# Kefir!



## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

Anyone make kefir from goat milk? I have a 77 year old friend that was diagnosed in 1992 with spinal cancer and was told she wouldn't live another 5 years with chemo. She was a nurse and believes in homeopathic treatments so refused and started other treatments. She has some proton machine that she uses as well as other stuff. Anyway she started making kefir from my goat milk and she swears it is making a difference with her level of pain. Well.. It got me curious on trying it too. So anyone have any experience with making it or using it? Anyone know where I can get grains? I would like live ones and many on line places they are dehydrated.


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

I've used the dehydrated water kefir grains. As long as you rehydrate them according to directions, they ARE live...and work great. My family isn't big on the milk kefir so I don't even try to do that. Water kefir, on the other hand....is fabulous!!! And I really need to order some new grains because I let mine die


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

http://www.fusionteas.com/KefirGrains.html

Or...better yet...just get some from your friend. The grains multiply and she should be able to give you a Tbsp or so of them. And since she already uses them in goats milk, you wouldn't have to adjust them.


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## Casa_la_Palma (Oct 15, 2013)

I have a gal going to send me some live grains once this cold snap is over. She uses goat milk. I won't have fresh goat milk until April when my two freshen but plan on using organic, store bought until then. If you already haven't found another source before I get mine going and growing I'll send you some. I am very happy for your friend.


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## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

Well.. She had her sister helping her make them and she put them in the frig.. Then when she doesn't have enough goat milk she has been using coconut milk and then bought store ultra pasteurized goat milk. So.. I don't think her grains are a good choice to start from. I will look at the water ones. That sounds interesting.


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## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

Casa_la_Palma said:


> I have a gal going to send me some live grains once this cold snap is over. She uses goat milk. I won't have fresh goat milk until April when my two freshen but plan on using organic, store bought until then. If you already haven't found another source before I get mine going and growing I'll send you some. I am very happy for your friend.


Thanks, and good luck starting yours.


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

The water kefir is super good. During the hot summer days, it is super refreshing. I would have 3 or 4 gallons of it going at a time because I couldn't keep up with my family demand for it. Even my nephew who is super picky loved the stuff and would drain a quart of it when he'd come in the house. You can make all kinds of flavors with it. I can send you my "recipes" for it if you'd like. Just be aware that the grains multiply like crazy...or at least mine did. I fed kefir to my goats, chickens, etc. When I had lots of extra grains those went to the critters too.


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## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

kccjer said:


> The water kefir is super good. During the hot summer days, it is super refreshing. I would have 3 or 4 gallons of it going at a time because I couldn't keep up with my family demand for it. Even my nephew who is super picky loved the stuff and would drain a quart of it when he'd come in the house. You can make all kinds of flavors with it. I can send you my "recipes" for it if you'd like. Just be aware that the grains multiply like crazy...or at least mine did. I fed kefir to my goats, chickens, etc. When I had lots of extra grains those went to the critters too.


That would be awesome! And I'll be ordering kefir grains as soon as I have extra milk but the water ones I can do now. Where is a good place to order them?


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## GoatieGranny (Jul 26, 2013)

I'm not surprised at all that your friend is doing well after refusing chemo and using alternative methods. I've heard this SO MANY times. If I ever get cancer, praying that I don't, I will never take chemo or radiation. I won't say anymore so I don't start a war, but let's just say there are many proven cures for cancer that have been hushed up and verbally sabotaged by alphabet soup groups, big pharma and main stream media. Now I will zip it. 

I have kefir grains for goat milk but I'm not sure how they would survive going through the mail....does anyone know?


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

They mail quite well. I mailed water kefir a lot when I had them. Use the smallest priority box and they get there in a couple days.


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## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

GoatieGranny said:


> I'm not surprised at all that your friend is doing well after refusing chemo and using alternative methods. I've heard this SO MANY times. If I ever get cancer, praying that I don't, I will never take chemo or radiation. I won't say anymore so I don't start a war, but let's just say there are many proven cures for cancer that have been hushed up and verbally sabotaged by alphabet soup groups, big pharma and main stream media. Now I will zip it. I have kefir grains for goat milk but I'm not sure how they would survive going through the mail....does anyone know?


