KEFIR grains-Mind if we give them their own thread?

[big brown horse]

Ha, thanks BBH. I'm hoping I can get my husband interested in this as soon as I get the grains. I think it would help him out a lot. He doesn't really do dairy so much, but he really needs probiotics, such as in yogurt. I just can't get the booger to eat it. The key is to find him something he likes. I know I will use it, but I would really like him to eventually drink it as well.

Does he like sour cream added to stuff? How about cream cheese? Kefir can mimic sour cream AND cream cheese...OH, you can make a faux ranch dresssing and other dips out of it too.

 

[delia_peterson]

BBH, I found whole organic milk today...I will use the 2% reduced fat organic for everyday. Do I still need cream? If so what kind?

 

[big brown horse]

BBH, I found whole organic milk today...I will use the 2% reduced fat organic for everyday. Do I still need cream? If so what kind?

Whipping cream probably. I don't add cream to my raw cow's milk because it has a good layer of cream on top naturally. I don't notice this with store bought whole milk.

 

[QueenRed]

Ha, thanks BBH. I'm hoping I can get my husband interested in this as soon as I get the grains. I think it would help him out a lot. He doesn't really do dairy so much, but he really needs probiotics, such as in yogurt. I just can't get the booger to eat it. The key is to find him something he likes. I know I will use it, but I would really like him to eventually drink it as well.

Does he like sour cream added to stuff? How about cream cheese? Kefir can mimic sour cream AND cream cheese...OH, you can make a faux ranch dresssing and other dips out of it too.

He might do cream cheese. He won't do sour cream or any sort of dressing. My sweetie is so picky!

 

[big brown horse]

How can anyone NOT like ranch dressing??????? I'll eat my finger if I dip it into ranch dressing!!

 

[QueenRed]

How can anyone NOT like ranch dressing??????? I'll eat my finger if I dip it into ranch dressing!!

I don't know. that man is weird! I love the stuff, but he just turns his nose up to that.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

My little flat yellowish grain (Thank you again BBH!) is now nicely plumped up & much more white than yellowish. It looks rather like popcorn now and I even saw a little coagulation in the milk when I changed it last night.

Searching the house for a decently warm spot proved to be the challenge. I have it sitting near our bedroom heater and very firmly instructed DH to NOT throw away the "sour" milk in that bottle. hehehe

 

[Dace]

Wait....I am supposed to add cream? I have just been using full fat organic milk.

Please advise

Also, my little grain has plumped up nicely ...should I be moving up to a larger jar? I have been making mine in an 8 oz jar but havng been thinking that maybe I could bump that up a bit since my grain looks so big and healthy!

 

[big brown horse]

The milk I buy has a high cream content. You may want to add some Dace just to be safe. Although I have used reg full fat organic milk and it was fine too. I wouldn't sweat it.

I only use a glass for mine. (About 16 oz or so.) A daily glass of kefir is all we need. However, I could make more if I needed to.

 

[ORChick]

Kefir doesn't need cream, it doesn't need whole milk, it doesn't need organic, it doesn't need raw, and it doesn't need a nice warm place to incubate, though I'm sure none of those things would hurt . It gets organic whole, but pasteurized, from me usually now, but I started out using 2%. It sits on my kitchen counter at room temp - in winter this is about 64*. Its just fine. This has got to be the least fussy ferment that I have ever used or read about. I even left it in a jar of milk in the 'fridge one winter - no changing, no straining, totally forgot that it was there for 4 or 5 months - and it was fine, the grains went on to culture more milk quite happily, and the milk that they had been stored in was perfectly edible/drinkable kefir. In other words - Don't Worry, it will all be just fine