” I asked. Her response broke me. “I never feel good anymore mom. I feel bad all the time. My stomach hurts after everything I eat.” What had happened to my…(Read More)
Is kombucha good for you? Is it alcoholic? As of late, kombucha has been getting a lot of press. Kombucha has become a 0.6 billion dollar industry and is expected to reach 1.8 by 2020. It is causing quite a stir in the beverage business. Its popularity has grown strictly by word of…(Read More)
People often ask me about water kefir and milk kefir and which type of kefir I think is more beneficial. Water kefir is a non-dairy kefir that is gaining in popularity. Many people start with this method of making kefir because it’s so easy and fun and they want a non-dairy option…(Read More)
It was 11 years ago when I first read Jon Gabriel’s Book, “The Gabriel Method: The Revolutionary DIET-FREE Way to Totally Transform Your Body.” Jon is a biochemical researcher who lost 220 pounds and wrote an international best-selling book about how he did it. I was so mesmerized by his book that…(Read More)
Bubbly, fizzy kombucha is one of my favorite things. Understanding the science behind how it works can help you create the carbonation that most people are looking for. #1 Probiotic Used in Hospitals Let me explain to you how it all works. When making kombucha, the fermenting tea will form a SCOBY on top. It…(Read More)
Your Body and Food. You can’t win together if you don’t work together. I learned a long time ago that if I wanted to feel good, I had to have kefir every day. It seems to work best for me to have kefir in the morning, but sometimes I have it other times…(Read More)
Kombucha is a must-have in the summertime! When the body is exposed to excessive heat, the liver can become stressed and kombucha can help! Drinking kombucha can keep you cool and hydrated in the summertime. It can also help your liver which is one of the organs most vulnerable to excessive heat. Just like…(Read More)
There is no better time to make cultured veggies than in the summertime! The fruits and veggies are abundant and when you ferment them they’ll last nine months in your fridge! Culturing, or what can also be called fermenting, is a no-sweat endeavor. It’s so much easier than canning and you’ll…(Read More)
Kefir is a living food that tends to have a mind of its own. It ferments differently in the winter than the summer, so understanding the process can make a huge difference. I’m sharing seven tips to help you make great summer kefir. These special kefir microbes have taught me more about who I…(Read More)
When I walk into my kitchen each day, I see the bread knife and cutting board scattered with crumbs. It is a daily occurrence; and although I like a clean kitchen, this is one thing I tolerate with pleasure. My husband is constantly trying to even out the loaf of bread we eat each day…(Read More)
This salad is one of my very favorite cultured meals. It’s perfect for summertime and a wonderful way to change your microbiome from the inside out. I try to eat fruits and veggies at every meal. It is one of the best ways to stay balanced and it’s fantastic for lowering inflammation, balancing…(Read More)
Check out my two articles on Ginger — with recipes…(Read More)
In 2001, I was battling hypertension and diabetes. It was then that I started drinking kefir and I noticed an interesting occurrence. It seemed that when I drank a glass of kefir every day my blood pressure would go down; and not just a little, but quite a bit. It would put me in the…(Read More)
A few years ago, I started hearing about the ancient species of wheat called einkorn. People who were gluten intolerant were writing me letters about it and saying it was allowing them to eat bread again without the problems regular wheat had caused them, and I wanted to know more. I learned a lot about…(Read More)
This is my daughter Holli’s favorite breakfast. I make extra servings of the crunch topping and store it in a jar for her to use whenever she makes her morning smoothie. This was the recipe that really changed her more than any other recipe. My family is like everybody else. I can preach to…(Read More)
This recipe is in my new book Cultured Food in a Jar. I only make recipes that are easily incorporated into my life because I’m crazy busy and I want recipes to care for my body and busy microbes. This recipe fits the bill. It has only two ingredients and it’s so easy…(Read More)
When it comes to cultured/probiotic and fermented foods, I am officially obsessed. Not everyone is going to make as many of these foods as I do; but once you get started, it’s an exciting journey! Here are the top seven probiotic foods I ALWAYS have on hand, and why . . .  …(Read More)
I have had seasonal allergies since I was twelve or thirteen years old. For months in the springtime, I locked myself inside the house and turned to drugs and steroids that harmed my immune system. This seemed to be what everybody did and I did the same because I had nowhere else to look. After…(Read More)
Your cultures (kefir, kombucha, sourdough, and water kefir) are all living organisms and need to be cared for just like a pet. I love them like family, and have found ways to take care of them when I go on vacation. The good microbes in the cultures eat the sugars out of the culture, and…(Read More)
One of the first things I noticed when we started drinking kefir was the help my husband received with eliminating his acid reflux. It was quite surprising to me since he popped antacids like they were candy. But fast forward sixteen years and I’ve had so many, many people tell me they’ve gotten…(Read More)
