Hi. I hope everyone is having a restful Labor Day weekend.
This post is not serious and has nothing to do with journalism, THANK THE LORD. Because I need a break from it all.
I often find myself thinking, “I just need a little time away. A long weekend to get organized! That will fix it…” And then, when that long weekend arrives, getting organized is the LAST thing I want to do.
But I’m proud to say I have been adulting up and doing a bunch of cleaning, organizing, kid-chauffeuring - and even one fun (and useful because I’m a mom and it can never be just fun) thing: brewing kombucha again for the first time in about a decade.
I first discovered kombucha during my time in Iowa through a friend who’d moved there from, you know, California.
My youngest was a toddler, and he loved the stuff and used to run around singing a little made-up song about “kom-BOO-chee-uh." Almost exactly 10 years ago - September 2013 - I bought a mother (or SCOBY, or starter, or whatever you’d like to call it) at a farmer’s market from a nice couple who gave me instructions on what to do.
I brewed a few successful batches in the tiny kitchen of our rental house in Des Moines’ Sherman Hill neighborhood. But when I left Iowa Public Radio for Georgia Public Broadcasting around Christmas 2013, the kombucha starter stayed behind.
I’ve wanted to start brewing again for a long time - even went so far as tracking down a new starter once or twice - but in the frenetic pace of life, never managed to follow through.
Until now! Both of my boys love kombucha - and because I’d like to be able to help them with the cost of college, I’ve decided to start home-brewing it again rather than forking over four bucks a bottle.
I spent part of yesterday brewing black tea, adding in the sugar, waiting for it to cool, and mixing in my new SCOBY - purchased, yes, at a farmer’s market at the oceanfront in Norfolk.
And can I tell you? It just felt so cathartic to do something that has nothing to with politics, religion, reproductive rights policy, or the state of our democracy!
We all have to keep thinking about all the things. That’s also part of adulting up. But sometimes it helps to take a minute and brew some tea.
We’ll see how it goes.
Fun column -- which really is the only kind anybody should do on a holiday weekend! Bu,t at first, I mis-read your headline as, "Brewing some hooch," and I thought, "Good Lord! Sarah McCammon?" But after I read closer, I thought, "Well, we now can brag that we taught you something in your Iowa years." Keep your good work coming!