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| Water Kefir |
Hello Everyone! Long time no blog! It's been quite a busy 9 months for me. Since my last post in April, my husband Jay was diagnosed with a massive pituitary tumor in July. This was just on the heels of his having a golf-ball sized nodule (along with the right side of his thyroid) removed in April. A short time after his brain surgery (which went well and he has been recovering from nicely) he successfully defended his PhD dissertation in October and then graduated in early December. During this time my job also got measurably busier, and I've developed a nasty bit of tendonitis in one of my thumbs, so at the end of the work day I'm not motivated to sit for more time at the computer to write. But I realized I had things knocking around in my head that I wanted to share, so here I am.
I became interested in balancing my body's digestive health a few years ago, and started drinking a dairy-based kefir. Kefir is a fermented drink that contains beneficial microorganisms and probiotics that can help keep your digestive and immune system healthy. It contains vitamins, minerals and has anti-fungal properties. Dairy-based kefirs can also be expensive, especially the goat-milk ones that Jay has to drink due to an allergy to cows milk. As a way to continue eating in a more healthy way, we wanted to reduce the amount of dairy we consumed, but I wanted to continue with the 'idea' of kefir.
I found out from my sister-in-law that you could make your own water kefir. This sounded like a great way to keep drinking kefir, reduce the dairy, and make it myself. I did some research and found a local company that sells kefir grain starter kits. Erin, from
Water Kefir Grains sent me a little starter packet to get me going. Her website has more than a dozen different recipes as well as tips to keep your grains happy. I also used a resource called
Love and Trash to get a basic ginger-based recipe that is a favorite. Since I started with my first batch, my sister-in-law has begun her own business based on healthy living, and also does Kefir Classes as part of her service offerings. She can be reached at
My Plentiful Living I don't want to steal anyone's thunder and research that went into their kefir web pages, so my post is just going to be a little pictorial of my first batch.
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| Kefir Starter Kit |
You start with about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of grains in a quart-sized jar. The grains come from some sort of cactus and look a bit like translucent cauliflower. Each time you grow a batch that is successful and happy, the grains multiply. Yes, this is equivalent to Amish Friendship bread starter. I've shared my grains with friends and family, and anyone else who wants any. I've also added it to my morning green smoothie and to rice dishes and treats for the chickens. To the grains, you add a solution made of about 1/2 to 1/2 cup of organic sugar of some kind to about a cup of Spring Water (NOT tap) I've used Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Dark Brown and Sucanat. I've found the lighter the sugar, the happier my grains are. Some people's grains respond well to the higher molasses content in the dark sugar, and even add a tablespoon of molasses to their kefir, but my grains multiply like crazy with the lighter sugars. Leave about an inch to an inch and half space between the water level and the top of the jar to allow for fermentation gases to expand. Let it sit for about 18-24 hours. I find I like mine best if I stop fermentation before 24 hours. It gets too sour for my taste if I go much past 36 hours.
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| Fermented Grains |
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| Strained Grains |
After your time is up, strain the liquid from the grains (and you'll see you have at least 50% more than you started with). At this point you can start a new batch right away, or store the grains in a tightly-capped jar in the refrigerator. You can also freeze them indefinitely. Some people do what's called a Secondary Fermentation, where they add some sort of fruit or flavoring to the kefir and let the solution ferment for more time, infusing it. I tend to add ginger and lemon to my kefir from the start, and bottle the solution in those nifty Grolsh-style bottles for another evening, allowing more fizziness to build up, but not necessarily any more flavor. I have also added unsulphured dried apple, figs and apricots to the initial fermentation. As I said earlier, I like mine not-so-sour.
I will add a little note of caution: I can't drink this during the day. I have to drink it after dinner. When I first started making water kefir I had a small glass with my lunch. Around 2:00 every day I began to get s-l-e-e-p-y. I'm talking can't-hold-your-head-up-drooling-on-your-keyboard-sleepy. I thought it was just latent stress from Jay's surgery/recovery/medical bills catching up with me. Then one day I realized that fermentation = alcohol. I was catching a pretty healthy buzz from my 1/2 cup of water kefir. So I had to stop having it during the day. Now, my sister-in-law and her family (which includes mom, dad, an almost-five-year-old and an 18-month-old) drink it all the time, in amounts well above what I have daily. I have NO idea how any of them function like that. I joked with her that they're all self-medicating using water kefir. I think I'm just incredibly sensitive to the alcohol produced because I can get pretty buzzed off about a half-inch-worth of a really good Lemon Drop martini, too.
If anyone wants to try some grains, let me know. I've got plenty to share. Maybe you, too, will catch Kefir Madness.
