Sweet Potato Leaves + Brown Sugar = Food (FPJ) in a Week
Kim Chang, Not stated (she says she makes plant juice to order for farmers) · USA (Hawaiʻi)
Kim Chang makes a jar of Food (FPJ) from sweet potato leaves on the lawn at Komohana, layering the leaves with an equal weight of brown sugar, capping with sugar, covering with paper and dating it October 1, 2015. She explains which plants to pick and when, how to deal with mold, why the bottle must not be sealed tight, and shows finished jars made from young noni fruit and from fruit for the flowering and fruiting stages.
What they found
How do you make Food (FPJ) at home, and which plants and timing make a good batch?
Plants: vigorous, fast-growing ones you 'cannot kill' and that bugs rarely attack; she names sweet potato (leaves and vine tips, used in the jar shown), watercress and mugwort. Harvest: early morning while the dew is still on; do not wash the leaves (washing removes the microbes); do not pick right after rain, wait 'maybe one day'. Use plants with a good smell, never bad-smelling ones. Cut: about two inches. Amounts: about 2 pounds of leaves in a half-gallon jar when she was a beginner; a one-gallon jar once you are 'doing good'. Leaves were not weighed on camera. Sugar: equal amount of brown sugar to material; 'more sugar is better than less sugar'. Steps: toss leaves with brown sugar in a bowl so they wilt, then pack into a glass jar in layers (leaves, a little sugar, press down, more leaves), filling all the way up; osmotic pressure pulls the juice out and the pile settles. Cap with extra sugar on top. Cover: breathable paper, tied tight (an onlooker suggested a physical-therapy exercise band) so bugs can't get in. Label: what it is and the date, in red pen ('October 1st 2015, fermented plant juice, sweet potato'). Fermentation: one week, 'do not skip one week'; it turns into a very mild alcohol. Mold: thin sugar lets mold grow on top; add more sugar right away; remove green mold, white mold can stay. Day 7 (October 7): pour off the liquid; the leftover leaves can go into mulch. Storage: bottle the juice but never close the lid tight, the gas can make it explode. Storage place and shelf life: not stated. Dilution and how often to apply: not stated.
- Sweet potato leaf Food (FPJ) — Made on camera; general-purpose plant juice. Dilution not stated.
- Young noni fruit Food (FPJ) — Finished jar shown; from green, young noni fruit, for the flowering stage. Dilution not stated.
- Flower Food (FPJ) — Flowers, e.g. banana flower, for the flowering stage (described, not made).
- Fruit juice (bottle labeled FFJ, July 23, 15) — Same method, equal brown sugar; fruit possibly jaboticaba or a mix, she forgot to write it down. Given when fruit starts to change color, green to yellow.
- Type 3 mixture — For the fruiting stage; she lists brown (rice vinegar, unclear), OHN, fermented plant juice, water and calcium. Amounts not stated.
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Liquid starts coming out of the leaves within minutes of mixing with sugar
A jar she packed minutes earlier had already settled and had liquid at the bottom
▶ 2:35 Said and shown on the slides
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Ferment for one week
Jar started October 1 is to be strained October 7
▶ 6:11 As spoken
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Too little sugar invites mold
Add sugar on top as soon as mold shows; remove green mold, white mold can stay
▶ 6:57 As spoken
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A tightly closed bottle can explode
Gas keeps coming off the juice; she says it happened to her
▶ 10:14 As spoken
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Young fruit and flower juices are for the flowering stage
Shown with a young noni FPJ bottle; banana flower named
▶ 10:52 Said and shown on the slides
- A hands-on demonstration, not a trial; no results on crops are shown.
- Material and sugar were not weighed on camera; amounts are her rough figures (about 2 pounds per half-gallon jar).
- No dilution rate or spray schedule was given for any of the juices.
- The opening is cut off; the recording starts mid-sentence about fruit juice.
- The Type 3 ingredient list is partly unclear in both transcripts, and no amounts were given.
- Pick the fastest-growing, healthiest plants you have, at dawn with the dew on, and don't wash them.
- Use about an equal weight of brown sugar; if in doubt use more, and cap the jar with sugar.
- Cover with breathable paper tied tight, and label every jar with plant and date.
- Give it a full week, then pour off the juice; the leftover leaves can go into mulch.
