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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
