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When I heard about the Homegrown Collective, I was immediately intrigued. If you aren’t familiar, The Homegrown Collective is an invitation to be a part of the growing overall collective of people who are looking to shift their lifestyle to a more local, self-sustaining, and eco-conscious way of living. Their monthly Greenbox includes seasonally appropriate, professionally curated products that deliver the satisfaction of living a more self-sufficient & sustainable lifestyle to your doorstep each month. Sounds neat right?
The Homegrown Collective is shipped via USPS Priority Mail and comes in a nice sized white box with The Homegrown Collective stamped on it. I will totally be reusing this box. And my box got from LA to Michigan in ONE day. Seriously. Love that.
The Homegrown Collective is packed exactly how I would expect it to be. Nothing crazy. Nothing fancy. I did have to pull out a bunch of packing stuff to get a good first look picture. There is glass in the box, so they gotta protect it!
The March Homegrown Collective included everything you needed to make your own Kombucha. Since The Homegrown Collective’s description is much better than I could ever do, I am going to include theirs ;). “According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kombucha tea was referred to as the Tea of Immortality and elixir of like. Kombucha balances the Middle Qi (Spleen and Stomach). By aiding the stomach to better digest food and by assisting the spleen to deliver more nutrition, the body heals itself.” So basically, it makes you feel better. And gets the toxins out of your system.
Here’s what came in the box:
~SCOBY Starter (SCOBY = Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) ($26.97): Yeah, I am not going to lie, I thought it looked scary too. This is where it all begins though. It’s a simple natural fermented aged culture, made of pure water, sugar and black or green tea. It’s a probiotic. Oh yeah and it’s reusable. So you can make more than one batch of tea with it.
~Black Tea Blend ($16.97): You only need three teaspoons of tea to brew Kombucha. I am pretty sure I can even handle that much tea. It’s certainly not your standard cup of tea you know?
~Relaxation & Healthy Tea Kombucha Boosters ($12): You can buy boosters in lots of different varieties, including relaxation, sleep, energy, weight loss, etc. They are added to the tea after it’s all done “cooking” for lack of a better word.
~Organic Ginger Root ($3.16): You can add ginger to your Kombucha, but you don’t have too. I’m totally going to. I mean why not?
~1/2 Gallon Mason Jar ($2): This is what you will brew your tea in. It needs to brew or ferment or whatever the proper term is for 5 – 7 days after you prepare it. You don’t need the lid though, so start thinking of some sort of craft you can do with it. I’d recommend glass gem suncatchers.
~The Supplies ($5): You also get everything you need to prepare the Kombucha, including, gloves, ph sticks, rubber bands and a cloth cover. I am not sure how to value this, so I am going with $5.
All totaled (by my best estimations), I came up with a value of $66.11 for the March The Homegrown Collective Greenbox. A great deal considering that the box itself is $48/month ($39 + $8 shipping). And is even cheaper if you buy a 6-month ($39/month) or 12-month ($35.75/month) subscription!
And because I feel like you might want to actually know how to make Kombucha, I am going to give you a brief summary. Of course, all of the instructions, plus more are included in the information cards in the box. These are the steps: 1) boil water + steep tea in muslin bags 2) add 1/2 of natural sweetner (your choice) 3) cool to room temperature 4) combine scoby starter & tea in mason jar 5) cover with cloth / rubber band. Wait 5 – 7 days. 6) filter (optional) into sealable bottles or flavor in another jar with juice, cut fruit, etc. and 7) give it another 3 days in the fridge and ENJOY!
Even I am excited about trying this. Yeah, the scoby looks scary, but if I am going to try it, anyone can. I am looking forward to seeing how it tastes and if I can tell the different in how I am feeling. What do you think of The Homegrown Collective? Previous boxes have included “How Sweet it is, Honey”, “Home Remedies and Cure-Alls”, “Tis the Season-ings” and “The Culture of Fungi”. If you want to subscribe or just want to learn more, click here. You can use the code “RAMBLINGS10” to save $10 off your first box! Why not give it a try? And if you’ve tried Kombucha, tell me about it!
Oh wait, there’s more, The Homegrown Collective also wants to give one of you a box! Just enter in Rafflecopter below and I’ll pick a winner next week!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
i recycle at home! 🙂
Oh my gosh, I love kombucha. Flavored kombucha is the best. And it’s so good for you! I try to work out daily, and this is a great after work out drink. I try to eat as green as possible, and conserve as much as possible as well.
Awesome box! We do as much as possible in our house to be “green”. Most important is recycling…..and we try to repurpose everything!
I use method cleaners and I recycle.
I’ve been thinking about trying Kombucha but it seems complicated. Maybe I’ll give it a try.
The greenest thing I do is recycle. I happily recycle all of my subscription boxes!
