Making and Using Coconut or Water Kefir

Candida is a common occurrence amongst women, men and children; even babies. Why this is will be the subject of another blog, suffice to say Kefir as a probiotic, can be of help. 

Those if you who are familiar with Donna Gates and The Ecology Diet will know this.

Kefir is fast becoming a new buzz drink. I should say ‘fizzy’ drink (as we call soda in New Zealand) as it has a light but discernible, fizz.
 

Recently I’m hearing how Big Brother wants to intervene (again) in our lives and give one more job to the Nanny State Boffins: restricting access to or finding ways to ‘encourage’ drinkers to drink less fizz/soda.

Apparently this is going to help the obesity epidemic.

Yep, I can really see the soda companies liking that. Oh, wait. They’ve probably got their version of Kefir in the lab already. Have to supply the up and coming gap, won’t they?

Well, they can’t patent Kefir grains.

Kefir is a fermented drink along the lines of yoghurt, sauerkraut, kimchee, sour dough bread and a cousin of anything else that ferments including the most common one of all, alcohol.

Kefir is genuinely good for you, as it is a probiotic and will gently but surely aid your gut in the ratio of bad v good bacteria.
 

How to get Kefir: the first and easiest is to buy it (thank you, Captain Obvious).  If you’re in New Zealand you can go straight to www.thekefircompany.co.nz and tell them I sent you.  Anita and her husband Terry make coconut Kefir by hand every Friday.

You could make it yourself but you have to be a really, really committed DIY Freak to do this. It is quite a mission to source a regular supply of drinking coconuts and get the ‘blimmin’ things open. If you like an adventure and the idea of filling your rubbish bin with semi-successfully opened coconuts, or even the unopened ones you gave up on, then go right ahead. Trust me. It’s much easier to get Anita’s. She delivers anywhere in New Zealand.

Water Kefir, on the other hand is quite easy; fiddly but easy. First, get yourself some water Kefir grains and follow the instructions that come with them. In New Zealand try www.waterkefir.co.nz.  For overseas readers, use your search engine to find a more local supplier or ask my kiwi friend to send you hers. She also supplied me with Caspian Sea Yoghurt Starter that I make with raw milk. I am enjoying this on my muesli each morning. It’s lovely over a bowl of chopped fruit, too.

The grains increase in number each time you make Kefir. At the moment I have three jars brewing on my kitchen bench top. There is a jar of ‘extras’ in the fridge at the moment, in sugar water waiting to find a new home or another jar on my ‘bench/counter.

I am using Kefir water in my Smoothies (a lovely tingle in the ‘background’) and in the juice I get with our Green Star. The children and DH are enjoying the fizzy effect. Honestly, who would’ve thought you could make a healthy fizzy drink?? Yay!!!
 

You can drink it straight. Drunk neat it reminds me of weak ginger beer. Add some ginger juice from the Juicer and hey presto, Ginger Beer!  Well, kind of.
 

You can also buy kefir powder from some health shops but these do not last indefinitely as the grains do. You will get between four and ten re-ferments before it becomes too weak to use again.

Christine
www.gomoreraw.com
email: christine@gomoreraw.com

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The Original Private Gold and Silver Bullion Custodian
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