* Sprout time is the time between draining the seeds and eating them. The length of sprouting time may vary based on the climate. These instructions are for a ½-gallon jar or
bag.Live Cultured Foods
Cultured foods, such as miso, amazake, seed cheeze, kimchee, and tofu, help to promote healthy bacteria within the digestive system. These
“friendly” bacteria help break down our food and hand us the vital nutrients that we need. A high concentration of good bacteria allows for maximum
absorption and faster assimilation of our food’s nutrients. A strong concentration of friendly bacteria will also maintain a healthy balance within the
intestines and will not leave room for unfriendly bacteria to grow.
Culturing
Culturing is the process of encouraging the production of beneficial bacteria in food. Bacteria, such as acidophilus and those found in foods like
koji and miso, are all very helpful in the body’s assimilation of food. Friendly bacteria live in the digestive tract and break down food so that it can
feed our bodies. There are also harmful cultures that can get inside the body and the best way to get rid of them is to have an abundance of good
bacteria. Foods such as sprouted beans, nuts, and seeds all culture very well when introduced to bacteria and kept in a warm place. Many cultured
products can be made easily, such as kimchee, seed cheeze, rejuvelac, and tofu.
Fermented foods are living foods. A living food is one with live bacteria flourishing in it and that contains organisms that can live in the body of an
animal in a symbiotic relationship. It is possible to cook a food and then culture it, but raw foodists believe in sprouting foods to ferment them. It is
good to check with local stores to determine how the foods you purchase were shipped and stored, because cultured foods aren’t viable once they
are frozen or heated. Some foods culture in hours and others in days. Some foods, such as miso and shoyu, can be cultured for years.
What Are Cultured Foods?
Cultured foods are those that have been predigested by a helpful bacteria such as acidophilus, bifidus, or koji. These live cultures reside on the villi,
small fingerlike projections that extend from the intestinal walls. The greater the surface area of the villi, the more room there is for healthy cultures to
live there. The helpful bacteria that reside in our bodies originally got there through our mother’s milk (if we were breast-fed). Cultured foods are live
foods. Some cultured foods may have lived on a cooked product. These foods, such as miso, contain none of the original cooked food, only the live
raw culture (unless they are pasteurized, in which case the culture is cooked). Many cultured foods live on raw food and are considered both raw
and live. These are the ideal cultured foods. Some great-tasting cultures are even grown on sprouts.
What Do Cultured Foods Do for Us?
Cultured foods both protect us from foreign bacteria and energize us through proper assimilation. These helpful bacteria, such as acidophilus, allow
for high rates of assimilation of nutrients from our food. Cultures such as acidophilus also act as a protective barrier against harmful cultures that
may seek to invade the body. New cultures, both helpful and harmful, enter into our system through the foods we eat. When we create a healthy
environment for positive cultures, they grow and proliferate. The same is true for unhealthy cultures when we create an unhealthy environment in our
colon. Healthy cultures protect us from disease by standing guard in the intestines and ushering harmful cultures on their way. Often, cleansing
practices such as colonics or enemas can wash away health-giving bacteria along with the fecal mucoid matter impacted on the colon. It is
important to continually reintroduce healthy bacteria into the system both orally and rectally when following a colon therapy program. Fasting can
also deplete the active cultures living in our system, so it is important to reintroduce cultures into the system after long water or dry fasts.
How to Culture Food
Cultured foods can be created by using a starter or by creating the ideal environment for healthy cultures to begin to grow. Because cultures are
present in the air around us, there is often no need for a starter. However, using a starter is a great method to ensure you obtain the flavor you’re
looking for. A starter is simply a food that is already cultured. Unpasteurized kimchee or miso, for example, can be your starter for making your own
batch. Following are some examples of how to make cultured foods.
STARTER METHOD (EXAMPLE: KIMCHEE)
Grind or chop 1 to 3 heads of cabbage. Add ¼ cup caraway seeds. Add 3 crushed cloves of garlic. Add the juice of 5 lemons. Add 1 tablespoon of
a previous batch of kimchee or 1 teaspoon live acidophilus culture.
Place in a Harsch crock or in glass bowls for 5 to 30 days (some kimchee is aged for months), at room temperature. If using glass bowls, place
the vegetables to be cultured in one bowl and put a second bowl inside it to weigh down the culturing mix (a stone or jar of water can be used as a
weight), then cover with a screen or cloth to keep away any pests.
(A Harsch crock can be purchased through Loving Foods or your local Asian distributor. It is an earthen crock that has a V-ring seal on the top.
This means that the mouth of the crock is fluted and water sits in the ringed V shape and the lid sits in the groove of the V, thereby sealing the crock
and its contents. Air goes out but not in.)