I was recently introduced to this health drink by my daughter, you may already heard of it, as it dates back thousands of years It was first used in the Caucasus and is widely available in Russia to this day. I have been making and drinking it for almost two months now and feel great benefit from it, though how much is real or psychological is difficult to say. I certainly feel very healthy now and my moods have lifted, together with making alcohol and meat distasteful, so I have become teetotal and vegetarian, though these are not claims attributed to Kefir in particular. You simply add some Kefir grains to milk and leave at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours and strain it and drink. It tastes similar to yoghurt with a slightly sour creamy texture, you can buy the grains online at Amazon and eBay, though you may know someone who is making it and can maybe get some grains from them as my daughter did. Benefits of Kefir http://www.kefir.net/kefir-benefits/ Australian Kefir guru http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html Video of making Kefir https://goo.gl/UuOAqi
Since you and I are good buddies, we've discussed this and I am trying it now. I bought mine at Trader Joe's. Im not too fond of the taste because I dont care for milk or any milky or yogurt type food or drink but I chugged a cup yesterday and this morning...trying to work my way up to 2 cups a day at least to get the benefits. Im doing this because I was impressed with Terry's benefits from it...if after awhile I see none for me...I will quit!
@Terry Page ! ! It is so good to see you on the forum again----- welcome back, we have missed you !! About kefir, I love it ! I first bought it at the grocery store, and find that I really like the strawberry flavored kefir the best. It is supposed to be a much better and complete probiotic than yogurt is. I did try making my own kefir once. It turned out tasting HORRIBLE ! ! I have no idea what I did wrong; but I sure missed the boat on this one somewhere. I was buying fresh whole cow's milk from a lady, and she made regular kefir and also some makde from water. She gave me some of the curds and instructions on how to make the kefir, and I went home and tried it. I am pretty sure that even the dogs wouldn't touch it, and I ended up using it as plant food as a last ditch effort to make it useful As far as I know, the tomatoes liked it well enough; but I never tried making any more after that. I had no idea that you could get the grains on Amazon and make it so easy from regular milk, and since I do like kefir, I think that I will order some and try it once more. I do believe that I will start out with just a small size batch this time though.....just in case.
I remember my grandmother making it from scratch....there was a time when it was more popular here but not so much lately. But then Terry raved about it and how much better he felt, etc so now Im trying it again. Trader Joe's carries the lowfat ones but Terry is telling me to get the full fat ones...tomorrow I'll check out another store, im not against fat in my diet....I feel Im not getting enough as it is....I need more.
Hi Yvonne thanks for the welcome its good to be back on a friendly forum, regarding the Kefir I am a newcomer to it really and because I have been in Russia for the past 6 weeks I have been using full fat Russian milk and getting some really thick creamy and not very sour kefir, tasting better than the commercial stuff. I am back in the UK now and have been making it for a couple of days here and its still good on English milk, though I tried some of my daughters yesterday and it was completely different, thin and quite sour with an odd aftertaste, so not sure why as its from the same culture originally? All I do is add the culture/grains to a container and add a couple of pints of milk leave it overnight in a warm place and the next morning its ready after about 12 to 15 hours in total. I use a stainless steel sieve with about 1/8" mesh to strain it and then refrigerate it. Room temperature needs to be around 20c to 25c (68f to 80f) or it will take longer to ferment. I hope you get on better this time if you do try it again, let me know how you get on. I have drank two pints already today so am probably overdoing it, but I love the taste, and its replaced my consumption of a couple of pints of beer so must be better for me hopefully .............this afternoon I added some Coffee Bailey's and it became a drink of the gods an amazing combination of flavours.
Well, @Terry Page , you have got me started reading and learning more about kefir, and I am going to get some fresh grains and start making some homemade kefir fresh to drink every day. I emailed the lady where I got my fresh grains before, since she is right here in the same town, and the grains would not have to be shipped from anywhere else. If she does not have any, then I will order some. In any case; making kefir is on the schedule. One of the pages that I was reading shows around 70 benefits of kefir, and talks about the vitamin and mineral content as well. I wanted to share that page here in case anyone else will be making kefir. It also has information about making and using the kefir, as well as the health benefits. It is amazing , all of the benefits you can get from drinking it, and the illnesses that it can help cure. Everything from heart problems to depression, ADHD, yeast infections, and bad cholestrol. It helps food digest better, and can cure IBS, and has all of the protein amino acids; so it is an awesome source of healthful nutrition. http://www.orhaolam.com/uploads/KefirInShort.pdf
Pleased to hear you are giving it another chance Yvonne, it is such a good natural and inexpensive aid to better health, looking forward to hearing a progress report.
