In a recent post to veg-raw by [log in to unmask] (Alex Tarry),
the following questions are raised:

>I've been making yogurt using soya milk as the medium ( i managed to get
>some soya milk based live yogurt as a first starter). Would this be
>considered as "sattvic" ( balancing / soothing ) by yogic/Ayurvedic
>thought ?

Most likely, yes. I would assume that your soya milk is cooked.  The culture
is on a cooked base, but you use only an insignificant amount, and there
are no yogurt starter cultures available on an uncooked base. I assume you
are making your own soya milk; the packaged soya milks in the health food
stores are usually very bad (heavily processed - essentially junk foods).
Soy yogurt from real soya milk is probably sattvic; if made using those
artificial soya drinks it is unclear whether it is sattvic or tamasic;
I suspect tamasic as the artifical drinks are pretty bad.

>I use rejuvelac as a by-product of the wheat sprouting process , i
>soak the wheat for a day and use the water , and then i continue
>the wheat sprouting process , eating the sprouts in the next day or
>two ( i find wheat grass too sweet for my liking). Assuming that
>"true rejuvalac" can be made this way, how does this relate with the
>point that rejuvalac is a dead food , after all the wheat goes on
>to sprout.

The standard recipe for rejuvelac calls for soaking wheat 8-10 hours, then
sprouting for 2 days, then soaking in water for 2-3 days more (first batch
of rejuvelac), then 1-2 more days in water (second batch). So your use of
soak water does not fit the description of rejuvelac. See Ann Wigmore,
"Rebuild Your Health" for more details - earlier books by Ann Wigmore give
different recipes, but the one cited is the last/reference recipe.

After 4-5 days in water, the wheat sprouts are dead, and rejuvelac is the
"sun tea" of decomposing wheat sprouts.

You are simply drinking the soak water, which is not rejuvelac. I generally
give the soak water to my houseplants; they love it, and grow very well
because of it. I don't drink it as it might have some small amount of yeast
fermentation in it. (There are good reasons to not drink the soak water from
legumes - flatulence - and from almonds, peanuts - high alkaloid content.)

>A (simple) question. Is sprout milk just liquidised sprouts ?

Basically, though straining is required for some sprouts (oats, barley, millet),
and optional for other sprouts. One can get creative and flavor sprout milk
with spices (vanilla bean, cinnamom, cardamom, etc) or sweeteners (honey,
carob bean). The veg-raw ftp site has a file with oat sprout milk recipes in it.
My favorite is oat-rice-almond sprout, flavored with vanilla bean: soothing
and delicious (full recipe in sprouting file at ftp site)!

>Finally , an idea about a sprout milk yogurt assuming it is what i
>think sprout milk is. Add a lacto bacteria culture to the sprout
>milk medium. I have not tried this, comment welcome.

I am using an Acidophilus culture, in rice bran powder. In another recent post I
discussed the problem I am encountering - yogurt is too thin. Need to experiment
some more to get a good (reliable) recipe.

Tom Billings
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