Make Your Own Fermented Fruit Kvass

Why Fermented Drinks?

For tens of thousands of years, our ancestors used fermentation as the main method of preservation of their food. Without refrigeration or the ability to can, they relied on the workings of natural microorganisms to change their fresh harvests into storable ones. They made and ate fermented sauerkraut, kimchee, grains, pulses, milk, fish, meat, and vegetables. This process not only preserves their foods but also gives them digestive enzymes (probiotics) and makes the vitamins and minerals inherent in the substances more bio-available to their bodies.

Today, very few of us ever eat fermented foods. Could this be a critical missing link in our diets? Do our gut microbiomes struggle to digest our meals without them? ArDoe lalackhe protective probiotics that these foods could give us? I suggest that this is precisely the case.

I started making fruit kvass a little over five years ago. I can make one for pennies, assemble it in under three minutes, and reap incredible health benefits.

How to Make Fruit Kvass

To make fruit kvass, you can start with almost any fruit or vegetable. They can be fresh, frozen, or dried. The variety is endless!

You can make kvass with a lot of fruit or just a little. When you make a pumpkin pie, save the skin and seeds and kvass them. Throw in some edible weeds from the garden in the summer. Add raisins or spices if you like. 

During cold and flu season, I often turn to my Tumeric Kvass Recipe.

Fruit Kvass Recipe

As you start off on your fermenting journey, you will probably want to follow a recipe. However, once you get more confident in the process, feel free to mix it up and experiment with your own variations.

• Get a ½ gallon jar.
• Throw in ½ cup of fresh berries (smash them a little if they have tough skin like blueberries).
• Add an orange cut into pieces.
• Add a kiwi or an apple cut into pieces.
• Sprinkle in 1 teaspoon of good-quality salt (I suggest gray sea or Himalayan pink salt).
• If you have some homemade whey, add ¼ cup (this is optional).
• Fill the jar with pure filtered water with no chlorine or fluoride, leaving two inches of head space or air at the top.
• Cover tightly. Place on the counter under a towel.
• Shake several times a day and let the gases out by loosening the cap quickly at least once daily.
• After two days in a warm kitchen or three in a cool one, strain out the fruit. If you tend toward constipation, eat the fruit for the fiber. Otherwise, compost it.
• Refrigerate.
• Then, put a splash (a tablespoon or two) in every glass of water that you drink all day long. If you aren’t used to ferments, start slow. Try just one tablespoon for a day or two, then do a bit more, and so on.

The flavor ends up being light and fruity. Very refreshing.

If, for some reason, your kvass looks bad, smells bad, or tastes bad, DON’T DRINK IT!

Try my recipe for fermented mayonnaise here.