The lady that I was getting the fresh milk from said that she did not have any kefir grains, and her cow is dried up until Spring; so I ended up ordering some online. They arrived this afternoon, and I just started my first quart of kefir this evening. According to what I read, it will take about 24 hours for it to culture, and then it needs to be refrigerated overnight before I actually start drinking it. Of course, once the first batch has finished culturing, then I can use the starter to get the next batch going, so after that, I should have one quart ready to drink every day. It will spend one day culturing, and then in the fridge, and ready by the next morning, and by then, the next batch will be getting closer to being done. When it gets colder, and we have heat on in the house, then I can set the kefir in a place near the heater to work, and it might get ready a little sooner. I gues that after I experiment with a few batches, I will have a better idea of how it will go. Since they loaded me up with antibiotics in the hospital; I went to the store and got a quart of the regular kefir when I got back home, and I have been drinking that to get the probiotics working in my tummy again. I know that it is not as good as the home-made kefir; but at least it is better than nothing, and should start the tummy-healing process for me.
Good to hear you have started kefir making Yvonne, I hope it works for you this time, I found the first few days can be a bit mixed, but eventually mine settled into a routine. I use full fat milk and let it ferment for 12 to 18 hours. The best guide evidently is when small pockets of whey start appearing. The longer you leave it the sourer it gets and eventually the whey separates and it is not so good because you can't remix it, but its still good kefir. I did have a very thick batch one day last week, which was a gorgeous creamy consistency but too thick to drink lol The temperature in my house now hovers around 70f so it takes longer than when I was in Russia where the flat is always around 75f. Will be interested to hear how you get on. Good Luck
It is just barely 70 here right now, too. I have been thinking that maybe it would help if I could set the jars on something that would help warm them up. My heating pad gets too hot; but maybe if I use the yogurt maker, and leave the top off, it would barely warm the kefir jar and help it to culture. Do you make yours with a loose lid or a tight lid, Terry ? Most of the articles that I have been reading said to leave the lid on loose, and then when you do the second ferment, to tighten the lid so you get some of the effervescence. The starter that I ordered was from Yogourmet, and it is not the kefir grains; but it was a fairly simple process to make it, and most of the reviews said that they liked it. Once I get the hang of culturing the kefir, then I will order some of the live grains and try doing that, but even this should be healthier for me than just buying it from the store. I think that I will also try some of the water kefir; but not until I have got this one learned better. Have you tried the water kefir, @Terry Page ?
I wouldn't bother heating it Yvonne its difficult to control, and it may ferment too quickly. I think 70 is OK its often just under here and it takes about 18 hours. I have never used Yogourmet so not sure how that changes things? I always ferment with a loose lid, and second ferment with a loose lid as well, only because I prefer it flat rather than effervescent, I did a second fermentation with orange slices a couple of times with a closed lid which gave a subtle slightly sparkling orange flavor to it. I haven't tried the water version yet but may do later. Look forward to hearing your first tasting test
Pardon me for being a skeptic but I find supplements and health drinks and foods more of psychological than physical in terms of effect. My rule of thumb with health products is the label that says - no approved therapeutic claims. That's loud and clear, right? But if that tag is not present, you'd better check for the indications and search for testimonies of known people. There is this food supplement called Gloxi that claims to enhance your height up to 10 inches. No matter the age. Would you bite that?
Hi Corie, Im usually a skeptic like you... But Terry swears by the kefir, so that's why Im trying it. Mine is the store bought which obviously isnt going to be as good as the ones that are homemade. I havent been good about drinking it either because I dont like the taste too much but Im going to give it another shot when I get back home. And I also wouldnt believe that Gloxi that makes you grow 10 inches!
There is just a HUGE difference between one of the expensive supplements sold with the "as seen on TV" type of sales pitch, and a totally healthy food that you make in your own home, @Corie Henson . If you were to read some of the information that has been posted here about the health benefits of kefir (and other probiotic cultures like yogurt), then you would realize that this is totally different than buying a bottle of some kind of pill that is supposed to do miracles. This is simply a healthy food that some of us are learning to make and enjoy, not something that is being sold. Nevertheless, this is the kind of thing that each person makes their own decision about how they want to take care of their body. If learning to culture and drink kefir is not for you, then that is perfectly all right.