Simple Suggestion #287 -- How to make kefir

Make what?

Kefir (pronounced kee-FEAR) is a yogurt like milk drink, slightly fermented, made with kefir grains and full of probiotics, or so I'm told. I used to make yogurt smoothies, but kefir is actually easier to make than yogurt, and I love how it tastes blended with a banana, some frozen berries from last summer, and a tablespoon of peanut butter. The banana gives it enough sweetness, the berries a bit of tang, and I just love peanut butter for the sake of peanut butter. Kefir smoothies are my daily breakfast, quick, easy, and nutritious, with the bonus of being my daily dose of calcium.

I received my first kefir culture from my L'Arche friend, Honey, in a small jar, and kept it going for probably ten years -- until the day Shadow-dog died, actually, when I used up all of my culture because I was distracted by losing him.

Running out of kefir that way gave me the opportunity to try to make it from a store-bought culture, as Honey no longer uses kefir, and I don't know anyone else who does. So I bought a bottle of it from a grocery store, the least expensive variety, and used some of it to try to make more. And voila, it worked!

Why make my own kefir? Why make my own anything? Because it cuts out packaging that clogs our landfills. If I can grow or bake or somehow make something from scratch, you can bet there will be less garbage left over. And if I'm about living simply and leaving less of a footprint on our planet, weekly plastic kefir jugs are not the way to go. It's also generally much less expensive to make things from scratch. I think I paid $6.99 for less than a litre of kefir in a plastic bottle. I can make it for under half that!

So this is how it works. For my first new batch of kefir, I filled about a quarter of my glass quart jar (pictured above) with store-bought culture and filled it the rest of the way with milk. Then I covered it with a small piece of flannel (in case of little fungus gnats who sometimes live in my house and like to unsuccessfully go for a swim). I set it on a sunless kitchen shelf, and waited for it to thicken. The first time, it took two overnights, and I stirred it to be sure it was activated when it didn't thicken quite as quickly as I expected. (Good trick to remember).

For my second batch, the thickness of the first batch convinced me that I could probably get away with using less culture, but just to be on the safe side, I used the same trick, and it thickened over night. For my third batch, I only used a table spoon of culture. It didn't thicken up over night, so I stirred it (that trick again) and waited a second night. Sometimes thickening can be slow, perhaps because the tablespoon of culture I use doesn't hold enough kefir grains, but I just give it a stir and another night on the shelf. Once it has thickened, I keep it in my fridge.

If you've never tried kefir and live in my neighbourhood, I'm happy to share some culture to save a friend from buying a single-use plastic bottle. For that matter, I'd be delighted to make you a kefir smoothie anytime!