Families That Ferment With Kirsty from Kultured Wellness

August 10, 2017 Cultured Baby

Recently I caught up with Kirsty Wirth, founder of Kultured Wellness. Kirsty is a massive ferment advocate, helping families around the country nourish their guts with her specially formulated yoghurt and kefir cultures. These cultures are the real deal and are packed full of high quality probiotics specifically designed for gut healing. The cultures are super easy to use, taste amazing and have become a staple in our home.

Tell us a little bit about your family and what you do.

I’m Kirsty a HUGE nature lover, mother to Noah and Maya, a ferment advocate for children on the spectrum and founder of Kultured Wellness, a company whose mission is to inspire and educate people to take control of their health by eating real and fermented foods that nourish the brain and the gut. My background has always been in teaching and I am loving my new role in Kultured Wellness educating everyone to use fermented foods every day.

How and why did you get into fermenting?

Unfortunately my son presented at around 15 months with very serious gut infections and behaviour issues that then progressed into him being diagnosed with Autism. We were so shocked by the diagnosis and then how little information there was that we embarked on an amazing journey of discovery learning all about the gut microbiome, how infections can impact behaviour and learning and how fermented foods can help to nourish the body and defend the body against infections. So we jumped into fermenting EVERYTHING we could from there.

What kind of ferments do you feed your family and what’s your favourite?

As part of our journey of learning all about fermented foods and all the amazing different bacteria that are present in fermented foods we discovered that certain types of bacteria were really vital for Noah getting better. From that learning I developed the Kultured Wellness culture starters with all the bacteria that were perfect for rebuilding a damaged gut.

So we use the Kultured Wellness starters in our house. We make coconut kefir, coconut yoghurt, beet kvass, sauerkraut, and fermented juices and fermented gummies. The list is endless with what we ferment. My favourite is a blueberry coconut yoghurt with cinnamon and vanilla.

What other foods are staples in your home?

Bone broth, soups, stews, fats!! Children’s brains are made of fat and because of the damage my son has suffered we need to nourish his brain so heaps of fats like avocado, ghee, coconut oil and olive oil. Vegetables are a huge staple all day every day. Clean water is a huge staple and I love having beautiful clean water with Apple Cider Vinegar. Oh and we love eggs!!

Do you have any tips for introducing new food/ferments to you family?

My first tip would be that if your children haven’t been having fermented foods since a very early age it’s almost guaranteed that they won’t like the taste. Ferments are sour and this is a taste that needs to be developed and not one that is in the SAD (Standard Australia Diet). So just keep offering. It takes around 50 times for a child to be interested. Interestingly low zinc levels result in a child being limited in what foods they will try so make sure your children get plenty of nutrients including zinc so they are open to new foods. One of the best ways though is hiding it in their safe food to start. When my clients start their kids on our coconut yoghurt I always suggest putting a tablespoon or even less in their usual yoghurt and stir it through. Over time slowly reduce the amount of the old yoghurt and increase the amount of the fermented yoghurt. Kids also love colour, to be involved and to eat with their hands and have picnics. All so much fun to do when you are starting out.

Do you have a favourite recipe you would like to share?

My favourite recipe is the Kutured Wellness Coconut Yogurt.

Kultured Wellness Coconut Yoghurt

Kirsty's daughter Maya eating the yoghurt as an ice block

Thanks so much for your interview Kirsty!

Here's where you can go to find out more:

Learn more about Kultured Wellness Cultures

Kultured Wellness on Facebook

Kultured Wellness on Instagram

Families That Ferment With Wei'er from Gutsy Ferments

November 30, 2016 Cultured Baby

Recently I caught up for a chat with Wei'er from Gutsy Ferments. Wei'er and her husband Josh are the creators of Brisbane based Gutsy Ferments. They handcraft a beautiful range of wildly fermented sauerkrauts in delightful flavours like garlic and pimiento and ginger and turmeric. As well as running their own fermenting biz they homeschool their kids, run fermenting workshops and serve up some serious mouthwatering dishes to their family of 6. Their Instagram is filled with their latest fermentation creations from cultured desserts to fizzy fruit ferments, milk kefir pikelets and cultured dips (check it out and get inspired!).

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your family and what you do.

Josh and I (Weier) are both fermenting fanatics with myself being the ferments creator and Josh the taste master. Having grown up in SE Asia with a diet of different exotic ferments and pickles i.e. century egg, achar, salted shrimps, stinky tofu, tempeh, my keen interest and taste for fermented foods was naturally cultivated from a young age . It's not unusual for our kitchen to smell funky and look like a mad scientist lab with jars of bubbling concoctions and weird looking floaty stuff in them. Josh ,being the brave man he is, never says no to tasting a new ferment regardless of how it looks or smells unless it's fermented seafood (his absolute pet hate).

We both homeschool an active brood of 4 GUTSY kids ranging from the ages of 9 years to 2 months. Our kids, having grown up with fermentation taking place on a regular basis, also love creating their own jar of favourite ferment.

