tempeh starter

[Isabel]

Does anyone have, or know where i can get some tempeh starter? I've tried three different companies on line and they either don't respond, seem to have lost my check, or sent me bad starter.....
Thanks, Isabel

[Tim Hall]

Don't know if you've tried GEM cultures yet, but I've never had problem with them.

http://gemcultures.com/

[cschx]

Could someone share info on current North American suppliers of tempeh starter? GEM has been out of stock for months (I think this may be due to a salmonella-related factory shutdown back in May). Cultures For Health and tempeh.info are both offering a non-sporulating version which can't be perpetuated easily. Tempeh.info has a "Type B" spore-forming culture, but only sells it in large quantities with prohibitive shipping from Belgium.

I tried propagating some fresh tempeh from my local zymologists, but it wouldn't spore even after several days of incubation. Turns out they were using the "Type A" starter from tempeh.info.

Perhaps there is a venue for starter sharing of which I'm unaware?

[Tim Hall]

Wow, good to know. Sorry I don't have any other resources. Maybe i need to implement my plans to bank and share cultures...

It's been a while since I made tempeh. Maybe I need to hunt down some cultures and isolate a good strain. GEM and For Health are the only resources I know of. Just for the sake of diversity I wish there were more suppliers.

If anyone wants to bankroll my flowhood and strain storage plans, I'm game for becoming a new supplier ;)

[speddison]

I'm with ya! I'd love to find tempeh starter! I live in Maine- we've had a local provider of a local organic product...we don't right now. I ferment all kinds of things, even sell a few jars. Making tempeh is on my bucket list so I'm also on the hunt for viable starter. As for bankroll...margins are slim around here, but community is BIG. Cheers!

[anahatabalance]

It can be hard to find tempeh starter with a steady supply. Cultures for Health only have tiny packets which cost a lot and Gem seems to be O/S most of the time.
I have found a new source that get their starter spores from the number one supplier from Indonesia (Note this is not the brand that had the recall for bad spores). They have about every other culture starter that one could want...www.organic-cultures.com

Nirinjan

[cschx]

It can be hard to find tempeh starter with a steady supply. Cultures for Health only have tiny packets which cost a lot and Gem seems to be O/S most of the time.
I have found a new source that get their starter spores from the number one supplier from Indonesia (Note this is not the brand that had the recall for bad spores). They have about every other culture starter that one could want...www.organic-cultures.com

Nirinjan

Thanks for the info, Nirinjan. I notice that the Organic Cultures website and store both have a notice at the bottom: "This web page, design, and images are the property of Organic-cultures.com and Anahata Balance..." Since you've posted a few links to their site on this forum (but say you've just "found" them), could you please clarify your relationship with Organic Cultures?

[10kFerment]

Ouch!

LOL

[Tim Hall]

Yes, still waiting for a reply...after this site was mentioned in several old posts on the same day.

[grumps]

You can get a very small amount of the pure strain from :
http://nrrl.ncaur.usda.gov/cgi-bin/usda/process.html

Also, I recently got some starter from the Tempehstartershop (Australia) and made an initial test where I let the culture go for 30 hrs and then dehydrated it, pulverized it, strained it and made another batch - and it looks like although the spores where not black as usual, the white mycelium did sporulate and looks promising for duplication.