Kefir Shakes

Thought I’d share a bit about our mornings around here. Every morning, we drink kefir. A wonderful, probiotic, lacto-fermented beverage made from raw milk. Here’s a link to get you started on research, if you’re interested in learning more about kefir. 🙂 Here’s a pic of what you normally see on my countertop, everyday. At minimum, I make 1 quart/day. As you can see, right now, I’m making 1/2 gallon/day.

After 24 hours +/- (totally depends on weather and humidity), the kefir grains change the milk into a thick & sour tasting drink. Here’s a pic of the strained grains.

I always measure the weight of my grains with each straining…partly because I’m weird & LOVE to notebook progress (hard to believe, I know, lol…), and also because then I know when to thin my grains. These grains LOVE our milk & grow very well for us. Just let me know if you ever want any grains for yourself – I always have PLENTY!! 🙂

I keep a piece of masking tape on the tile under my cupboards where I log the date & weight. Can you tell I’m a lefty?? 🙂

Then I add more raw milk over the grains, cover with a rag & rubberband, and we’re good to go for another day! Since we are a seasonal dairy, we rely on our frozen milk from last year during these winter months. 🙂

While we CAN drink it straight, we all MUCH PREFER to turn it into a kefir shake. 🙂 Paul is our “official” kefir shake maker! He LOVES food, and does have aspirations to become a chef some day… He got a blender for Christmas, and makes a tasty shake for us every morning. Here’s his recipe: 1 quart kefir, 7 banana chunks (we buy them when they’re super ripe & on sale, & then chunk & freeze them), 5 ice cubes, 1 T vanilla (we make our own), 1T jam (we make different kinds…strawberry, pear, peach – all with evaporated cane juice as the sweetener, FYI). We are all out of our honey right now, or we’d use that instead. Paul says we use a “4 second drizzle”, when we have that, lol! 🙂