Being the founders of GUTSY Ferments, we are often found busy crafting seasonal ferments, chatting with customers at the West End Davies park markets and holding fermentation workshops with Buchi Kombucha. During our spare time, we can be found either learning more about bush craft and native foods, working on a gymnastic move together or 4 wheel driving to isolated beaches for a day out.

How did you get into fermenting?

I never knew how much fermented food I grew up with till I moved to Australia and craved kimchi and other asian pickles. The kids used to look forward to kraut making day where they can punch and toss and make a whole heap of mess in the kitchen (those were the days before we went commercial). After chucking out multiple batches of mouldy ferments, I started to work instinctively with my ferments and grow to appreciate the process of fermentation and the microorganisms involved. Once I got Josh hooked on properly fermented kraut and kombucha, we never turned back since then.

What kind of ferments do you feed your family and what’s your favourite?

Running a brood of 4 (including a newborn), easy and quick ferments work best in our family. We often have krauts, kimchi and homemade vinegars either tossed into salads or served as a condiment with a main meal. Milk kefir smoothies with seasonal fruits added are a regular lunch request along with cultured dips served with sourdough crackers. I also like to use miso to make salad dressings or as a seasoning for broths.

As a treat, we do enjoy the following fermented desserts below:

-fermented fruit and nut paste with a generous dollop of yoghurt

-cultured chocolate mousse with fizzy berries

-dark chocolate squares with creme friache and fresh berries

What other foods are staples in your home?

Grassfed gelatine, bone broths, organs in the form of pate, cultured butter and cultured cream.

Do you have any tips for introducing new food/ferments to your family?

Start with milder ferments such as cultured dips, probiotic beverages such as kombucha, fruit ferments, young milk kefir, coconut yoghurt or even cultured desserts.

Do you have a recipe you’d like to share?

Being a busy mum, any crowd pleaser ferment that can be put together under 10mins is a keeper. This incredibly easy and kids friendly ferment uses just a few commonly used ingredients.

We call this a fizzy fruit ferment. Seasonal or any fruits we have in abundance is usually used. With summer coming up, stone fruits like juicy peaches, nectarines, plums, mangoes, pineapple and grapes will be amazing in this recipe!

Fizzy Fruit Ferment

Thanks so much Wei'er!

Here's where you can go to find out more:

http://gutsyferments.com.au

Gutsy Ferments on Facebook

Gutsy Ferments on Instagram

Gutsy Ferments Stockists

Chat to them in person and sample some of their delicious handcrafted ferments at West End Davies Park markets from 6am - 2pm every Saturday.

Families That Ferment With Charlotte Carr

November 2, 2016 Cultured Baby

Recently I caught up with Charlotte Carr for a chat. Charlotte is a holistic health coach, author, presenter, voice artist and actress. She is the face behind the awesome Bubba Yum Yum blog where she shares nourishing, real food recipes and tips for Mums, babies and toddlers. Her book (The Paleo Way for New Mums, Babies and Toddlers) is my go to for recipe inspiration for Anjali.

Charlotte is the first of many to feature in our Families That Ferment blog series.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your family and what you do.

Hi there my names Charlotte Carr. I'm a mother, wife and I love to cook and spend time with friends and family. When I'm not doing voice overs, acting or writing, I'm working on creating yummy nutrient dense foods for my family and friends and tribe to enjoy. I'm a lover of life, good food and wine.

How and why did you get into fermenting?

It was brought to my attention through a test called a bio screen that my little boy Willow had a terrible gut. He had no lactobacillus and he had a strep overgrowth and other pathogens that weren't doing his health any favours. I learnt quickly that to increase the good bacteria in his gut we had to include lots of variety of fermented foods. We included fermented cucumbers and carrots first, then kraut, then kombucha in smoothies and then fermented coconut yogurts, kefir and fermented salsa dips and mustards.

What kind of ferments do you feed your family and what’s your favourite?

My favourite cultures are from Kultured Wellness. We've seen best results using these starters and they are fail safe.

I make Willow smoothies with these everyday, his smoothie has both the yogurt and the kefir and I use the same for his icecreams. I use the kefir to ferment lots of fruits now and use the yogurts in curries and cakes.

What other foods are staples in your home?

Always fresh organic produce. Lots of things we can grab in a hurry like olives and fresh fruit. And I always make things in bulk so I'm not cooking all the time.

Do you have any tips for introducing new food/ferments to your family?

Start slowly and play around with different seasonal vegetables. Pineapples are great right now and a wonderful salsa ingredient.

Do you have a recipe you’d like to share?

Lacto Fermented Super Mash

Fermented foods have been through a process of lacto-fermentation in the which natural bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food, creating lactic acid. This process preserves the food and creates beneficial enzymes, B-vitatmins, omega-3 fatty acids, and various strains of beneficial probiotics.

As soon as I incorporated fermented foods into our diet I noticed an improvement with Willow's digestion.