make kefir

I have not been able to drink kefir since I got pregnant. I’m having trouble eating lots of things including meat these days. Especially chicken! Though intrestingly enough I have no trouble eating junk food like chips and oreos. Hmmm . . .

my grains are multiplying like crazy. And since they took so long to cultivate and are alive(?) I just can’t get rid of the extras by throwing them away. Lately I’m feeling like my daily chores/routines are overwhelming me (even 43things). And I stay home (granted with a toddler but still). Hmmm. Maybe I need some alone time to get things straigntened out.

This is going really well. After about a month my grains first quadrupled in size than multiplied. Yay. I’m not really sure why but it was so exciting to see my new grain form. Taking care of these little grains actually has been a daily commitment, like a garden I guess, so I feel really successful now that they are thriving.

That traditional feeling I had when I first got the grains continues on too. Turns out my grandmother used to make my mom drink kefir as a little girl. She had forgotten all about it until I brought them home. In Mexico they called them Bulgaros.

Then again my friend recognized them as the way to make leban. A smooth cheese made from kefir in middle Eastern countries.

I really had no idea this would turn into something kind of sentimental. So far I’ve connected with Russian, Mexican and Jordanian culture through these grains.

As for the kefir itself, I’ve finally found the basics to create the consistency I like, which again took almost a month. Temperature, type of jar and amount of time had lots to do with it. Though since they are continuously growing I constantly have to tweak the conditions.

I’d close the goal since it’s mostly done but I’m hoping to make cheese from it.

on Flea Bay ;-)

Not going to buy it just yet as I have several other home projects on the go and I want to give it the love and attention it deserves!

Very excited.

and I’m so excited to have finally found out what it was. ‘It’ was a strange white, spongy textured, cauliflower-like in appearance, plant type thing that used to live in a bowl on our kitchen windowsill when I was a child. If you gave it a pint of creamy milk every morning, by the following breakfast time ‘It’ would have turned the milk to yoghurt. You then strained off the yoghurt, gave ‘It’ a quick rinse, added more milk, and off it went again. And over time it grew, so we could give bits of it to other people.

Now I know this sounds barmy, but it’s true! Apparently, if you leave it longer and use a slightly different process, you can make curd cheese too. Check it out for yourself here http://www.seedsofhealth.co.uk/fermenting/kefir.shtml

Now I need to find where I can buy the inert culture and get one started….

I got some grains from someone in my town. I found her online. It was just the weirdest thing to connect with a person to pick up something like kefir grains. I was so impressed by this woman. She took the time to show me already made kefir and let me taste and smell it. She showed me the cheese she makes when she has too much and the no knead bread she pours the whey into. She spoke to me in an accent and talked about the things she does to keep from wasting a single drop. And not because she’s into being “green.” This was just the way she grew up in Russia.I was really touched at how this stranger opened her home to me and invited me into the wonderful world of kefir. Of course no one in my family feels the same way about this but apart from actually enjoying the taste, I feel magically drawn to the tradition. The health benefits are really just the icing on the cake. This whole food thing has become such a journey for me I really should start a goal about food.

Well, according to my instructions it is done. I put it in the fridge. It’s lumpy so I will put it in the blender to smooth it out a bit. Let see how it tastes!

Thanks to Nicolasc I have instructions. It looks so easy!