February 2, 2008 - 6:23am
Kefir
Does anyone grow & use kefir...I've been growing it for 10 years, or so...it's a wonderful product & it's very easy to grow! I've made "cream cheese" & "sour cream"...it's a wonderful substituted for buttermilk in baked goods & I've made sourdough starters with it. If you'd like to know more about it, I recommend this site: http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html it's everything you'd want to know about kefir!
I bought my kefir grains from Dom, I'm not sure if he still sells them, but the above site will tell you.
Beth
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Hi, Petrissage...it's good to hear from you! I'm not an expert on kefir, although I've been growing it for a number of years...I think I do some things wrong (to save time), but I still get a good product...I don't strain the grains every day, as Dom suggests, I just add a little milk on top of the grains & kefir until my container (a quart jar) is full (of grains & kefir), then I strain the grains and start anew with a clean jar, the grains, and a little milk. Also, my kefir always separates (as you said yours did), but the kefir tastes great! I think kefir grains are very resiliant, with a will to live if we just feed them a little...I would suggest to you: examine your grains, smell them, feed them a little milk...see it they ferment it. Did your grains ever look like this?: http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/images/kefir_scan.jpg I hope this helps, I suggest going to http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html and read, you may need to buy more grains...
Take care! Beth
Hi...the watery part is the whey, it's part of the kefir, just separated, stir it back into the kefir...
I bought my grains from Dom (in Australia) from the above site...I looked on the site & they're still available... http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html#obtaining-kefir-grains
The fact that your grains multiplied, means that they were indeed healthy & growing...hopefuly they still are...get reacquainted with them...I've grown fond of mine over the years, they are a living thing, a very complicated (as far as I'm concerned) living thing. If they're not alive, of course you'll need to repurchase them...good luck! Beth