Lesli, we grow kefir. Everyone around here pronounces it "Keéfer." I say "kefír." (accent over the i) But I really don't know how it's supposed to be pronounced. Perhaps kefirlover can tell us. Anyway I LOVE the stuff! Half our family loves it and half can't stand it. We use goat's milk to make ours. Since the goats are not presently in milk I've frozen our grains. Grains can be rolled in powdered milk and sealed in a ziplock or jar, in the freezer and kept for months. To re-activate one simply puts them in milk and starts straining and replenishing the milk on a daily basis. Within few days they are producing again. One thing we've noticed is that one can get slimy, yucky kefir when changing between forms of milk. There's no problem in going between goat's milk and cows milk. But when one changes between bottled milk and powdered milk, or vice a versa, it may take a few days for the culture to adjust. Until it does we feed the product to our animals. I knew it was good for you. But wow! kefirlover's write up is amazing! I'm going to post another interesting site. This is the one which helped us when we started with Kefir. Our family first learned of kefir when we were living in the Sierra of Puebla, in Mexico, in the 90s. There, the locals produced and consumed kefir. But they called it "bulgaros." We got a start from them and enjoyed it for about a year. But we were due to spend a year back in the USA, and couldn't bring it back with us. It took till 2005 for me to learn what it was called in English! We got a start from someone local I bet, if you join Freecycle, you might find someone who can give you a start. We've given away many starts. George Tahlequah, OK Here is a link that might be useful: Dom's kefir site

I'd like to suggest the book "Not Milk... NUT MILKS!" by Candia Lea Cole if you are interested in making your own nut milks (cost savings - and fresh always seems to be best). She has some really great "milks" in her book besides the run-of-the-mill almond milk. Along with rice, there are other grain milks you can make (spelt, wheat, oats). Use a variety of nuts and even sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds for non-dairy milks. You can also fortify your non-dairy "milk" products with things like mesquite meal, flaxmeal, chia seeds...which all have health benefits. Just two ounces of Chia seeds contain 600 mg of Calcium, compared with 120 mg for milk and they are high in other minerals (including Boron) helpful for bone health. Oat milk, although pretty tasty, great on cereal, has more protein than rice milk, but doesn't work well in cooking/baking. Rice milk doesn't work well in cooking/baking either. Hemp milk has enough protein to work fairly well in cooking. The protein content, and the type of protein, is where you may find you miss milk in cooking and baking. Milk proteins coagulate or precipate to form a solid clot or curd under certain circumstances. Some sauces may work well using a non-dairy milk substitute, some won't. To make pudding you will need to use a thickener like arrowroot, agar-agar or cornstarch. Almond Milk Pudding is actually very easy to make and you can find recipes on-line. Milk, in bread and many baked goods, is a tenderizer, adds protein and contributes to crust color, and you may miss some of those attributes, but it depends on how much milk you are substituting in any given recipe and what it contributes to the recipe. Look at the labels of the commercial non-dairy milks. Some of them are so loaded with ingredients to thicken and fortify it, and who knows what else, I'd tend to make my own. There may also be a down-side - there are many allergens associated with the nut milks, and many people who may be sensitive to avenin protein found in oats should avoid oat milk. If you are also avoiding butter, may I suggest coconut oil. It works not only in cooking and baking, but you can also use it as a bread-spread. You will find lots of recipes for using nut/seed/grain milks if you visit raw food sites, or check out vegan recipes. Sometimes it's easier to use recipes designed for those ingredients, to get accustomed to them, then start incorporating it into your favorite recipes. As a YUMMY non-dairy substitute for yogurt I have been fermenting coconut milk with real kefir grains, just like I make kefir with milk. I use coconut milk from reconstituted coconut milk powder. If you don't like the taste of coconut, this won't be a good substitute for you. Be sure to share more of your personal experiences using non-dairy milk alternatives. I, for one, would be interested in hearing your real experiences.... -Grainlady

Water kefir notes Probiotics, think of yogurt but not dairy. So it's very good for you like any other fermented type food, sauerkraut, miso, kimchi, etc, 2. Easy to make, won't fail or go bad. 3. Put them in soup, smoothies, etc. helps with pets digestion as well. cause it's sugar water, so anything you want to cook with that calls for liquid and sugar are ok. Experiment. 4. Make a beauty mask out fit 5. Add it with any flavor of juice concentrate, bottle it you got Italian soda! But the fizz last much longer cause it keep producing it. Ball quart jar is perfect. 1/4 cup -1/3 cup sugar. 1. Fancy version: mineral water, organic brown sugar, a touch of molasses, with organic lemon slice/ ginger / raisin, etc 2. Daily version, fridge filtered water or tap water sit 24 hours, regular brown sugar, that's it. Cover with a piece of paper towel tight with rubber band 3. When it double, filter the grains out and rinse it with filtered water, repeat process. Put water kefir in a glass bottle, with a screw-on lid, let it sit on the counter for 24 hours, then flavor it ( individual AW plastic bottle root beer is perfect, it's the strongest flavor and the color matched! that's what my husband bring to work everyday) put It keeps a longtime. Next time when you have children over, instead of giving them store bought soda, have them try this instead. SASBE self addressed stamped bubble envelope or SASE( Self addressed stamped envelope) It's a common lingo in seeds exchange forum. In this case, if it has to go through post office machine, it won't hurt them. Unlike seeds; will be crushed This post was edited by itsy_ant on Sat, Aug 3, 13 at 20:41

Jasdip I had my first "Red River" on a high school canoe trip to the Boundary Waters. I can still find it every so often here in the Twin Cities of MN. Love it! Just want to add that I've made my own milk kefir for 4 years now. I bought the grains locally off Craigslist and they've been superior all these years. It is kind of like a sourdough starter--just keep reusing the living organism. Plunk the little ball of it in fresh milk; let it sit at room temp for a couple days (I like mine thick and frothy, so it sometimes sits 3-4 days), refrigerate until cold. I often pour a glass, mix in ground flaxseed, plain yogurt, and berries and eat it with a spoon. It makes a satisfying breakfast. It is as essential to me as coffee in the morning! In case you've tried the bottled kefir in the store, the homemade really doesn't taste anything like it.