Foodie Glee

Now, a few days I probably would not have known what these two items are.  Now, not only do I know, I have them!!

Yesterday, Mom wanted to go to the valley so the kids and I went with her.  This time of year, the farm stands are all closed but I thought it would be a good time to go to Ran-Cher Acres.  The last few times, we did not have time to stop since it is a ways in from the main road (as most treasures are).  So I asked her if we could go.  I think she was kind of hesitant since it was more than 8kms off the main road and everyone had to pee (lol!) and when we got there, "it's just a house" but we made it.

Randy, one of the owners, came down and let us in.  I was asking for kefir grains since I knew they had them.  When he was showing them to me, he mentioned something about kombucha.  Well, I nearly jumped out of my skin in excitement and asked if they sold scobys!  He went upstairs and came down with a huge pickle jar filled with brown liquid and a huge scoby on top.  There was one on the bottom and he (ever so carefully with gloves) peeled it off for me!  It was all I could do not to explode when he said I could have it!

He asked how I got interested in this stuff and I said that I have been sick and I'm trying to eat for health, including lots of probiotics (well, it probably didn't come out that way since it was like the first time I got to talk to a real person about these things).  He gave me a Weston A. Price foundation brochure as well as the number and email address of their local chapter leader (it's the closest one to me, over 2 hours away).

As I said, it was so nice to talk to a real live person face to face about these things.  I could tell he was just as excited as I felt.  Mom and the kids probably weren't too happy I was taking so long, lol!  Randy was so nice, I wish I could of talked to him all day and afforded to buy tons of things.  He only charged $3 for the grains and I left feeling so blessed!  I have bought some of their products at other markets and I will continue to knowing that the people who made them are wonderful and kind who love what they do.

I forgot to mention, the grains were used with goats milk.  He told me to divide them by half, half for milk and half for water kefir and they should be fine.  I am so excited to be making real kefir, especially water!  I never thought I would have access to these things.

Usually I come home with a lot more produce (I bought 3 bags of dulse, 4 or 5 squash, bananas, carrots, spinach and a few things I forget in addition to the kefir grains and scoby) but I feel like I came home with a lot more!

Now, I just need to get cracking on doing something with them!  I am a little timid about the kombucha.  Being LDS, we don't drink tea (other than herbal) but I think I will get either green tea or roobios, I'm not sure yet.  I need to clean my disastrous kitchen before I do anything.  Not feeling well and recovering from our trip yesterday (in addition to not being home much for almost three days straight, broken washing machine and some other crisis-es) have left the cleanliness of our apartment much to be desired!

Kefir

I love this stuff. It is so expensive in the stores though. I cannot get the bubbly yeasty taste of the store bought stuff at home. I have been trying to hunt down some grains with no luck. I think I have found a good solution.

Kefir is a wondrous drink. It is filled with tons of pro and prebiotics, way more than yogurt. It is very healing and good for your body. It is made in the same manner as yogurt; you heat the milk, cool, add the starter and let it culture about 24 hours. Since I don't have the grains, it finally occurred to me I could just make kefir the same way I make yogurt.

I bought some Yogourmet kefir starter, but at $4.50-ish for a box of 6 starters, not so cheap since you need a liter of milk for each batch. I always have trouble with the starter. Twice it did not come out at all, even though I used a candy thermometer to make sure the milk was at the precisely correct temperature for each stage. The most recent batch I tried came out...ok. It was almost cottage cheese-y in texture. When I was getting low, I decided to use it to culture a fresh batch instead of using starter again.

I brought a liter of milk to almost the boiling point and let it cool until it was warm. I added a quarter cup of kefir and mixed well. I poured it into a mason jar, covered and by morning, I had a beautifully cultured bottle of kefir. It was almost solid after 12 hours where usually 24 hours barely gets it going. It worked really well! I wish I would of tried that before messing with starters. I may of gotten better kefir with the store bought kind. I'm hoping I can keep making it like this as it will save money and I get a better product.

(note, the picture above is not mine. I just wanted a picture to display what it looks like)