I'd definitely try it, but not sure how it would taste. You didn't make it, did you, Alisande?

I know I'd like it. I have a green smoothie I make with kale, ginger, and lemon. Apples instead of carrots, but close enough! Happy St Patrick's Day!

I did make it--I make it every other day (sometimes with variations) and drink it every day. I love the taste. Apples are a good addition, Rob.

Maybe if I had been drinking your green drink regularly, I wouldn't have a stuffed up head and sore throat. I hate spring colds!

Susan, how about what quantities? Or a recipe?

Well, first you need a juicer. I use a masticating juicer (this one) so I can keep leftover juice in the fridge overnight without having it lose vitamins and enzymes. It's also easy to clean.

I mound up a dinner plate high with organic carrots, organic romaine, celery, part of a lemon (outside peel removed), a chunk of peeled ginger, and a piece of a beet. Next to that goes a bag of spinach and baby kale. Then I turn on the juicer and start putting everything through it. No measuring required. :-)

Before I went on the Lyme diet the juice was brownish because I used more carrots and often half an apple (red + green = brown). In summer I add our homegrown cucumbers, zucchini, and whatever else is handy. A close friend juices sweet potatoes and pineapple cores with her greens.

Ha ha! Good one Alisande.

Cheers!

My morning green drink included kale, half an apple, a little pineapple, a little slice of lemon. (My nutribullet pulverizes the skins and everything, I really like the fiber.)

Mmm, that looks delicious. I don't juice but I make green smoothies for us just about every morning. Kale, spinach or other greens, 2 bananas, pineapple or other fruit, flax seed and, lately, plain kefir. Sounds kind of revolting, but tastes pretty good.

I just found this recipe in my in-box from Cultures for Health and thought of this thread. Haven't tried it, but it's something I would gladly make. I use water kefir for many yummy things, including a root beer version.... :-)

Shamrock Water Kefir Shake

This smoothie is good for anyone who can’t handle fructose, the sugar found in all fruits. Although low in sugar, it's heavy on the probiotics, healthy fats, and greens.

It won’t be easily mistaken for the overly sweetened commercial shamrock shake, but its color and slightly sweet peppermint flavor will leave you feeling satisfied.

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups water kefir
• ½ cup coconut milk
• ½ ripe medium avocado
• 3 large kale leaves
• ¼ teaspoon mint extract
• 1-3 teaspoons honey, or to taste
• 4 large ice cubes

Instructions:

1. Combine water kefir, coconut milk, avocado, and kale in blender. Blend until smooth.
2. Add mint, honey, and ice cubes and blend thoroughly.
3. Taste and add more honey as desired for sweetness. Blend again until completely combined.

Serve immediately.

Editing to add: Use stevia to lower the fructose even more since honey is a high-fructose sweetener, as is agave nectar. Coconut nectar would also be lower fructose than honey. Important information for people with fructose malabsorption or intolerance.

Grainlady, does water kefir have the same health benefits as kefir made with milk? I never heard of the water version until I went looking for kefir grains, thinking I would make the milk version. I'm on the fence about that, since I'm allergic to a protein in cow's milk and apparently it's not a simple matter to make kefir with almond or soy milk. But I can tolerate cow's milk yogurt, so perhaps I'd have the same experience with cow's milk kefir. I'm curious about water kefir though.

Alisande-

I've used dairy kefir for around 15-years and only last year added water kefir to the "interesting" things found in our refrigerator. Dairy kefir worked well for the lactose-intolerant family members (from the milk sugar), but that's a different issue than the milk protein. I think you would want to use water kefir over dairy and still enjoy nearly the same health benefits. Even when I make a non-dairy kefir (coconut milk is my favorite) you still need to store and use the dairy grains in dairy milk for them to thrive. I haven't tried using water kefir grains in non-dairy milk, but they may also work to make dairy-free milk kefir - as long as they are stored in sugar water.

The information at Cultures for Health should help you out. It's also where I purchased my water kefir kit to get me starter. http://www.culturesforhealth.com/compare-milk-versus-kefir-water-kefir

We drink a lot more water kefir in the hotter months than in the cooler months. We also drink a wider variety of flavors in the hotter months. Right now we use about 2 quarts per week, and in the summer will use 3-4 quarts. Both dairy and water kefir are added to our morning smoothie (which is a high-fiber and supplement delivery system). The smoothie is a low-sugar substitute for fruit juice, not a meal replacement.

We like to blend green tea and water kefir for a refreshing beverage. Add some chia seeds for a chia "fresca"-style drink.

When you do the second fermentation, you add fruit or fruit juice to flavor it. I add 1/4 c. of blueberries, mixed berries, or fresh/frozen pineapple per quart. Once the fruit is strained out of the second fermentation, I'll use it as a sauce on pancakes or waffles, I might toss in a handful of goji berries, or other dried fruit, to the sauce. Waste not, want not ;-). Lemon or lime water kefir is great, cantaloupe, and the flavors are almost endless. Blueberry and lavender was a big favorite for awhile. Root beer is a good replacement for soda/pop.

Check it out, and I'll be happy to help walk you through getting started.

-Grainlady

Perfect. I fell off the green drink wagon. Time to get back on.

Grainlady, thanks for the recipe! I've never made kefir, I just pick up the unsweetened, plain Lifeway kefir. Was tempted to purchase kefir grains off ebay once, but never went through with it. :) They had water and milk grains.

I find it much easier to pile my six fruits in a colander, rinse, and eat raw every lunch. Blueberries, blackberries, red raspberries, grapes, bananas, cherries(when they're in season) and watermelon.

Fruit in quantity has always been too much of a carb load for me, and these days most of it isn't permitted on my Lyme diet. I do better with lots of vegetables. Also, fruit isn't green for St. Patrick's Day!