- Never screw the bottle lid down tight; the juice keeps giving off gas.
Next to Master Cho's teaching
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Agrees
Vigorous plants: sweet potato vine, mugwort, watercress Cho names mugwort and dropwort (watercress-like) as model plants and lists sweet potato vine among plants whose growing points grow fast and carry strong growth hormone.
Cho, Cho Han-Kyu's Natural Farming (Theory), p. 69
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Agrees
Harvest at dawn with dew, don't wash, not after rain Cho says collect just before sunrise, dew adds volume, and don't wash because it removes lactic acid bacteria and yeast. He advises waiting 2–3 days after rain; Kim said 'maybe one day', which is shorter than Cho's wait.
Cho, Natural Farming Agricultural Materials (Recipe), p. 34
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Agrees
Equal brown sugar, sugar on top, about a week Cho's recipe is material and brown sugar 1:1 by weight, enough sugar to cover the top, covered with paper, completed in 5–7 days. Kim's one week sits at the long end of that range.
Cho, Cho Han-Kyu's Natural Farming (Theory), p. 72–73
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Differs
Pack the jar all the way to the top Cho fills the jar to 2/3 and leaves 1/3 for water, air and heat, using a stone so the volume settles to two thirds. Kim packs the jar full and lets it settle on its own, without a weight; leaving headroom is the safer habit.
Fermented-Plant-JuiceFPJ, p. 1–7
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Agrees
Young fruit Food (FPJ) for flowering Cho uses FPJ from baby fruits (with false acacia flower) to support floral differentiation and the changeover period, the same idea as Kim's young noni and banana flower juices.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2010 draft), p. 67
“Like a sweet potato, you cannot kill this sweet potato.”
▶ 0:16
“Do not skip one week.”
▶ 6:17
“More sugar is better than less sugar.”
▶ 6:57
“If you close the lid tight, the gas keep coming out, it's going to explode. Really. I'm not kidding, it happened to me.”
▶ 10:21
In this talk
- 0:00Pick vigorous plants: sweet potato, watercress, mugwort
- 1:03Plants that bugs leave alone
- 1:16Equal brown sugar; cut to about two inches
- 1:33A caterpillar in the leaves
- 1:56Jar size and how much material
- 2:23Layer sugar and leaves; the juice comes out
- 3:55Harvest at dawn, don't wash, not after rain
- 5:05Use plants that smell good
- 5:30Pack the jar full; it settles
- 6:11Ferment one full week
- 6:57More sugar, not less: dealing with mold
- 8:10A batch made about a week ago
- 8:36Sugar cap, paper cover, exercise band
- 9:34Label and date the jar
- 10:02Strain on day 7; never seal the bottle
- 10:42Young noni and flowers for the flowering stage
- 11:23Fruit juice for when fruit changes color
- 12:03Type 3 mixture for the fruiting stage
Transcript
Transcribed and checked by hand against the recording. Click any time to play from there.
0:00 Kim Chang: I use fermented fruit juice. You can use three different kinds of fruit at once. But I'm doing a fermented plant juice. The character you have to look for is the vigorous growing plant. Like a sweet potato, you cannot kill this sweet potato. You harvest everything, it will start growing back. And then like the watercress is another aggressive one. And mugwort is another good one. You cannot kill mugwort. They use for medicine in Chinese. Like when you do acupuncture, they dry it. They use acupuncture point for new stuff.
0:42 And then also when the woman gave birth, they bathed in mugwort. It regenerates new cells, produces very fast. But this is the fast growing plant. It has a growing, very, very strong growing hormones. That's why we use. Also, if you look at it, this plant has a hardly bug attack. Yeah? So bug doesn't like this plant somehow. So that is good thing too. So when we make this fermented plant juice, we use equal amount of brown sugar. And then we chop it about two inches or whatnot.
1:33 Oh, wow, what is that? Wow, that's beautiful!
1:43 Audience: What is that, is that a butterfly?
1:46 Kim Chang: That's fabulous, I've never seen this thing! Wow! Amazing! So actually when I was a beginner I used just half gallon of jar. And then this one is about 2 pounds of material actually. But this one is light one so you can take 2 pounds I think. But equal amount of material and brown sugar. So when I put it in, I layer it. First I toss some brown sugar and turn like this.