I agree!! That's a whole new topic and I don't want to be put on a government watch list so I'll keep it at that. 
If you figure out how to send, I would be thrilled to get some and would pay you. I won't have any goat milk until my new girl kids in Feb but my Jersey is producing so I have cow milk.


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## GoatieGranny (Jul 26, 2013)

farmchick897 said:


> I agree!! That's a whole new topic and I don't want to be put on a government watch list so I'll keep it at that.
> If you figure out how to send, I would be thrilled to get some and would pay you. I won't have any goat milk until my new girl kids in Feb but my Jersey is producing so I have cow milk.


I hear ya! :shades:

I will look into how to mail them and if you want to inbox me your mailing address, I'll send some out for you this week. No need to pay. This is what goatie friends are for, to lend a hand when we can. :lovey:


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## Laney3535 (Jun 25, 2012)

I just looked on amazon .... 3 bucks ....


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## WalshKidsGoats (Nov 27, 2012)

Here's a great place to order grains: http://kefirlady.com/ She also raises goats! She sells milk kefir and water kefir grains as well as kombucha cultures. Check out her website!


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

a friend of mine gave me dehydrated ones from Cultures for Health, but if your friend has live ones, just ask for 1 tbsp. of the grains. they'll grow and multiply, and in no time you'll have so many you'll start eating them!


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

WalshKidsGoats said:


> Here's a great place to order grains: http://kefirlady.com/ She also raises goats! She sells milk kefir and water kefir grains as well as kombucha cultures. Check out her website!


Awesome! I was just going to a google search and find a site for ordering. LOL Here's the water kefir sheet I sent out with my grains when I had enough....and I usually just charged cost of mailing which was about $3. LOL My grains multiplied like crazy...from 2/3 cup within about 1 month I had enough grains to do over 3 gallons of kefir daily AND give some away AND throw some out.

WATER KEFIR GRAINS
My general recipe is:

2 quart jar 
1/3 cup sugar (mix of white and brown&#8230;.grains like the molasses)
water-NO CHLORINE
2/3 cup kefir grains

I dissolve the sugar in 1 cup or so hot or warm tap water with whatever flavorings I'm using and then finish filling 1/2 the jar with cold. Put the grains in, fill to 1 inch from top with cool water, put the lid on tight and 
shake to mix everything in. Let set for 24 to 48 hours (longer will become less sweet&#8230;taste after 24 hours to see if it's where you want it to be Too long and it will be "vinegary tasting"). This will get fizzy. I've actually had it bend a couple of my lids. I don't stir or shake while it's brewing as it seems to kill my fizz.

Variations we have used and liked:
Sliced ginger root (approx 1 or 2 inches of root thinly sliced) (can be used 2 or 3 times)
2 or 3 Tbsp Vanilla (usually added with the ginger..gives a cream soda taste) 
Dried Berries of all kinds&#8230;use berries one time only
½ lemon or lime or orange with 1 T candied ginger
Dried or fresh sliced apples&#8230;not a lot of flavor on their own tho&#8230;good with other fruits
1 tsp or so of concentrated juice added when I bottle it (cherry is fabulous, apple doesn't give a lot of flavor....juice tends to turn to alcohol fairly quickly)
Fresh strawberries&#8230;2 or 3 quartered&#8230;.dd and dh love (I hate strawberries so&#8230;..) 
Tea bags&#8230;.green, chai, orange spice, mint etc&#8230;fantastic 
Sliced bananas (approx 2 inches of banana thickly sliced&#8230;thin falls apart&#8230;fairly sweet)

I have my grains in a tulle net bag that I rubberband together. Make sure the bag is a little big as the grains will grow. This makes it sooooo much easier to separate out.

