Kefir grains on offer

Do you, or woud you like to, make kefir?

My kefir grains have been experiencing their usual spring spurt and growing apace so that I now have quite a few more than I can use. I would be happy to deliver (if you are in the area) or post a ‘starter pack’ to any readers who woud like to have a go.

There is an excellent short video by Sue Cane about making kefir on the FoodsMatter site here and an article by Gill Jacobs here but it is incredibly simple.

You just need some grains and some milk. Preferably this woud be organic and ideally unpasteurised and can be cow’s, goat’s, sheep or buffalo milk. In terms of equipment, a bowl, a nylon sieve, a wooden spoon and a bowl, dish or unused casserole dish with a lid in which the kefir can live while it is fermenting. A batch takes between 3 and 6 days to ferment, depending on how strong/fermented you like it to be.

Kefir enthusiasts will tell you that it will change your life. I am not sure that I would go that far but, assuming that you can tolerate some sort of animal milk, it is certainly an excellent source of good bacteria and we are all in need of those. Those who cannot or do not want to drink animal milk could alternatively make water kefir with coconut water although I fear that I have never had much success with that.

In terms of benefits, a quick Google search will come up with a dozen sites telling you all about it but the main  benefits appear to involve nutrition and gut health and bone health by possibly lowering the risk of osteoporosis.

If you would like a starter pack please either comment on this post or email me direct with your name and full address and I will post some off to you.