Kefir quality and cost

I’ve been making it for about two or three weeks now. Since a friend gave me some grains. It is mind blowing my easy to do. Absolutely idiot proof. I keep having to refrigerate my grains because I’m
making it too fast.

I finally used up a banked supply of cottage cheese and am going to start using it in my morning smoothie.

I’ve been baking with it. Just baked a cake a few minutes ago, have made labneh (a thick Greek yogurt type thing), and used the leftover whey in a loaf of artisanstyle “no knead” bread which turned out wonderful. Have also tried making instant pudding with it- it turned out frothy with a light airy mousse texture.

The ONLY thing required is a few recycled glass jars, some grains, and milk. I’ve been using bog standard whole pasteurized milk with no problems.

You can probably ask on Facebook, NextDoor, or any other community groups if someone has some grains they be willing to share.

The “grains” are simply colonies of bacteria (?) that look like cauliflower, that you carry forward to each new batch. All you do is drain the kefir milk through a sieve and add fresh milk to the grains to start tomorrow’s batch.

I found a YouTube of a woman who puts a strawberry or orange peel in her finished kefir for a day or two before using it. She was right. This takes most the sour taste (yogurt-y sour, not unpleasant sour), and gives it a lovely infused taste and fragrance.

I’m having a blast playing with it. Next up: homemade farmers cheese.