All Answers

I have written a Recipe Book for KNF Solutions.

It is relatively rough in the current edition, which is why I also sell a limited edition with free updates.

The sugar cap is not necessary for fermenting plant juice to make KNF Food. The sugar cap is used when fermenting fruit juice because fruit tends to have a higher concentration of sugars and moisture, so it needs the additional sugars to create osmotic pressure to pull the liquid out of the cells before fermenting.

The recommended sugar to plant material weight is 1:1/3-1/2, so 1 kilo of plant material would be mixed with between a third to a half kilo of brown sugar. When making from fruit, the recommended sugar ratio is 1:1, so one kilo of fruit to one kilo of sugar, with a portion of the sugar reserved to make a sugar cap.

Adding a sugar cap to less sweet plant material increases the osmotic pressure too much and retards fermentation.

Layers of mold can grow on top of KNF Food made by fermenting plant material and sometimes if they are not super saturated with sugar after the extraction of juice, they will continue to ferment and may grow a mold on top.

This is a sign that the solution is not stable and is slowly degrading. To stop it from degrading and fully arrest fermentation, equal volumes of brown sugar should be added to super saturate the solution. Every water molecule will be bound with a sugar molecule and thus when microbes go to metabolize the solution, they are retarded by the sugar and eventually become inactive.

All ohn inputs should be weighed.

This is something I have never looked at. I know once the KNF Solutions are diluted, there is enough water that it will not inhibit the LAB.

Often times I make a concentrated maintenance mix containing KNF Medicine, KNF Cleanser, and KNF Food, and though sometimes it may be tempting to put LAB into that mix, it is not a good idea in the concentrated form, but once I dilute this mix 20ml/gal, THEN I add the LAB.

I just had the pleasure to go to one of Drake’s workshops and asked him a very similar question. When collecting in a desert it helps to apply the maintenance solution on and around the collection area 3 days before you begin the IMO collection. Water the collection area in the evenings or mornings during this 3 day period.

Maintenance Solution (1 Gallon of water):

OHN (medicine)  :  4ml

BRV (Stimulator) : 8ml

FPJ  (Food)            : 8ml

Fall is a good time to collect in the desert, but it won’t hurt to get a summer collection to :). Also planning your collection around retrieving your collection during the full moon is beneficial. The moon’s gravitational pull pulls the ground water higher, helping the topsoil to have more moisture.

Healthy broad leaf trees with the leaves accumulated beneath are a good place to collect from.

• Push the leaves aside until you get to the native soil.
• Line the native soil with the leaf litter or the broken down leaves. Or anything thing that has mycelium growth.
• Place Collection box on top and leaf litter and cover with surrounding leaf litter and leaves.

You are correct on the FPJ. One thing to keep in mind is to keep plants separated into their own batch. If you want to apply two or more FPJs to a crop you would want to mix after the ferment.

I’ve had the same issue finding BRV up in Oregon as well. You can make Makgeolli and let in turn to vinegar with or without a mother, or fruit vinegar will work as well. I have been using apply cider vinegar. You can also make vinegar from FPJ waste product. Chris Trump has a How to video.

How to: Vinegar with Chris Trump

This was an area of confusion for me as well. I asked a similar question here once and Drake replied, instructing me to mix up the rest of your solution, and then basically add 1 gram of salt for every liter of solution. Apparently that makes for a pretty accurate replication.