But I'm Swiss/ German...lol.. I sure hope I won't find it necessary for a Lyme diet.

Thanks, Grainlady! I haven't decided on the kefir yet, but I might get myself some viili starter. Are you familiar with it? Years ago we had a laboratory incubator that I used to make yogurt and viili for the family. I have no interest in making yogurt anymore (I like the nonfat Greek yogurt I buy in quarts at the store), but viili was special. Strangely stringy, with a delicious taste. It's from Finland. I remember we bought the starter from GEM Cultures.

How to make viili at home

Alisande-

Thanks for the link.... :-)

You will get more probiotic benefit from the number and types of good bacteria found in kefir than from any brand of yogurt, including Stonyfield Farm. While most commercial yogurt products have 2 strains of bacteria, Stonyfield Farm has 6 live lactic-acid bacteria to set it aside from the rest, if you want to compare commercial yogurt products. This link contains a list of the number of bacteria and yeast found in water kefir grains: http://www.yemoos.com/waterkefirstrains.html

Kefir contains “right-turning” lactic acid, and you can read the difference, and the benefits, at this link. http://www.genesishealth.ca/kefir-a-better-ancient-healing-food-then-yogurt/  

I've been making yogurt for at least 40-years (back in my hippy days ;-). I consider Greek yogurt an over-priced fad with few actual health benefits. I can drain the whey from dairy kefir curd for a Greek-style kefir. I did the same thing with homemade yogurt long before it became popular. I first made kefir with the powdered starter until I could locate real kefir grains. Kefir grains are a living bacteria which renews itself, grows and makes more kefir grains; while yogurt bacteria dies after subsequent batches and has to be renewed with new cultures. You can get the "Heirloom Yogurt Starter Culture", which included viili, from Cultures For Health - http://www.culturesforhealth.com/heirloom-yogurt-starters.html 

I've also made "Set Milk" http://www.wildernessfamilynaturals.com/category/set-milk.php  These cultures are from Germany.

I always make my own quick and easy sour cream with cream and commercial buttermilk (which contains live active cultures).

Homemade Sour Cream

2 c. heavy whipping cream

3 T. cultured buttermilk

[You can easily make 1/2 a recipe if 2-cups is too much.]

Place these ingredients in a sterilized jar; stir to blend. Cover the top with a coffee filter or white paper towel (secure with a rubber band to the jar). Let sit in your oven with the light on for 24-hours, until it has thickened. Put a lid on the jar and refrigerate for 24-hours before using. This sour cream won't separate, curdle and break when cooking with it.

Sorry to hijack the thread about drinks for St. Patrick's Day, but one good thing often leads to another - cheers!

Thanks, Grainlady. Coincidentally, I checked out Cultures for Health's package deal yesterday. If I decide I'm up for a project, I'll probably just get the viili starter for now. I see GEM cultures is still in business.

I eat yogurt partly for the health benefits, but mostly because it tastes good. There are so many things I can't eat, I fully appreciate those I can. I eat plain Greek yogurt with the addition of walnuts most of the time. I used to strain my yogurt back in my hippie days too. :-)

I'm taking probiotics and a probiotic yeast now that I'm back on antibiotics, so I think (I hope) I've got the bacteria strains covered.

Grainlady, in your opinion, when making milk kefir, is it better to use raw milk or pasteurized?

(apologies for more hijack, Alisande :)

No problem, Petra. And no hijack, because it's all about health. :-)

@petra_gw-

I was never on the raw milk bandwagon, but I understand those who are and why, and say it's a choice. Both make kefir - in my experience - and that's the goal. My milk kefir grains came from a dairy in eastern Kansas where they always used raw milk for kefir. I purchase raw goat's milk occasionally from a farm 3-miles away (and only 1-mile is a dirt road :-), but I pasteurize it at home and generally use it for making yogurt occasionally (milk is always heated before making yogurt, unlike kefir where you can plop the grains in milk cold from the refrigerator). It's not the raw milk I have a concern with, but rather the filthy kitchen where they process the raw milk that makes me pasteurize the raw milk.

I drank LOTS of raw cow's milk growing up and shortly after we moved here was able to get it from a good source close to town. But today, there are more bacteria strains, and more deadly bacteria strains now than what we had to concern ourselves with back then. I just don't like to take a chance by NOT pasteurizing it. I've been through too many food safety classes ......

You may be surprised to find out I use (Grandma's) Country Cream Powdered Milk for making kefir (and occasionally, if I have any in the house, I'll add a little half & half to the reconstituted powdered milk - the additional fat makes the grains "happy"). We've used powdered milk or whey-based powdered milk substitutes (for the lactose intolerant family members) as our primary milk source since 1981. The number of gallons of milk I've hauled home from the grocery store in that time you could count on one hand and still have some fingers left. I buy it by the 25# bucket and always store at least 1-years worth in our home food storage room in the basement.

@Alisande - It is my understanding that you should wait to take your heavy-duty probiotics AFTER you have finished the coarse of antibiotics. That's when you have a chance to recolonize your gut because the antibiotics also kill the good bacteria from your different sources.

Sláinte! Your beverage looks beautiful. I was bad and had a pint of Guinness

with my son - and some healthy green too - cabbage and peas.

Thanks, Grainlady, but my "tick doctor" and the Lyme experts I've read all say to take the probiotics concurrently with the antibiotic--but not at the same time of day. My previous series of antibiotics (about five months worth, spread out over several years) did a lot of damage. and I think I will be recolonizing forever.

Thanks, grainlady!! I read so much about only using raw milk for kefir that really wanted to know what you thought about it since you are a veteran kefir and yogurt maker. :) Glad to know pasteurized is fine, it's much easier to obtain and even the org. hormone free is still a lot cheaper than raw.