Fermentation Stop 1: Three Stone Hearth

This place is cool.

This is the inside of the cool place.

Action shot with Kitty and Catherine.

Dialogue shot with Kitty and Catherine and someone whose name I have forgotten. I am very sorry about that. She went to Georgetown U. though and I am jealous.

Kombucha shot. Yum.

It's a SCOBY. wow

Fermentation at its best.

 The Fermentation Guy.

So the first stop on our fermentation and foodie tour in Berkeley was the cooperative Three Stone Hearth co-founded by one of Kitty and Louis’s friends, Catherine Spanger. The company is a community-suported kitchen that makes and packages meals in mason jars for customers from around the Bay area to pick up or have delivered. The menu changes from week to week, while I visited they had some kind of chicken soup on the menu. The week of November 20 the menu is:

• Southern Style Chicken Stew
• Vegetable Mushroom with Beef Polpettini
• Irish Beef Stew with Mushrooms and Stout
• Rice-a-Cheesy with Greens
• Pork Rillettes
• Falafel Dough
• Beef Patties with Garlic & Rosemary
• Coconut Tikka Masala Sauce
• Tuscan White Bean Dip
• Tahini Yogurt Sauce with Lemon
• TSH Mayonnaise
• Autumn Harvest Relish
• Fudge Brownies with Crispy Walnuts
• Lemon Orange Tapioca Pudding

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Even though I just had my biweekly fix of Pad Thai, I could totally go for some of that Irish Beef Stew.

Along with soups and stews and other forms of deliciousness, Three Stone Hearth specializes in fermentation. They make kombucha, kavass, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles. If you’ve never had kombucha, try some. It takes like sunshine, and it's refreshing like a waterfall. That’s probably a lie but it is really good. It is fermented tea, made from a scobi. It is my drink addiction (pad thai is my food addiction). Because it is fermented it can be vinegary if you buy it bottled at the store like GT’s Kombucha. But the kombucha from Three Stone Hearth didn’t have that bite that the shelved kombucha has because it is incredibly fresh. (Both taste good if you ask me, I just felt cooler drinking the kind from Three Stone Hearth.) We tried three different kinds, Kitty’s favorite was the nettle but I liked the ginger-lime, the hibiscus was also delicious. They also let us try something called a Honey Cooler which I’m not 100% sure what it was but the Lavender Honey one was ah-mazing.

This is the amazing Three Stone Hearth website. http://www.threestonehearth.com/ Check it out. They are super cool.

I did some web-research (meaning prbly only 90% reliable) on kombucha but here is what I found:

• The Chinese called it the immortal health elixir. Take that Tuck Everlasting.
• It originated in East Asia but made its way to Germany at the turn of the century.
• People think it prevents cancer. At least the Russians and Germans do. I’m guessing the Chinese would agree.
• It detoxifies, has some chemical that can help prevent arthritis, aids digestion and “gut health” and, it boosts you immunities. Idk bout all of that but it does taste really good.
• Apparently it's “the new yogurt”. Now we know it's made it.
• Cancer.org claims kombucha is promoted to help cure “baldness, insomnia, intestinal disorders, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and cancer” but that it has also been linked with several deaths. I guess some people would die before they go bald. Me, I would just die because I think it's tasty.
• You can brew it at home, apparently you can obtain a SCOBY on craigslist. Sketchy

This is the website that claims kombucha is a cure-all.

http://www.foodrenegade.com/kombucha-health-benefits/

This is the website that gives a lot of accounts that kombucha might kill you.

http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/dietandnutrition/kombucha-tea

Here is an article written on the NY Times in the Fashion and Style Section about kombucha in San Francisco. None of those things add up to me but the article is interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/fashion/25Tea.html?_r=0

This is the article that called kombucha “the new yogurt”, for that epithet I like it best.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/36571884/#.UovaKo3QGfo