February 2026 – Cleanser (Vinegar)

The Hilo KNF Monthly Meeting is a free, community-driven gathering held on the second Tuesday of every month at the Komohana Research and Extension Center. Each session focuses on one of Master Cho’s nine core solutions of Korean Natural Farming, with hands-on demonstrations, tastings, and potluck dinner.

February’s meeting opened with a homework review — attendees brought their Food batches from January for sensory evaluation. A beautiful grapefruit ferment and a tangelo Food both passed with flying colors. Then the group tackled Cleanser: a living, fruit-based vinegar made simply by adding water to finished Food and letting it ferment with air contact for 3–6 months. Drake explained how cleanser flushes stuck nutrients, increases plant flexibility, and builds wax layers on leafy greens.

TL;DR: Cleanser = living vinegar made from your Food + water + air + time. Fill a jar 1/3 with Food, 2/3 water, cover with cloth, wait 3–6 months. A scoby forming on top means it’s working. Living vinegar contains amino acids and enzymes that distilled vinegar lacks — it flushes disease and strengthens plants.

Reviewing the Food Homework

The February 2026 Hilo Korean Natural Farming meeting at the Komohana Research and Extension Center kicked off with something every natural farmer loves: tasting homework. Attendees who made Food (the KNF fermented plant juice) at the January session brought their finished batches for evaluation — and the results were impressive.

Drake walked the group through sensory evaluation of each batch. The first step is always the smell test: a properly made Food should smell pleasant — fruity, slightly alcoholic, and reminiscent of the plant material it was made from. Smells of rotten eggs, vomit, or diarrhea signal the wrong microbial communities and a failed batch.

One attendee brought a beautiful grapefruit Food that passed with flying colors — fruity aroma, clean taste, and excellent color. Drake explained the importance of supersaturation for storage: adding sugar until it begins to fall out of solution at the bottom of the container puts the microorganisms into a dormant state, preserving the Food at room temperature for one to two years.

Another attendee shared a tangelo Food made with her husband from their prolific tangelo tree. She was already using it at a 1:500 dilution on their farm. Drake emphasized the incredible concentration of KNF solutions — just two banana keikis processed into Food can generate enough fertilizer to treat six acres.

Introductions and Announcements

Laura Reber, Junior Extension Agent for Pacific Crops at Komohana, welcomed the group and reminded everyone that these monthly meetings are designed for connection — experienced practitioners sharing knowledge with newcomers over potluck food and talk story.

Drake shared exciting news: he was recently elected Vice President of Cho Global Natural Farming Hawaii, the nonprofit educational organization founded in 2015 that carries forward Master Cho’s legacy worldwide.

Tonight’s Topic: Cleanser (Vinegar)

Drake introduced the evening’s main lesson: Cleanser, the KNF term for living, fruit-based vinegar. He positioned it within the nine KNF solutions — Microbes, Protectors, Food (covered previously), Cleanser (tonight), Medicine, Structure, Fuel, Reproduction, and Minerals.

The group brainstormed uses: cleaning up mold, flushing systems, dealing with powdery mildew, and addressing pest pressure. But cleanser does far more than clean. Drake explained that upon metabolization, cleanser shifts polarity in the plant system, loosening nutrients that were stuck in acidic conditions.

Why Living Vinegar Matters

Drake drew a critical distinction between distilled white vinegar and living, unpasteurized vinegar like apple cider vinegar. Distilled vinegar is reduced to pure acetic acid — useful for dissolving and cleaning, but stripped of the amino acids, enzymes, and biological complexity that make living vinegar so powerful.

Living vinegar contains amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), active enzymes that serve as biological catalysts, and complex microbial communities. For plants, this translates to increased flexibility (reducing wind snap damage), thicker wax layers on leafy greens (natural disease resistance), and improved nutrient cycling.

The group shared their own experiences with vinegar: drinking apple cider vinegar for heartburn, rebalancing stomach acid after hard workouts, boosting egg production in chickens, making fire cider for daily health, and cooking pork adobo.

The Recipe: Food + Water + Air

The process is elegantly simple for anyone who has already made Food:

1. Fill a container one-third full with your finished Food
2. Add double the volume in water (rainwater preferred)
3. Add a splash of living vinegar or a piece of scoby/mother as a starter (optional but accelerates the process)
4. Cover with a breathable lid — cloth or paper towel with rubber band
5. Store out of direct sunlight at a consistent temperature
6. Wait 3–6 months for full conversion

The breathable lid is essential: without air contact, you’ll make alcohol instead of vinegar. The one-third airspace at the top enables quorum sensing among the microbial community. Over time, a pellicle (scoby) — a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast — will form on the surface, a sign of healthy fermentation.

Drake evaluated a green banana vinegar brought by an attendee, noting it needed more sugar at the start to fully convert. The target is a pH below 2.4, producing that characteristic mouth-puckering bite.

Group Activity

The meeting concluded with the group making a batch of cleanser together from tangelo Food, mixing it with water and adding a vinegar starter — hands-on learning that embodies the spirit of these gatherings. As Drake reminded everyone: make the homework, bring it back, get it validated. That confidence is something no video can replace.

The Hilo KNF monthly meetings are held at the Komohana Research and Extension Center. All are welcome — bring a dish to share and your curiosity about Korean Natural Farming.

Next Month: Medicine