Water kefir grains, or we call them kefir crystals, are unlike milk kefir grains as they thrive on sugars and not lactose.These special probiotic yeasts and beneficial bacteria in the water kefir crystals consume the sugar in the sugar water, and they produce probiotics, new enzymes, vitamins, and help repopulate your gut flora. They…(Read More)
We make a lot of kefir. We drink it every day along with making kefir cheese and kefir sodas, so we make it daily. As usual, my husband and kids were helping me make kefir on April 1st, 2014. As I poured out the jugs into the strainer, no kefir grains appeared. I got a…(Read More)
I love kombucha and not just because it tastes fantastic but because it has a special probiotic called Saccharomyces boulardii (S. boulardii). It is an incredible probiotic and when you make kombucha you can get lots of this powerful probiotic yeast. S. boulardii is one of the most researched probiotics and has been used worldwide…(Read More)
I make a lot of kefir cheese. I use kefir cheese in place of any recipe that calls for cream cheese, sour cream, or Greek yogurt. It’s very versatile, and the length of time you strain it will determine how thick it becomes. Making kefir cheese is one of my favorite things to do…(Read More)
I think fermentation is essential to bread making. If you don’t use the help of microbes to make the bread, you won’t get the nutrients out of the bread and gluten will become a problem. I’ve made a lot of sourdough bread and I have a new method that is working spectacularly…(Read More)
Of all the health ailments cultured foods can help with, the one I hear the most about is either food poisoning or stomach virus (Gastroenteritis). I’ve seen it work personally on my family many times. When I started sharing this remedy with my friends, I was overwhelmed with how much it was helping them…(Read More)
We all eat condiments. They are easy to make, but most people just buy them. Why don’t you let me help you make them in as little as five minutes? They will have billions of probiotics and are perfectly preserved for months. You will love them, your family won’t know they’re eating…(Read More)
I’ve received several emails from people who have been greatly helped by cultured foods in regards to kidney health. More and more medical research is showing great benefits to using probiotics for kidney health. New probiotic supplements have been developed to specifically treat the kidneys, and there have been remarkable results. Certain strains of…(Read More)
I’ve been eating cultured foods for almost sixteen years. I eat them most every day with very few exceptions. When I first started eating cultured foods, I had diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pain, and felt discouraged and depressed. These foods were the answer to my cries for help, but never did I think…(Read More)
I love kefir that is thick like yogurt. However, it can sometimes be difficult to strain out the kefir grains. There is a super easy remedy for this. Enjoy the benefits of kefir and find an easy and quick way to strain it. Check out the video for tips. To strain kefir that is really…(Read More)
Goat milk was a godsend for my tiny daughter, Holli. She was born eight weeks premature and this little one rocked my world. I became a woman on a mission to help her be well. Nursing this tiny infant was a challenge. She was born so early that she didn’t have the strength to…(Read More)
Cultured vegetables are so easy to make with just a few exceptions. First of all, this is one of the safest ways to preserve your vegetables. It is scientifically impossible to get botulism from cultured vegetables. When acidifying bacteria ferment the vegetables, the good bacteria dominates and controls the environment. Botulism can only occur when…(Read More)
Winter Kefir
by
I love winter kefir! It’s often creamier and thicker than summer kefir. Kefir acts differently in the winter than in the warmer months of the year, due to cooler temperatures that make it ferment more slowly. Kefir ferments in 24 hours at 69-73 degrees, but drop those temps and have a lot of…(Read More)
There’s nothing better than bubbly fruit flavored kombucha. For those of you who don’t want to spend the money to buy it, you can make it. Many years ago, a friend of mine was in a bad car wreck. He actually broke the steering wheel off with his chest. He was in the…(Read More)
I’m always trying to find ways to help you eat more cultured foods. Taste is important as well as ease, and this recipe captures both. You will love this Buffalo Kraut created by my daughter Maci. It’s crazy good and just a spoonful is going to give you billions of probiotics. Your body…(Read More)
I hope 2017 was a wonderful year for you. I hope you incorporated cultured foods into your life and saw the difference they can make. I’ve been making and eating these foods for over fifteen years and they never cease to amaze and teach me. I was talking with one of my good friends…(Read More)
Twas The Night They Made Kefir…(Read More)
One of my good friends told me her cholesterol had gone up since drinking kefir, and then she said, “That’s my good cholesterol! It went through the roof and my doctor is very pleased.” I got a few emails this week from people expressing to me that since they’ve been consuming kefir and…(Read More)
It was gloomy outside, and I was gloomy inside. I was having my own personal pity party, feeling overwhelmed, and discouraged. I decided I was going to take my daughter Christmas shopping and break the gloom that was following me around. I took Holli to one of our favorite places to get something to eat…(Read More)
