Bonsoir Verne,
I start wondering .... do you have the "real thing", i.e. real kefir grains
or one of those commercial starters (haven't had them myself and don't want
to try them since I have real grains now). The commercial starters will
cease working after a while - I've heard - while your kefir grains keep
growing and producing kefir for you.
You should know ... you must have had something to start your first batch
of kefir with .... have a look at Dom's website .... he has pictures of
kefir grains there and confirm whether it's that what you have or not.
Believe me, you don't destroy these kefir grains easily so that they
disappear. If your strainer's holes are too big though, it can happen that
some of them (the loose, rice-corn-big baby grains) can disappear through
them, but the majority of grains should remain in your plastic strainer.
By the way, in my mail yesterday about the taste and smell of kefir I
forgot to mention: You will probably recognise a smell and taste of yeast
.... like the fresh yeast you use for baking in Europe (not the dry yeast).
About the benefits of kefir: I assume it keeps you stomach in shape and
form so any digestion problems should disappear soon. Otherwise: I grew up
in Germany. There I loved already as a child sourmilk products like quark,
yoghurt, creme fraiche, Schmand .... and having lived in Sweden for 6
years, I love filmjölk and Norwegian Seter Rømme. Now that I live in
Canada, I can't have filmjölk or quark (the real thing) or Seter Rømme, so
I am happy to have found kefir. For me it's simply a healthy probiotic
food. And it doesn't hurt if it's good for you. Since I try to live a
healthy live (healthy food, yoga) I guess it simply fits in here for me.
Let's see what the others in the list can contribute with .... you check
your culture please and let us know what stuff you are using as a culture
.... is it the kefir grains you see on Dom's site? .... and then we go from
there.
Best regards
Thomas
Original message was:
Good morning Thomas,
I did a "harvest" last night of my Kefir. I ran my fingers thru the curd
looking for rice like grains and found none.. Is that unusual? Should
they be kind of hard or harder than the curd so that they are discernable
different? I also put the contents in a glass and put that in the
refrigerator to cool before I try drinking this batch.
What effect has drinking this had on you? Is there a measurable difference
that you experience from drinking Kefir?
I am very new to all of this. A month ago I had never heard of the word
Kefir so I am a novice. I have a friend in Belgium that drinks this stuff
everyday and he claims that it makes him feel better in many ways. It also
gives him breath that smells like that of a Pelican. haha
Again my many thanks for your help..
Verne
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