I've written about drinking kefir in the past. I've always had success with making the actual kefir. The drinking of it though, well, not as much. We always had to use some kefir (2 cups) in a full blender of smoothie to make it drinkable. But, now I found out the 'secret' to being able to drink kefir with just a small amount of flavoring :-) You do a second fermentation with the kefir and some fruit. Wow, the sourness really goes down. On top of that the kefir is nice and tangy/fizzy. It kind of feels like it is doing a dance on your tongue.
Since my kefir grains are only making about 3 cups of kefir a day I am having to fend off small children to get my share! Since we are all in need of some serious good bacteria over here, I went ahead and ordered MORE kefir grains! It was going to take a while for me to be able to make the gallon of kefir we will need...*daily*!
On top of fending off small children from the kefir I am having an even harder time keeping them away from the kombucha. Oy! Don't get me wrong, they all get some each day, but since I am currently only making about 3 quarts a week, that doesn't last long enough for everyone. I worked out how much kefir and kombucha I wanted each person to have daily. For the kefir, for everyone to have enough daily, plus there being some to gather whey from (to make my fermented veggies), I will need to make 8 gallons of kefir a week! Too bad that we will be drying up our goats next week.
I worked out that I need to make 4 gallons of kombucha a week. That will give enough for everyone to have daily, plus the extra for starting the next week's batches. Thankfully kombucha will be cheaper to make :-)
To compensate for the increase in milk purchasing we will be doing over the next handful of months, I will not be ordering my probiotic pills after the ones I have run out. This way we will ALL benefit from the probiotics we need, without breaking the bank.
As it is Moira and I are seeing changes from the kefir and kombucha. Isabella is starting to, but for her, she is getting worse in some areas (like her anxiety), but better in others. She was very upset by this. I told her it was a good sign. The bad bacteria were being killed off, but in the process their toxins will make her anxiety worse. I gave her some suggestions to limit the effects, hopefully they will be helpful to her.
I am hoping to buy some of the flip top bottles to make our kombucha nice and fizzy. I think that will be fun. In the meantime I will continue with using our mason jars. Though the kombucha lacks that wonderful fizz it is capable of producing. Hey, as long as it is still doing it's job!
I found out how to do the second fermentation from the Cultured Food Life site. I can't wait for her cookbook to come out. She has a lot of great ideas that sound really yummy. I really like my sauerkraut, and if my kimchi turns out like my friends, then I will really be loving that, but I really want to add lots of different ferments to our diet. I didn't want them all to be made with cabbage :-) I'm not exactly creative in the kitchen. So a little help is much appreciated. Ha!
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