When you and I find the courage and strength to be better in any regard we help everyone around us. This goes for every area of our lives and even what we eat – and it includes our bacteria. You have trillions of hitchhikers that live in and on you, and they play a huge…(Read More)
Her name was Mary and she changed my life the day I met her. It was the very beginning of my journey with cultured foods, and I was in hiding with my newfound knowledge. People didn’t understand what I was doing, and the thought of letting food ferment on your counter for days at…(Read More)
If you are looking for an easy cultured veggie that your family will love, then you have to try Jicama if You’re Sicka-ma. Jicama is often called a Mexican potato. Jicama is crunchy and slightly sweet, and you will love it. If you get a cold, flu, or feel crummy you need — Jicama…(Read More)
In 2010, I had just started my blog and Facebook page, and the second person to post on my page was a man named Chris asking me How to Make Kombucha. He was a friend of my older kids and what I didn’t know at the time was Chris had just been diagnosed with…(Read More)
Captain of your ship and the master of your destiny. We’re shaped by the light we let through us. I remember that day quite vividly. It was over fifteen years ago. It was February and bitter cold outside. I made myself a breakfast that I thought was healthy – high-fiber cereal and skim milk…(Read More)
Pain is the best teacher, but nobody wants to be the student. I have met hundreds of people who are now on gluten-free diets. My daughter used to be one of them. Gluten pain can make life difficult and become a heavy load to bear. How can this grain that has been around…(Read More)
Mayonnaise is a common condiment that so many of us use regularly. Mayo was said to be the invention of one of the great chefs of France. Marie-Antoine Carême was the personal chef of the Duke de Richelieu in 1756. While the Duke was defeating the British at Port Mahon, his chef was…(Read More)
We love pancakes at our house. I mostly make sourdough pancakes, but I made a new pancake recipe this week, and switched out my sourdough starter (which I love) and replaced it with kefir. Oh my, they were wonderful, fluffy pancakes. The kefir acts in a manner similar to sourdough and helps the pancakes rise…(Read More)
Here is how you make it: You really must eat kimchi. Kimchi has a special probiotic that can keep a virus at bay. It can also help with any kind of stomach distress. Just ask the thousands of people in Korea how kimchi protected them from the bird flu epidemic. The probiotic bacteria found in…(Read More)
Do you have picky eaters at your house? Do your friends and family scoff at eating cultured foods? Well, let me tell you about Mister Picky Eater, my husband. When I married him (30 years ago) he ate nothing green. They called him “Wrapper Man” because he ate a lot of meals from food in…(Read More)
My new book is available today for purchase! Cultured Food in a Jar is my third (and very favorite!) book and the one I use most often. My book is an easy step-by-step guide that will lead you through making basic kefir, kombucha, and cultured vegetables. It has more than 100 easy-to…(Read More)
Do you want to change your life and feel better? Here’s the truth. I have tons of resources to help you. You can find everything you need on my site to get started, and that information is free. I have other resources that I sell to expand and help you grow, but everything you…(Read More)
Forget everything you think you know about vegetables and let me tell you what happens when you culture them. Grow your own probiotics in a jar of vegetables, and you’ll be shocked and amazed at all they can do. I feel like I’ve been standing on the top of a mountain singing the…(Read More)
Emotions are my best friends. They help me not only understand my present state but also how my body is doing. Researchers are discovering that an imbalance in your gut can cause mental symptoms. They call the gut the second brain, and boy are they right. I have witnessed firsthand those with ADD, anxiety, depression…(Read More)
It was the summer of 2003. A friend came into my kitchen and asked what was on my counters. I excitedly told her about my beloved cultures and I watched her face change expressions. “These jars have been brewing for days on your counters?” she said. I got that sick feeling in my stomach that…(Read More)
Hi friends! I’m Donna and this is my Cultured Food Life podcast. I love to talk about health, wellness, and how to harness the power of your 100 trillion microbes. Talking about the food that makes the cells of your body is exciting, interesting, and life changing. Making cultured foods can help with a…(Read More)
Cookbooks — I have a lot of them, 229 to be exact, and as you can see from the picture of the bookcase in my living room, I have quite a collection. My daughter Maci said to me, “I have a lot of cookbooks too, but you know which one I use the most?” I…(Read More)
We went to a nut farm this weekend and found just about every kind of nut you could imagine. Nuts are prebiotic foods and your gut loves them. I love my kefir, but nut milks don’t always make thick and creamy kefir as much as cow’s milk — until now. I’ve had several…(Read More)
So, do you want to know why you have certain persistent problems with things like ringworm, toenail fungus, and athlete’s foot? All of these are caused by a fungus that can spread and grow like crazy and last for years and years. “Onychomycosis” is the medical name for the infection that causes the fungi…(Read More)
