Lena Rocks

I got some grains for making water kefir and have discovered a beverage that I love so much that I want to share.  It’s such an easy thing to make and has all kinds of good probiotics that keeps the belly very happy. The grains also grow and multiply a lot so you have them to share with friends You can also use the kefir to mix with herbs or whatever you can come up with to make a very customized beverage.

I use one cup of water with one tablespoon of raw brown sugar with at least one tablespoon of kefir grains. The water needs to be non chlorinated since that can hurt the grains. You will need:

1. A wooden spoon (the grains do not like metal)
2. A strainer that is also not metal – plastic will work fine
3. A jar that is big enough to hold what you’re planning on making, some will use jars with lids but I like to cover it with cloth since I figure the grains can breathe better.
4. A couple of dried apricots, figs, raisins or other unsulphured dry fruit
5. Half a lemon gives a very nice taste to the final drink and putting some chopped ginger into the container before you refrigerate it gives it a very nice flavor.
6. Another jar to strain the finished drink into.

A 24 hour fermentation will give a sweeter drink, the grains convert the sugar and it becomes less sweet and more tangy the longer it is left to ferment. For me 48 hours is about right and then I bottle it up and leave it out for another 24 hours before refrigeration. I heard that you should not go over 72 hours since the grains can run out of food and starve

A couple of great websites where I learned a lot more about this can be found here:

http://www.weim.net/homeovet/Docs/water%20kefir.pdf

http://www.yemoos.com/waterkefir4tbs.html

If you want to try it for yourself I’ll be happy to send you some grains if I have extras – just email me and I’ll let you know. I’m looking into dehydrating them at the moment but they are still drying so I will have to experiment with that as well – seeing if they easily come back to life after being dried…  This has been some great fun since there are so many ways to use flavorings and different recipes along with intent…

Lena