2:35 And then it will start to wilt. The liquid started to come out from the leaves. It's osmotic pressure action is going on. Yeah, really sweet. The one that I just made, it's already going down. This is amazing. Wow. It's like that. It's amazing how fast it just... So when you use a leaf material, you need to pack it in like that. So when you are doing good, get a one gallon jar and then I layer it on top after one layer
3:30 of the leafy material and then I layer with the brown sugar a little. And then pack it and put more green leaves. So when I collect this material, I collect early in the morning when morning dew is still on. Also in the morning they have the most nutrients in their body. We are extracting all these minerals and microbes and lactobacillus bacteria and yeast from
4:20 their leaves so we don't wash our material. When you wash, you wash away all those good microbes. Also we don't pick the material right after rain because all those microbes are washed away. So we wait maybe one day and then we start collecting again. The microbes are everywhere in the air, in your body and your guts, But they are very very important ones to survive. So Master Cho said something you don't see.
5:08 Like air, microbes, that's all the nutrients. And also have to have good smells. Do not use bad smell stuff. See when you make a large quantity, it's easier when you let it turn like this, it will wilt more. Yeah? And then you can put more stuff in the jar. So even this one we put it all the way up, pack it up, and that's osmotic pressure makes it go down like that.
5:56 The liquid is already down there.
6:04 Audience: How long have you been...
6:11 Kim Chang: I'm going to layer it and then actually we are fermenting for one week. Do not skip one week. You want them to ferment really, really well. And they're turning into very mild alcohol. And the plant loves the mild alcohol. See, it just keeps going in. Bottomless jar. And then you layer it with sugar.
6:57 But more sugar is better than less sugar. If you put less sugar, you will see some kind of mold growing on top. So when you see right away, you just add more sugar on top and those molds will disappear. But if you have a green mold, take away. If you're going to keep the mold, keep the white ones. Just a little bit more. Wow, that's so beautiful.
7:41 Audience: The caterpillar is crawling away.
7:45 Kim Chang: Oh, it's going away. Yeah, I think it's better to put it back. Poor thing. A little bit more and we'll be done.
8:10 Audience: Kim, did you put the date of when you made this?
8:13 Kim Chang: That one I already mixed so I didn't put the date I should have. But they, some farmer order from me, but they don't have time to make it. Yeah, so, it's probably maybe a week ago, probably I made that one. Wow. Yeah. So, okay, now you need to put extra sugar on top, and then you put a breathable paper material. Clean all this so the bulk doesn't go in.
9:20 Audience: Something I found useful is exercise bands.
9:25 Kim Chang: Exercise bands?
9:27 Audience: They're used for physical therapy. It really gets them nice and tight.
9:30 Kim Chang: Oh.
9:32 Audience: The bugs don't go in.
9:34 Kim Chang: And then you need to write down what it is, always. In a red pen. Right there. Thank you. October 1st 2015 fermented plant juice sweet potato so October 7th you need to extract this liquid yeah and then you can discard this material or you can use in the mulch, whatever. But juice, after you bottle it, you cannot close the lid tight.
10:21 If you close the lid tight, the gas keep coming out, it's going to explode. Really. It's not, I'm not kidding, it happened to me. It's very dangerous thing. So always leave the the lid untied, I mean not close too tight, yeah, so air can come out. So there's a, I had a, this is a fermented plant juice, finished product. And then, this one I made with a noni, young noni, so you can use for flowering stage. Yeah, you use the leaf, not the flower.
11:05 Audience: The fruit?
11:07 Kim Chang: This is made with young fruit. Remember young fruit? Green fruit. It's for the flowering stage. And the flower, you can use for flowering stage. So the banana flower is good to use for flowering stage. And then this is fermented plant juice. same way and how you make, equal amount of brown sugar. And then this one, I'm not sure what I use. I use jaboticaba or just a mixture of, I forgot to write down what it is. So very important to write what you use so this one when your fruit is starting to change color
11:52 From green to yellow or whatever. Then you start giving this one. And make sweet.
12:00 Audience: Okay, I'll be up in that room.
12:02 Kim Chang: And then there's a mixture for fruiting stage. It's Type 3. This is the one. It has brown, the OHN, brown rice, fermented plant juice, water, and calcium. And then this one.