We tend to eat healthily and whatever we can we prepare at home. We bake our own sourdough bread and make our kefir using the Tibetan kefir mushrooms. We are from Hungary where kefir is well known and you can buy many different brands in the shop. I like its taste and it keeps me healthy. We already tried these mushrooms before we moved here and I was very happy when I found someone who was giving away a batch of them so I could restart making our own kefir here in France as well.
These mushrooms look like extra small cauliflowers, they are white little grains that ferment the milk to make you some delicious kefir.
Kefir is not something Pixie would like but I hope it will change in the future.
It’s fairly easy to make it if you can get a hold of the mushrooms. They grow fairly quickly when they are looked after so you can share your batch with your friends. You just need to keep a few things in mind.
They are sensitive, so take good care of them 🙂 They do not like metal, so do not keep them in a jar with a metal lid, or use a metal spoon or, the most important, when you wash them do not use a metal strainer.
Some say that you have to strain them every day but we don’t drink that much kefir, although we should. We strain them and wash them every third day and they are still happy and growing.
We keep them in a plastic container, give them around 1,5 dl milk to ferment and every third-day strain it. This is the only part where you have to pay a bit of attention. So put them in a plastic strainer, with the help of a wooden or plastic spoon help to strain the kefir. When it’s done rinse the mushrooms off with not too cold nor too warm water, wash their container as well then the entire process can start again. Put the mushrooms back in their home, feed them milk and in a few days they make your kefir. Keep them at room temperature, don’t put it in the fridge.
If you go on a holiday or you want to take a break from kefir for a few days and won’t be able to strain them you can keep it in the fridge but put them in water and not milk! They will survive for one or two weeks this way. The cold will stop their fermentation process and they will vegetate meanwhile. If it’s about a longer period you can also freeze them, put them in water and in the freezer. After these, you should strain them and feed them milk every day so they would be able to get active and happy again.
Kefir is very healthy and it’s good for your immune system, it improves your digestive system, it has antioxidant effects and other health benefits. There are plenty of articles about its benefits although not every one of them is proved yet but it’s for sure a very good thing for your health.
If you can get a hold of the mushrooms I recommend you to try making your own kefir. It’s a fairly strait forward process and it’s also fun, you feed your little mushrooms and they make you kefir.