Our 'Spoiled' Family

He says:  
   Months ago I began contemplating making my own yogurt.  However, after doing some research the process seemed too involved.  I had to bring milk up to temp, inoculate it, and then have it stay at a constant, elevated temperature for many hours.  I had given up, but then I ran across kefir.  Kefir makes a yogurt-like beverage.  It’s still sour, but more of a liquid than yogurt.  I became interested, but the culture needs to be fed every 24 hours (it can be slowed in the fridge occasionally) which is a bit of a time commitment.

   A few days ago, we received a new addition to our 'growing' family.  I finally had enough of not eating delicious, homemade kefir.  Plus we found some commercial stuff at Aldi a little while back, and Abby tried it and gave it a thumbs up (although it was flavored with strawberries, but that’s easy enough to do at home). 

   The kefir arrived as a dried culture in an envelope with an adoption certificate.  How cool is that?  We haven’t decided a name yet, but I hear these things take time. 

   Anyway, I needed to begin the regrowing process to resuscitate the dried culture grains, which just involves putting them in milk.  It might take up to 2 weeks to start getting normal kefir out of the them so I figured I would write about it now and then update as things proceeded along.

   Right now the culture looks like a mixture of grated ginger and couscous, but eventually it will look similar to cottage cheese.  By straining the culture from the fermented milk, I can reuse it indefinitely just by adding more milk.  The kefir, just like our cast iron/kombucha/sour dough, could last for generations.

The science section:
   Nutritionally kefir is great for you.  Not only does it contain the all of the benefits of milk, but because of our unseen friends it contains many other benefits.  There are active enzymes, more vitamins and trace minerals, healthy little cells that will take up residence in your gut to ward off the baddies.  Plus since the kefir is partially digested by the bacteria (gross, right?) it is thus easier for you to digest.  Some people that are lactose intolerant have claimed that they can eat kefir without a problem. 

   Kefir, like our kombucha, is a SCOBY, which means Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.  The colonies along with non-living things like protein and lipids which account for the granular “cottage cheese” appearance.  Since the fermentation won’t be carried out under aseptic conditions, I fully expect the culture to change with time.  Resident bacteria and yeast will join the existing culture and it will truly become representative of our living environment.  I don’t expect much flavor change to result from this, however.