I use my mom's old 24 oz pepsi bottles to bottle and put in fridge. I strain into a pitcher cause the 2 qt bottles are too heavy to handle when pouring into the pepsi bottles. I use a small funnel to pour into those. Rinse the grains and put in freshly prepared jars of sugar water. Grains will 
discolor with certain things&#8230;.blueberries, tea, etc. They still work just the same and I simply put them into whatever I'm "brewing".


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## Rev144 (Jan 22, 2011)

You can get goat kefir grains, water grains and cow grains from http://yemoos.com/ They are live grains - big, fat and sassy. I am still using my 2 year old grains. My first set of grains came from Cultures of Health and they were dehydrated . After 2 months, they never got bigger than a tablespoon. 
Cancer: Water fast eats up sick diseased tissue in the body and should eat up cancer cells.


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

yes, I noticed my Cultures for Health ones took a long time to get really really healthy. but mine are over a year old now, and in a quart jar I have about 2 inches of grains on the bottom. they are big and healthy!


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## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

Rev144 said:


> You can get goat kefir grains, water grains and cow grains from http://yemoos.com/ They are live grains - big, fat and sassy. I am still using my 2 year old grains. My first set of grains came from Cultures of Health and they were dehydrated . After 2 months, they never got bigger than a tablespoon. Cancer: Water fast eats up sick diseased tissue in the body and should eat up cancer cells.


Thanks for the link, I ordered some as well as Goatiegrannie sent me some. Very appreciative of that, can't wait to taste it.


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## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

Ok, so I have made a couple days worth of Kefir. It's horrible.. And my family refuses to try it. So I made a smoothie with lots of sugar, raspberries and they didn't notice the kefir in it. I just wonder if the health benefits are still there if you add in all the sugar. 
Also on first batch of water kefir.. Taste like sugar water. Is that what it's suppose to taste like?


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

No...water kefir should not still taste like sugar. You need to leave it set longer.


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## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

It sat for 24 hours, that's not long enough? How do you tell when it's done?


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

If I remember right (it's been a couple years) it took at least 48 hours. Supposedly, you can see the grains "bounce"...kinda like a lava lamp when it's ready. I would always unscrew the lid and taste mine. If it still tasted sweet, I'd put the lid back on and leave it another day.


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## Rev144 (Jan 22, 2011)

When we first started out with kefir from goats milk, it was kind of tart. Not at all anything like the sweet stuff we were use to. So we onlly drank about 1/4 cup of kefir and then mixed in some unsweetened home canned fruit juice. Concord grape juice did wonders. Another I liked was plum juice ( by all rights would have been prune juice)Then we were drinking 16 oz of kefir with about 4 oz of juice. Then after some time of that, I graduated to straight kefir!!! I got to the point where it was second nature to me! When anything calls for milk in the recipe, I would use the kefir. Cooking probably kills the bacteria, but it sure makes for some fluffy eggs! Kefir is an acquired taste. Seems like sugar would offset the good in the kefir. Sugar feeds the bad bacteria, yeast and nasties. While the kefir feeds the good .


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## GoatieGranny (Jul 26, 2013)

farmchick897 said:


> It sat for 24 hours, that's not long enough? How do you tell when it's done?


It depends on your milk and your grains, the room temp, and a few other variables. Just check it in a couple days by gently dipping a fork in there and scooping out grains. Does it look like there are more of them? Is the milk thickened? The grains may grow slowly at first, especially if they have been dehydrated, but they'll kick in and start multiplying soon.

Good idea about adding the juice to get used to the kefir! I snuck some into the dumplings the other night and everyone wanted to know how I made "sour dough dumplings." LOL!! (I'm sure the heat of cooking them negated any value they had, though. Crumb.)


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

GoatieGranny said:


> It depends on your milk and your grains, the room temp, and a few other variables. Just check it in a couple days by gently dipping a fork in there and scooping out grains. Does it look like there are more of them? Is the milk thickened? The grains may grow slowly at first, especially if they have been dehydrated, but they'll kick in and start multiplying soon.
> 
> Good idea about adding the juice to get used to the kefir! I snuck some into the dumplings the other night and everyone wanted to know how I made "sour dough dumplings." LOL!! (I'm sure the heat of cooking them negated any value they had, though. Crumb.)


