Making my own kefir

Have you heard of kefir?  I hadn’t until a couple of months ago and now here I am attempting to make my own.  That makes it sound like there’s a lot of hard work on my behalf, but there isn’t really – the kefir grains work their magic without a lot of intervention from me.

I ordered my kefir grains online from Kefir Heaven, this is what they say about kefir if you’re not sure what it is: “In a nutshell, a kefir grain is a gelatinous, convoluted particle obtained from fermented milk.”

And why am I making my own kefir?  Well, it makes a very good for you kind of yoghurt (I’m sure kefir experts might say that’s not quite right), but somehow these little glue-like grains do something magical to milk to produce a thick yoghurt like mixture that’s full of beneficial probiotic bacteria.

So this morning my kefir grains arrived from Kefir Heaven, carefully packaged up and with instructions for me to follow to ensure my grains get the best start in life.  All I needed was a clean jar with a lid and 200ml milk (I used some of my raw Jersey milk).

To start with, all I have to do is carefully remove the grains and the tiny bit of milk they’re in from their plastic pouch, pop them into a clean jar, pour over the milk and seal the lid.

Then it’s just a case of waiting.  So I’m now at the waiting bit – I’m not very good at waiting, however I’ve already earmarked a pancake recipe that uses kefir to soak the flour overnight so looking forward to trying that out (hopefully!).

I will try and take some pictures to share of what happens to my grains – this is what they look like fresh into their new milk home…