I started growing my bacterial cultures on November 23rd, and so I think today, December 6th, is a good time to assess their progress so far.
After a few days and no visible growth, I became concerned that the top of the fridge was not as warm as I had hoped, and moved half of the plates to the stove hood. Interestingly, I found today that those dishes that spent time on top of the stove developed more condensation inside their lids than those that were on top of the fridge (see picture below; the fridge group is on the left and the stove group is on the right).
The plate with the most growth, by far, was the one on which grew whatever happened to be on the back of my hand.
The one with the least growth was from my scalp, which interests me greatly as I use essential oils in my hair (including lavender, peppermint, and eucalyptus) which claim antibacterial, anti-fungal properties. I suppose this could be a point in their favor?
I have also included a picture of the plate for my eyelid microbiome. It was mostly clean, but had a rather large white blob in one corner. In a normal, healthy eye, the microbiome is supposedly quite complex, and it makes me wonder what this one, dominant colony means.
I have been considering a few choices I made in this project that I may have done differently, if I was to do it again. For instance, I used a chicken stock cube that already had herbs added to it. I doubt this will affect the growth of my microbes, but it does make it a bit more confusing to look at the plates than if they were clear all throughout. I also did not think to sterilize the petri dishes before I used them. I should hope that since they were fresh out of the package, they were completely clean, but it would have been good to be sure.
As predicted, most of the cultures are white. Today I took some of my growth medium and dyed it red, so that when I start a new culture it will hopefully create a more aesthetically pleasing result. My only concern is that the red dye I found contains citric acid, which may inhibit bacterial growth.
I feel that at this time I should also give an update on my kombucha SCOBY. I have given it 11 days to develop, and it is still quite thin. However, according to a blog post I found, I should wait at least a month before becoming concerned that I have a bad batch. For now I just moved it to a slightly warmer part of my room. It is currently giving off a strong vinegar-like aroma, and I sincerely hope that it does not become so strong that it is unbearable to keep in the same room where I sleep.
While waiting for my cultures and SCOBY, I have started wondering what part sourdough bread may play in the gut as it relates to mental health. Like kombucha, sourdough is a fermented food, and I have heard it said that it improves gut health. In conducting some cursory research on the topic, I stumbled upon “The Sourdough School: The Art and Science of Bread Making,” a research and education center whose aim is “To educate in both the art and science of sourdough bread making and fermentation, and study the interaction between bread and the gut microbiome.” Of course, this grabbed my attention (anything that mentions art, science, and the microbiome will these days). I plan to investigate this further. If going to grad school for art in science leads me to baking bread for homework I think my education will have reached a new level of unusual.
Microbial Mood 