Bringing You the Domestic Renaissance Since 1999

Note: As of 2017, The New Homemaker is an archive. The articles on the site are all original to TNH. For more musings from Lynn, the person behind this site, go here.

What is THAT!" hollered Josie when I opened the box we'd just gotten in the mail. Floating in the plastic bag inside was a whitish disk with brownish threads hanging from it that looked more than a bit like a very flat jellyfish.

"That," I said, "is a kombucha...thingie," I finished lamely. How to explain to a child what a symbiotic collection of bacteria and yeast (aka "scoby") is? Because that's what we'd just gotten in the mail, a "thingie" commonly called a kombucha mushroom, even though it's not a mushroom at all.

Making books together can create memories as good as the ones you put in them
It's never easy, but better to do it sooner than later
Honest, they'll survive the cold!