We have already started to work on @dusjagr favorite new material… Nata de Coco a very popular desert in South East Asia and Japan ナタ・デ・ココ
Since our research visit at lifepatch, Yogyakarta, almost obsessively I have been trying to grow and scale production of that bacterial cellulose that forms the Nata de Coco desert, but experimenting with some other use for it as a creative material. The cellulose pellicle produced by these acid bacteria, now named Komagataeibacter xylinus, is very similar to the SCOBY of a kombucha ferment. In fact it’s the same bacteria responsible, but in the kombucha a lot of other microbes are involved for creating the taste and acidity of the drink.
There is already a lot of research and resources available on the hackeria wiki / Nata de Coco. We have started the experiment on “Isolating” cellulose producing bacteria from the wild, using pineapple flesh, and hopefully can start growing the isolated cultures in 1-2 weeks. Additionally we started to grow more kombucha SCOBY, using various simple recipes, from which we will try to isolate a “pure” culture of Komagataeibacter xylinus. (and as a backup we ordered lab-grade cultures from a japanese distributor, thanks @trembl)
This lead to some very interesting late night discussion of “Isolation” and “Contamination”, and we hope to think deeper about those issues over the coming weeks with all of you! @Take, @nanocastro, @Tomatofunk, @mamaya
We are also working on a Japanese translation of that beautiful little booklet presented by @citrakirana.eli Nata_de_Coco-Book_translated_small.pdf (2.2 MB)
The experiments also relates to our earlier discussions with @miga about the philosophical implementation of Bacteria “Facteries and Employees” from the last years.
