I usually have plain Greek yogurt with honey and compliant berries for breakfast (or I used to). Since the candida cleanse, I am planning on decreasing the amount of berries and honey. Or, I can make a smoothie with Kefir, coconut oil, honey and berries.

The plain Greek yogurt was 2-3 dollars for each breakfast serving (and I was having this daily). I figured I could save some money and ensure organic quality by making it at home.

Have any Nomads made kefir at home? Please share your experiences. Thanks in advance!

Yes I make a lot of yughurt, clabbed milk and kefir at home (at times,,, mainly during summer )

First and most important get the best quality milk;
Very fresh - full fat milk - hopefully NOT high temperature pasteurised.
I have made kefir both with the real grains and with a freeze dried culture ( fake kefir).
Both works well -but the real thing is nicer but a tiny bit more trublesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-8VHoyda2o

I use kefir in smothies -in batter to pancakes etc.

Thanks! I am calling around to see if I can get some organic, hopefully unpasteurized milk, first. There is a person in my area selling milk kefir grains for 10 dollars. I figure it would be a nice investment since that is the cost of 3 yogurt cups. It will pay itself off in 3 meals.

I really appreciate the link.

Found a place near me that sells organic high temp. pasteurized milk (at 145 degrees).

I am going to go ahead and do this since kefir yogurt can be stored for months. I can make a week's batch at a time and have breakfast on the go when classes start in a month!

Thanks for the input, Henriette!

Sounds good
I can´t get raw milk here as well- however I am lucky that our grassfed organic milk is only low temperatured past .... but when you culture it it shouldn´t be a problem

However I am not sure you can store it that long  
I have never stored my kefir more than 2 weeks. or it starts to get really weird alchoholic flavour.

this site was recommended for making it yourself - a kefir boffin

http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/Makekefir.html

I got my kefir grains! I found a lady who was selling them for 5 dollars. She has a farm and used raw milk to grow them.

She gave me a lot of them. I just got organic whole milk (high temp pasteurized - the raw milk prices from the kefir lady were a bit too much for me at the moment) so I am going to make kefir! Yay!

I am going to split my grains and use the other half to make water kefir grains. You can "feed" it sugary juice to convert it. I found some organic blueberry juice with a bit of grape juice (all bennies for me).

I do not have a non-stainless steel strainer. I am using wide mouth mason jars (per Henriette's youtube link). I figured I will cut a huge cheesecloth circle, let it "sag" into the jar a bit, forming a strainer shape, and let the ring of the mason jar hold the cloth in place. That way, no metal and no need to buy non-metal stuff.

Thanks, Honeybee!

Hmmmm... converted water kefir grains (from milk kefir) do not propagate even if they make water kefir. I want to be able to harvest the grains so I guess I will just buy them.

Quick question -

Have you both tried to make kefir cheese? The recipes seem really easy and fun. However, as a Nomad, casein is an avoid. I am assuming the casein is the additive rather than the naturally occurring casein in kefir. Do you have any advice about this?

Thanks!

No I have not tried making kefir cheese,

I think the cassein is NOT a problem in a real B nomads
Cause I have no negative rating for it in my swami AND really ALL the dairy I gets contains cassein

Well, I forgot which of Dr. D's books or the posts here... it was more about casein and rennet acting together to affect blood chemistry.

Since kefir is a superfood, I think it will be okay to make cheese with it.

I made my first batch and it is soo good! I added some sweet apple cider for flavoring (the cider is organic without any additives - got it at the farmer's market) and it is really good. I love the fact kefir is more liquid and I can drink it. I just I hope I don't get addicted to it.  

Old pantyhose works well as a strainer too. You don't need to keep buying cheesecloth.

I have yards of cheesecloth that I bought a long time ago. I decided to make a little pouch out of it and put the kefir grains in the pouch and tied the end with a string that comes out of the jar. That way, less work when I have to strain and plenty of "breathing room" for the grains and plenty of room for them to grow in. I think some of my grains grew overnight. I have a lot more than what I started with yesterday.

I boiled the cheesecloth and string before using it.

Yeah, those things grow faster when it's warm.

If you have more than you need right now, you might want to refrigerate some of the extras (in a small amount of milk.)

Definitely! I am drinking this stuff like crazy. I am going to need to get some more milk soon.  

I only drank water and green tea since BTD/GTD. Now that I can drink my yogurt, I looooove kefir and want to make other flavors and double ferment them. I used to eat yogurt for breakfast (thick Greek yogurt with fruit and honey) but this is even better!

Plus, the probiotics for my candida maintenance... yay!!!!

Quoted from ruthiegirl

Yeah, those things grow faster when it's warm.

If you have more than you need right now, you might want to refrigerate some of the extras (in a small amount of milk.)

Refrigerating Milk Kefir Grains - Based on my observations, whenever I refrigerate the grains and then bring them out of retirement, they seem to produce kefir much faster. It is as if the cold slowed them down and they are trying to make up for lost time in the warmth.

My apt. temp went below 70 last night so on a normal night, the kefir should not have been ready. However, these grains had been in the fridge. This is the second time this has happened.


Water Kefir Grains - Using less grains and giving them time to use the larger amounts of sugar seems to make them reproduce faster.

I am wondering if these grains are taking advantage of better living conditions and getting work.

Any other observations?