Kitchen Garden Forum

Having recently eaten Kefir for the first time I,d like to have a go at making some. (Have made Easy Yo yoghurt in the past which seems to be a similar technique ) but wonder if anybody on here has made Kefir and has any tips.

I gather you can either acquire the grains from various sources and ferment them in milk or buy freeze dried powdered cultures and mix them into milk.

Any experienced advice to a new recruit would be welcome. Apparently Kefir produces considerably more "good" bacteria for your microbiome than ordinary probiotic yoghurt so decided to give a try on the basis this would be nurturing my "human compost heap!"

I may be getting mixed up but is this not highly prised in what used to be called the Far East, an Irish guy in Spain who we got very friendly with then one day he started to ignore us ,he was living in a house that was owned by bin laden that was in a compound he heard that something was going on he phoned his wife and told her to book the first flights to Ireland that night they were on their way home next day he’ll broke out anyway I digress he spoke about kefir it was a drink that everybody had in the Middle East he said they made massive vats of it one of the ingredients was a dead goat

Thanks for that robo !! I'm aiming slightly higher than a dead goat !!
(Although I do understand it can be made with goat's milk as well as cow's milk)

Kefir - is that fizzy milk?

I think it can be turned into a fizzy milk drink but we've just bought some commercial kefir which looks and tastes not terribly different from ordinary plain probiotic yoghurt. I think its the variety and number number of extra "good bacteria" in it which probably makes it a more expensive version.

The whole topic of healthy gut bacteria and their effect on the body's immune system seems a relatively new health topic which is getting a lot of coverage lately.

The whole topic of healthy gut bacteria and their effect on the body's immune system seems a relatively new health topic

I've wondered for a while if this and food allergies are the long term down side of over use of antibiotics but I've never seen an article relating the two.

I think there's still a lot in this area we don't understand Geoff but for anybody interested in the topic of "over medication " I'm currently reading "Too Many Pills" by Dr. James Le Fanu which discusses the over prescribing (Polypharmacy) of many common medications like statins, blood pressure pills, etc.

. For anybody who can wade through the maze of medical terms, it makes interesting and thoughtful reading, especially for those who are on a combination diet of various different medications. He gives examples of their interactions with each other and how, when people have been given the option to cease some of them for three months, their health and medical condition has rapidly improved.

I'm not sure that the antibiotics are related to food allergies but overuse of them certainly contributed to so many bugs building up resistance to the point that things that were easily cured previously are now threatening lives & taking them. My thoughts are food & general allergies are related to us using products that kill all bacteria including the good ones. Remember in our day it was soap & water that cleaned, not 'Guaranteed to kill 99% of all bacteria' products.

Back to Primrose, I have never tried it but I would certainly think home made would be better as it will be without the 'shelf life' extenders that bought products have, not to mention the packaging etc. Let us know how it goes Primrose, but I'm pretty confident you will find yours a better product than anything you can buy.

I'm pretty confident you will find yours a better product than anything you can buy.

I don't know ...... 'live' things like yogurt and kefir need careful handling in terms of temperature and timing and professional outfits tend to have worked it out pretty well (otherwise nobody would buy their products, would they?). Sorry I can't advise about making kefir, Primrose, but I have been buying it since it became available in shops because I drank something very similar as a child. Good stuff for your guts!

Well, the first batch is now fermenting in the kitchen. It probably will get a bit chilly in there overnight but apparently it will get going eventually although may take a couple of days. I see how it is tomorrow morning and perhaps put it in the airing cupboard if it seems a bit slow to start thickening up.

I'm making it from a freeze dried powdered culture in sachets rather than the actual grains, which was all that was available in our local health food shop, so perhaps not the best starting point. However, with all these things, have to be prepared for a few failures along the way.