If you’ve been around Pretty for a while, you know I love a good cookbook sneak peek. Today’s comes from Mary Bryant Shrader of The Modern Pioneer. I worked with Mary in the past on a couple of articles for Guideposts, and she’s every bit as sweet as she seems on her popular YouTube channel, Mary’s Nest. Her second cookbook, The Modern Pioneer Pantry,* releases August 19, and tucked inside is something I’d never tried before: a recipe that starts with a ginger bug.

Now, I’ll be honest: this book isn’t filled with the usual cakes and cookies I might share on a Sweet Saturday. Mary is a pioneer at heart, and that means her recipes require time, patience, and a little bit of trust. But I wanted to include her here because (1) she’s lovely, and (2) the recipe I chose is unexpectedly sweet in its own way: Fermented Strawberry Soda.

But here’s the catch: before you can pour a glass of that pretty pink soda, you need to make a ginger bug.

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What Is a Ginger Bug?

As Mary explains in her cookbook, a ginger bug is basically the sourdough starter of the soda world. It’s a simple mix of ginger, sugar, and water that you “feed” daily for about 5–7 days. As it bubbles and ferments, it becomes a natural starter you can use to make probiotic sodas.

And here’s what I love about Mary’s approach: good things take time, but they don’t take hours at a time. Making a ginger bug takes maybe 15 minutes of chopping and stirring. Then you cover it, set it aside, and let nature do the rest. In other words, you’re not babysitting your jar — you’re living your life while the good stuff happens quietly on the counter.

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Why Do You Want One?

Because this is where pioneer and trendy collide. Probiotic sodas are the cool thing right now — all over wellness shops, Instagram, and TikTok. But the process that makes them possible? It’s as old-fashioned as it gets: natural fermentation.

Picture a Venn diagram:

• On one side, Mary and the pioneer way.
• On the other, today’s wellness crowd sipping $2.50 cans of bubbly probiotics.
• And right in the middle? You, making your own fizzy soda at home for pennies, with fewer chemicals and more character.

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Why Start Today?

Because it takes about a week to build up your ginger bug! If you start this weekend, yours will be ready just in time for next Saturday’s post, where I’ll give you the recipe from Mary’s book. Kinda like we were making Fermented Strawberry Soda together. (Except that I’ll have made it a day or two before to tell you how it went.)

I’ll be feeding mine daily this week (and discarding the extra as it grows — don’t worry, Mary says that’s normal). By next weekend, when you have your jar bubbling and ready to flavor, I’ll tell you exactly what to do.

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Ginger Bug Recipe (adapted from The Modern Pioneer Pantry)

Excerpted from The Modern Pioneer Pantry reprinted by permission of DK, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Mary Bryant Shrader. (The publisher kindly sent me an early copy of this cookbook, but all opinions here are my own.)

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Next Week’s Sweet Saturday

Once your ginger bug is alive and kicking, we’ll turn it into soda. I’ll share my experience making it, my daughter’s taste test, and some fun ginger facts you might not expect.

So let’s get started today — because sometimes the best things take a little time, but never more time than you can give.

*Note: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).