Well, Marco, it looks like you almost have a chemistry set here.

(both laugh) >>Yes, I do.

>>But it's with tools from the kitchen.

Tell us about this.

What are we doing here?

>>Yeah, so today we're gonna make a natural farming input called lactic acid bacteria.

In short, natural farming is, it's taking your mind back to a time before chemicals, before manmade fertilizers, using principles like everything you need is around you.

And so what we're gonna do today is culture some indigenous microorganisms called lactic acid bacteria >>Cool.

>>from simple ingredients that we have in our kitchen.

>>So what do you have right here?

>>This bottle is gray water.

It's just simply when you rinse your rice, if you're gonna cook rice, or if you boil pasta, that water that's left behind is gray.

It's full of starches and micronized.

And it's good to culture microbes.

So that's what this is here.

>>Sounds great.

And how do you start culturing those microbes?

>>All right, the process is pretty easy.

You wanna get a vessel, any vessel.

I like to go at least half a gallon.

And you wanna take that vessel and break it up into eight different parts.

>>Okay.

>>I wanna put 1/8 of this gray water into my vessel.

And that's it, that starts the process.

Now we have our gray water in here, we wanna take a breathable cloth and put it over the top.

And I want microbes to be able to grow in here, which is why I want the breathable aspect of it.

>>Okay.

>>We like a wide mouth as well because we wanna get that air flow in there.

And I'll set this near a compost, even in my compost, make sure it doesn't get rained on.

>>Yeah, yes.

>>And in about 36 to 48 hours, you'll notice a distinct smell to this water.

Right now it doesn't smell like anything, but you'll get like a sweet smell.

It'll get a little cloudier.

And that'll tell you the microbes have colonized that water.

>>Excellent.

>>And then we're ready to take it to the next step, which is the culture of the microbes.

>>And how do we culture the microbes?

>>All right, so let's just use our imagination.

One of the principles I use is have an open mind when it's natural farming.

So having an open mind, we'll pretend this is set out for four days.

This is now ready.

Simple way to do it is that smell.

We're just gonna fill the rest of the container with milk.

>>Milk?

Can it be any kind of milk or does it have to be dairy milk or- >>Yeah, you can use any kind of milk.

The type that you use, the type that's on sale, the type that's cheap, it's all good.

>>So coconut milk, oat milk, almond milk?

>>Coconut, oat, almond, yep, if you don't wanna do the animal thing, or if you just like good old cow milk, that works just as fine.

>>That's fine, too.

>>And what'll happen is we would fill this on up and get about 3/4 full, leaving a headspace.

And now I wanna cover it again.

>>Okay.

>>This time when we cover it, we can just set it in a corner or dark cupboard or anywhere like that.

And what's happening this time, because we already collected microbes in the gray water, now the milk is such a highly nutritious environment that the microbes are gonna proliferate and grow even more.

>>Excellent.

>>Yeah, right.

So then what happens is over about four to six days, and you'll watch this, this milk will now start separating.

It'll turn solid.

And if you could zoom maybe in here, this one, it started a couple days ago.

You can see a couple of the solids are really starting to separate.

>>Yeah, you can almost see 'em right there.

>>Yeah.

>>Yep.

>>And what'll happen is this'll separate to the point where now you'll have this whey and your solids will be part of this.

>>So you remove the solids.

>>Yes.

>>And keep the whey?

>>That's right.

>>Okay.

>>You remove your solids and you can toss them into your worm bin or compost.

>>Excellent.

>>They're highly nutritious.

Yeah, why not?

And then you wanna use a siphon.

I like the siphon.

You can pour it off, but you get a little bit of the waste in there, and I want it clean.

So if you take a hose and kinda put it down in there and you can siphon it off, it'll give you a much cleaner LAB.

And this one is complete.

Once we have this in our hands, this is a great tool.

This is a excellent tool for natural farming.

>>Excellent.

>>And we can take that and now we can ferment things.

>>Well, let's go to that step.

(Marco laughs) Pass me that milk.

(laughs) >>All right, there's the milk.

>>Okay.

>>And so when we ferment, like I said, this is our main ingredient, this is loaded with microbiology.

And when you smell it, it's got a little bit of a cheesy smell to it, if you will.

And so now to ferment something- >>I'm just gonna put this over here.

>>Okay.

To ferment, this bottle is half plant, and then fill the rest with water, leaving a headspace.

But to get it to ferment, to start that fermentation process, now we need some of this.

>>You need some of this.

>>Sorry.

>>We need this, which is the microbes, and we need this, which is the food, sugar.

>>So how much of that do you put in for a half a gallon like we have there?

>>My ratio is per one gallon will be a cup for a gallon.

So if you're doing a half gallon, you go half a cup of LAB, half a cup of sugar.

And then cover that with an airlock, which basically is gonna let your air out and no gases come in.

The microbes create some gases when they're fermenting and doing that.

So you wanna have that airlock.

You can use a rubber glove with a rubber band, works as well.

And basically, you're just gonna put that sugar and that LAB into this vessel and put your airlock on it.

And over the course of about 21 days, the microbes will consume the sugar and the plant material that's in here.

And they'll end up creating basically amino acids, which are plant available nutrients.

>>Fantastic.

>>So now we have elderberry, the nutrients of the elderberry, the microbes, which are in the LAB.

And now when those go into our soil, it's readily available to our plants.

And the microbes in the soil consume the LAB and/or, you know, if they're not consumed, they're being consumed, one or the other.

>>Yes, that is fantastic.

How much do you pour on your soil?

I mean, you've got microbes in there, it's microscopic.

How much do you pour around in your garden?

>>A good ratio when you're talking about, if you're gonna use LAB, if you wanna use it by itself, you can use 1 to 1,000.

It's very strong.

So you basically one teaspoon per gallon.

>>Wow.

>>And maybe a little bit more.

LAB is very powerful.

It will outcompete a lot of the other microbes.

So you wanna use it sparingly in your soil.

All these ferments, you wanna use 'em somewhat sparingly because less is more, really, when you're talking about farming and gardening.

>>Gentle nudges.

>>More usually gets you in trouble, you know what I mean?

>>Yeah, very gentle, gentle nudges.

>>Yes.

>>Well, Marco, I thank you so much for introducing us to a new way to introduce microbes to our soil.

>>You're welcome.

>>This is fascinating.

And it's something we all have the products for and we all can do.

>>Yes.

>>So thank you.

>>You're welcome.

>>Yes.