I get hundreds of emails about the subject of Candida, and a lot of them are asking me why so many health care practitioners don’t recommend the consumption of fermented foods if you have Candida. Most physicians and well-meaning practitioners only know of fermented foods made with vinegars rather than the cultured or…(Read More)
It was a warm summer day and I needed a salad, and a fruit salad was just the ticket. When I said I needed a salad this is not just because I think that it’s good for me, but rather because I needed certain nutrients that only these special foods could provide. One of…(Read More)
Fermented Garlic is a MUST-have for your refrigerator! It’s a wonderful medicine-like food, and making it a part of your diet can work wonders for many health concerns. Garlic fights colds and flus Garlic has a compound called allicin which has many health and medicinal uses. It has been used to fight…(Read More)
My husband was the last one in my family to try cultured foods. I experimented on my children first. My kids were sick and I wanted them to be well, so we all ate cultured food; and much to my surprise, everybody got better. Then as the cultured foods began to take over my kitchen…(Read More)
I believe in miracles and I believe that they live inside you and me. Do you believe that healing requires a miracle, or do you believe that our trillions of cells govern themselves and create the bodies that we have? So how does the eye know how to focus or the muscle know how much…(Read More)
I have been getting a lot of letters asking if you can ferment vegetables with water kefir or kombucha. You can ferment vegetables with these two different cultures, but the vegetables tend to get mushy and don’t last very long. You will get different bacteria and you will also be diminishing one of my…(Read More)
If you’re making kefir, and especially kefir cheese, you’re going to wind up with a lot of whey. Whey has been called liquid gold, and it has been used throughout history to help with many diseases. In fact, Hippocrates and Galen, two founding fathers of medicine, frequently recommended whey to their patients to…(Read More)
Watching tea turn into kombucha is quite a thing to behold. You give it the ingredients and let it work its magic. Billions of microbes and yeasts transform the tea into a bubbly probiotic tea that you will love. When you first start making kombucha you might be concerned and not know what to expect…(Read More)
Every day I receive many emails from people who are new to fermenting and want to do a good job. They are afraid they are going to do it wrong, mess it up, or make themselves sick. I know from their letters how hard they are trying. Fermenting foods feels so different from anything they…(Read More)
Cultured vegetables have special powers that go far beyond regular vegetables. I love them and reach for them day after day and in times of special need. They can be powerful food – like medicine – and so I always have several jars in my refrigerator. I encourage you to do this as well; because…(Read More)
This is a time-lapse video I did to show you how a SCOBY forms in your kombucha. It’s quite a beautiful thing to behold with all the bacteria and yeasts dancing around in the jar. I hope you enjoy it. This was a project done with love, and I was so surprised by…(Read More)
I have glass jars everywhere in my house, and I have lots of cultured foods in many of them. I have a new book coming out this year — Cultured Food Life in a Jar. Everything is made in a jar, and what fun it was creating this book (due out in September 2017). I’m…(Read More)
Cultured Foods and LACTO-Fermented Foods are the same thing. The “lacto” in “lacto-fermentation” comes from the bacteria “lactobacillus.” Many strains of lacto-bacteria and yeasts are involved in culturing or fermenting foods. These special microbes break down the foods into more digestible nutrients with increased vitamins and minerals while reducing harmful pesticides and…(Read More)
Kombucha is an amazing drink. Sales have grown to be over 600 million dollars, and this was all done strictly by word of mouth. I have watched it grow and I’ve also witnessed the major soda beverage companies start to lose their credibility and hit a 30 year low in sales as people wake…(Read More)
Having lots of fermented foods in your fridge is the same as having a medicine cabinet stocked with natural remedies. We reach for these foods not only to keep us healthy and disease free but also when we find ourselves struggling with a virus, stomach ache, or any other kind of ailment that requires extra…(Read More)
Do you wonder when your kefir, kombucha, and cultured vegetables are done fermenting? I have a few tips to help you understand how and when they’re at the perfect place with lots of probiotics and will taste the best. There’s a little science behind this, and since culturing your food is an artisanal…(Read More)
I love coffee, and I drink a cup every day. Some believe it’s not good for you, but I’ve gotten so many benefits from it that I just knew this couldn’t possibly be true. I have a philosophy about the foods I eat. If I eat or drink something that I know…(Read More)
Years ago when I was young and raising my kids, I was often influenced by well-meaning friends and family. They scared me to death with the latest news they had heard and would say, “Don’t eat this and don’t let your kids do this and did you read that story about how…(Read More)