This sounds like an interesting box. Who doesn’t want to be a little more green?!
Sounds like lots of waiting for this tea to be ready! I’m a fan of I want what I want when I want it! But, I would be curious to give it a try! I’m always looking for healthy alternatives to soda! (Which I may just run to the gas station right now and grab one… Since I don’t have any tea on hand and all).
We recycle, compost & use a rain barrel for watering plants.
We composte in the backyard and grow a few of our own fruits and vegetables already. I have also planted some fruit and nut trees about 18 months ago (but they are not mature enough to produce yet) and this fall we plan on adding chickens to our list of adventures (yes, we live in the country no chickens in city limits I promise) I am new to the “green movement” but was raised on a ranch and grew up living primarily from what we raised or grew until I married and became a city girl. We moved back to my small ranching community hometown when our youngest daughter went to college.
This is so interesting. Its like a craft kit for adults! I’m guilty of not being oso “green” but I do try to buy as many natural cleaners and such as I can. I can handle fumey cleaners!
@Aimee: can’t*
Can’t* handle fumey cleaners
I’ve added one or two change to my life every year. Taking it slow I don’t feel like it’s burdensome. Some of the things include cloth diapers for my babies, clean primarily with vinegar and baking soda, compost, grow vegetables, become vegetarian, and minimize driving.
I’ve added one change to my life every year. Taking it slow I don’t feel like it’s burdensome. Some of the things include cloth diapers for my babies, clean primarily with vinegar and baking soda, compost, grow vegetables, become vegetarian, and minimize driving.
I’ve always wanted to try this…the box makes it look way less scary!
We are working on starting a garden!
ok this looks interesting. I’m sure you were very excited to see tea in your box. 🙂
Last year we had a CSA share, I love to garden though so That was way more veggies than we could of ever dreamed of. This year ill be frequenting the farmers market down the road:)
I always recycle, and during the winter we keep the heat down to a minimum. I am perpetually walking around with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders!
I love kombucha too, but I’m not so sure I could make it. Please let us know how that goes!
We do the basic CFLs, recycling, etc etc. But I also use natural remedies where available.
Wow, this looks like fun, though I am apprehensive about kombucha. You’ll have to let us know how it comes out!! I wish I could afford this box. Definitely on my list for the future!
As for green things I do, it includes always bringing my own reusable bags for shopping, unplugging electronics when not in use, composting, reusing/repurposing, recycling, and a bunch more! My mom keeps a garden with green onions, eggplant, squash, and a bunch of trees – apple, pear, date, fig, peach. We eat from those whenever we can!
I use essential oils for things but not neurotically
I love kombucha! Love all things fermented/cultured. We are a green household. We recycle and reuse whatever we possibly can, do organic gardening, dehydrating and canning.
We turn off the lights when we don’t need them, and I use all natural deoderant.
I think this sounds like something right up my alley! Just a little pricey. I hope I win the free box, but I went ahead and got a 3-month to try regardless! Thanks for sharing the review!
I walk to work, we recycle just about everything, I help my folks with their garden, so I get lots of veggies in the summer. It’s great!
Sounds interesting!
We ‘live green’ in many ways – recycle, reuse, reduce, all-natural cleaning products, and all organic fruits & veggies.
We recycle as much as possible, use energy efficient light bulbs, turn the lights off when not in use, and I would love to have/build a compost bin for our backyard! I am always looking for ways to be “greener!”
I try to buy all our food locally and used to subscribe to a CSA (but it was too much food for my busy point in life!).
I keep thinking about buying some kombucha making supplies. My man goes through TONS of the stuff. He loves it. I like it too and it seems silly to spend as much as we do.
Let us know how it goes!
We recycle, compost (obsessed with making compost), garden (a little), have dual flush toilet, use all CFL’s, clean with vinegar or Method cleaners, reuse things (I make bowls out of old magazines), and will cloth diaper when we have a baby.
I love Kombucha, what a great box! I’ve been interested in making my own for a while now. As for being green, I’ve been switching to natural products when I run out of something (detergent, etc.).
We recycle and I just planted my own garden to grow veggies.
A little to far out of my comfort zone and I despise tea I want to like it so bad but just don’t kind of like oatmeal want to like it so bad sounds so good is healthy but just don’t like it
I was going to enter because I always enter and really want to win a prize but than I thought I will so win this and wouldn’t even want it so I am not entering this way someone who really wants to have the tea can
can count as my good deed for the day
I recycle, plant veggies, and I try to only use green cleaning products in my house
This box intrigues me. I might have to look into them! Thank you so much for all your reviews! I’ve been trying to plant more of my own veggies, recycle, use green cleaning products and we have recently joined a CSA that uses non-GMOs and is organic!
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