She was talking about the water kefir. Lol.


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## nearmagic (Oct 19, 2013)

I am apparently completely ignorant, but what is kefir? haha


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## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

The water kefir has been sitting for 36 hrs now and bubbles are coming up from the grains but they are not jumping yet.
The milk kefir I took a big gulp of and it almost made me puke. I will try to flavor it with something besides sugar and ice cream. 
On the up side the dogs and my Juliana pig like it. But then again they don't refuse much. Lol


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

nearmagic said:


> I am apparently completely ignorant, but what is kefir? haha


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir

there's water kefir too, which is different from the milk kefir, but same premise.....


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## nearmagic (Oct 19, 2013)

nchen7 said:


> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir
> 
> there's water kefir too, which is different from the milk kefir, but same premise.....


Interesting! When making it, it is fine for the milk to sit out for that long? 
Where does everyone get their grains?


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

farmchick897 said:


> The water kefir has been sitting for 36 hrs now and bubbles are coming up from the grains but they are not jumping yet.
> The milk kefir I took a big gulp of and it almost made me puke. I will try to flavor it with something besides sugar and ice cream.
> On the up side the dogs and my Juliana pig like it. But then again they don't refuse much. Lol


Bubbles are good! You can taste it and see how it is. ..if it's not sweet anymore its ready. If its still pretty sweet then seal it up and wait another day. Homemade milk kefir takes a lot of getting use to. Lol


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

something yummy to do with water kefir - get coconut water kefired, and after straining add some orange juice to it. it tastes *almost* like mimosas


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## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

nchen7 said:


> something yummy to do with water kefir - get coconut water kefired, and after straining add some orange juice to it. it tastes *almost* like mimosas


You use coconut juice instead of water?
I tasted it this morning and it is still sweet. It has been in the water grains now for 60 hrs. Maybe I'm using too much sugar. I put in 1/4 cup for 1 qt of water like the directions said.
The milk kefir is an acquired taste huh? I can believe that. Why is it that things that are suppose to be good for you taste gross? 
My blue berry smoothie this morning was good with the kefir in it. Kids didn't even know it was in there. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

coconut water....it's delicious. I've never made water kefir, but my friend does only with coconut water. but I live in the tropics, and coconut water is easy to come by...

yes, I think kefir is hard to handle by itself. it's great in smoothies. or, I strain it and use it as yogurt for raw tzaziki. yummm


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## GoatieGranny (Jul 26, 2013)

That sounds really good! Coconut...mmmmmm!


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

did you ever get your water kefir to work? I bought some grains and it is working fantastic for me. I had to add more sugar and fewer grains tho as mine was "brewing" in less than 24 hours. I now have 3 1/2 gallon jars sitting out with 2/3 c sugar and 1/3 c grains. What has been in the fridge is soooo good! BUT...I now remember why I don't use diced fruits. It is seriously tedious work to get all the pieces of fruit out of the grains. :GAAH: 

What water are you using? Don't use "city" or chlorinated water (chlorine kills the grains). While a lot of the instructions say to use bottled water, sometimes it's devoid of minerals needed. I use well water straight out of the tap. If your grains aren't working, try adding a pinch of sea salt to your water.


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## Darlaj (Dec 10, 2013)

I just don't know what to do with mine ...... Would love recipes for water kiefer!


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

Darla, my basic recipe is on page 2 of this thread. It has some ideas for flavors. I use the dried fruit mostly....dried blueberries, cranberries (you can get the flavored cranberries too...the orange flavored are really good). just be careful of really small fruit like the dried apples and cranberries...those apple pieces are horrible to pick out of the grains! I think I did dried pineapple too...I don't like pineapple and don't think it was a favorite here. I add the dried fruit with the grains although I've seen other recipes that say to add the flavoring stuff after brewing and then leave set out again for it to get fizzy. I dunno about doing that....leave it out and it tends to ferment into alcohol. hehe


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## Darlaj (Dec 10, 2013)

Thanx


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