Fermentation kits & cultures

It's time to brine and dine! Eating fermented foods can have powerful effects on your gut health which is the basis of your overall physical, emotional and mental well-being.

Symbiota products have been specifically designed to make fermenting at home fun, hygienic and successful. Their range of premium fermentation equipment includes live and active probiotic cultures, ceramic crocks, home-based kits and stainless steel utensils, all designed to make fermenting in your home kitchen easy and rewarding - even for fermenting newbies!

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What sort of things can I make?

The Symbiota product family is designed to safely use fermentation (or to be fancy and science-y, zymology) to make milk or coconut yoghurt, sourdough (including a gluten-free option), sauerkraut, kimchi, vinegar - even fermented hot sauce! You can also create your own fermented drinks like water kefir, milk kefir, kombucha and ginger beer.

Get creative and go a step further - Symbiota offers helpful advice and delicious recipes on the Symbiota blog. Try recipes such as Christmas Eggnog with a Fermented Twist, Fermented Seed Crackers, Fermented Spicy Grapes or Vegan Cream Cheese.

They also have kits for non-fermented DIY foodie ventures such as their Sprouting Seed Kit and Nut Milk (or Mylk!) Kit.

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Why ferment foods?

In short - fermented foods are really, really good for you. People all around the world have used fermentation for thousands of years as a method to preserve foods through famines, wars, changing seasons; and of course, for their health benefits.

Research on the benefits of fermented foods shows that when we regularly eat fermented foods, the diversity of our gut microbiome is significantly boosted. Other potential health benefits include improved bone health, gut health, heart health, regulated blood pressure, physical health, and long-lasting improvements to mood and mental health. Who doesn't want that?

Home-based food lacto-fermentation is a natural and safe process which allows the naturally probiotic and beneficial lactic acid bacteria to thrive and prevents the growth of less healthy microorganisms. Home fermentation is a great way to safely preserve foods without artificial preservatives, enhancing its nutritional value and extending its shelf life.

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Is fermenting at home easy to do?

Connecting people like you to traditional human culinary knowledge of food fermentation is what Symbiota is all about. Once you’ve learned the basics, it's easy to make endless delicious fermented foods at home with the best quality local ingredients.

Instead of buying fermented foods from grocery stores, Symbiota can give you all the confidence, knowledge and equipment you need to safely use natural fermentation in your home kitchen. They want you to succeed and offer one-to-one support from their customer care team via phone or email. You can also learn the art of fermentation with their interactive kombucha and saurkraut courses.

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What's a live culture? What's a starter culture?

Live or active cultures are microorganisms such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, which are often referred to as probiotics. These microorganisms are present in a lot of the food and drinks we eat every day, and aid with the fermentation of foods and drinks.

Starter cultures are concentrated live cultures that act as a jumping-off point to get fermentation going. They're a concentration of microorganisms that help quickly and easily establish a healthy bacteria population in your fermented foods.

Starter cultures include water or milk kefir grains, yoghurt cultures, ginger beer starters and sourdough starters, supplied in dried form ready to activate. There's also the famous kombucha SCOBY that comes sealed in plastic; a rubbery-looking disc of bacteria and yeast with the texture of calamari or squid. Don't worry, you don't eat it! It's just there to gift its microorganisms to your kombucha.

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What are the pretty white pots for?

These are Symbiota's fermentation crocks. Not only are they easy to use and clean, but they're specifically designed to release carbon dioxide while inhibiting oxygen from entering the pot (food-spoiling bacteria need oxygen to live). The proprietary airlock water-sealed lid prevents light, mould, dust, yeast and bacteria entering your carefully crafted ferment and spoiling your efforts.

The heavy ceramic weights hold your ferments below the brine, so there's no odour retention or mould growth. Since they're fully glazed and non-porous, they don't absorb anything (or leak anything!) into your food and provides a stable environment for fermentation processes - especially important for sauerkraut which takes several weeks to ferment properly.

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Who is behind the fizzing and fermenting at Symbiota?

The founder of Symbiota is Amber Fairweather, who also works as a wellbeing coach for tertiary students and teaches psychology for senior secondary students.

Through her own autoimmune disease journey, she discovered the link between gut health and our mental, physical and emotional health. She noticed that the New Zealand market lacked fermentation kits and pots that were stylish and easy to use, so alongside teaching full-time she designed and developed the Symbiota range.

She's a passionate foodie who loves to travel and learn and interact with people from a wide range of backgrounds.

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