Hello Beautiful!

I have a very intimate relationship with apple cider vinegar.

I use it to balance the ph levels of my hair after swimming, to cleanse my hair and scalp, for clearer skin, to add shine to my hair, strengthen my coily curls, and for pretty much — all around fabulousness.

Yeah, it’s like that.

Me and ACV go waaaaaay back.

So when I found a recipe for how to make your own this summer, this naturalista was up for the challenge!

If you enjoy apples as much as we do in our home, collecting apple cores and scraps should be pretty easy. It’s ok if they start to turn brown…they’ll do more of this as they ferment.

Here’s What You’ll need:

the scraps, peels, and cores of about 6 to 8 organic apples (apples are #1 on the Dirty Dozen List, they contain THE MOST toxins from pesticides, some are those nasty neurotoxins. Buy organic apples when you can — it matters in this recipe)
purified or filtered water
wide mouth glass jar or bowl
4 to 8 weeks
a strong nose for the funk that this process gives off - it does go away!

Some of the online recipes I found suggested leaving your vinegar for up to 6 months. This was too long for me, so I opted for 2 1/2 months for this small batch.

The instructions also said to expect the vinegar to be cloudy. I kept the ‘mother’ in mine and didn’t mind the cloudiness.

Brittany Mullins, of Eating Bird Food, describes it this way:

“The ‘mother’ is made up of strand-like enzymes of connected protein molecules with living nutrients and bacteria, similar to the ‘mother’ that’s in Kombucha.”

You can strain the vinegar through the cheesecloth again if you want to remove more of the cloudiness.

I put everything in this brief video…check it out!

I probably will use more apples next time and make a double batch. I didn’t anticipate so much evaporation during fermentation.

This photo was taken 4 weeks into the vinegar making process. It smelled like HOT gabbage - without the r.

After 2 months, I strained all the apple pieces out and put it in an airtight jar with top.

It doesn’t smell as strong as what I’m used to acv smelling like, but it works the same.

I had some extra Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar, so I compared the two.

Mine is on the right in a old acv jar…

I washed and conditioned my hair with Curluxe Naturals (review coming soon:) and used my new vinegar in a basic acv rinse. Here’s my hair before I applied any styling products. Still shiny!