The Kefir (B)Logs

Okay okay okay, I know I'm doing ANOTHER post on kefir, and that I'm a total nerd, but I just can't help myself. I'm loving this stuff! And I think about how I can improve things all the time. Once you all know me better, you'll understand. When I get interested in something, I'm the type of person who has to know EVERYTHING about it. It's an insane drive, and an annoying one at times. Mostly to my friends and family who have to suffer through hours of kefir/birth/breastfeeding/rabbit genetics/ gardening/ homesteading/ alien conspiracy theories (OMG, how do they put up with me?) talk. And by "talk" I mean dissect everything into little bitty pieces, chew, swallow, regurgitate, and often vomit the information back up and talk about it again from another perspective.

So, now that you know how I operate, it should not come as a surprise that I am going to do water kefir experiments. I'm talkin' the whole nine yards... I'm going to outline a hypothesis, procedures, have a control, etc. For realz. And it's gonna be awesome. Eventually I'm going to figure out a way to selectively breed? harvest? feed? my water kefir so that I get super-kefir. Not sure if this is possible yet, but I'm totally going to try!
The best part of all of this? My 5 year old is totally with me. What an awesome homeschooling project!

So, I'm going to be keeping track of my experiments on paper and let you know the results right here on the blog. Some experiments I have thought of so far are:

• Lemon vs Lime vs Oranges vs Grapefruit vs No citrus/ use small amount of previous fermentation instead and their effect on the water kefir's propagation, taste, fizz
• Apricots vs Prunes vs Figs vs other dried fruits and their effect on the water kefir's propagation, taste, fizz, health
• Warm vs Room temperature water and their effect on the water kefir's propagation, taste, fizz, health
• Molasses and white sugar vs eggshells and white sugar vs demerara sugar vs turbinado sugar vs date sugar
• Juice ferments

• Stirring vs not stirring
• 24 hour vs 48 hour vs 60 hour first ferments

I also am going to research a few things. One rumor I heard was that water kefir makes unsafe drinking water safe. I've also heard you can live off of water kefir alone. Also, I haven't been able to find good information pointing to water kefir's origins. I've also been researching some helpful tips and tricks to having healthy water kefir... Which is where my next blog post comes in! Enjoy and stay tuned! I promise I will write about something OTHER than water kefir next week. Promise :) In the meantime, if there is any other experiment you'd like me to try, comment below and tell me about it!

What is Water Kefir?

A whole lotta water kefir grains! 

They can be clear to beige in color, depending on how you"feed" them.

What is water kefir?

Water kefir is basically a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Water kefir is also known as tibicos, tibi, sugar kefir grains, Japanese water crystals, and many other names as it is found around the world in many different cultures. They are beautiful, clear little granules that are firm yet gel-like to the touch and propagate indefinitely. And when I say "propagate indefinitely" I also mean "and quickly". These babies are insane. I recently gave Heidi a gallon baggie FULL of kefir grains. Because I was up to 6 gallons of kefir water fermenting on my counter. And my husband was calling me the "crazy kefir lady". Yeah.
Anyways, according to Wikipedia, these little babies come from

"the leaves of the Opuntia cactus (orig. Mexico) as hard granules that can be reconstituted in a sugar-water solution as propagating tibicos"

Water kefir feeds off sugars to produce lactic acid, alcohol, and carbon dioxide gas which carbonates the drink. You can bottle water kefir (which keeps the carbonation) or not, depending on your taste preference. Any number of flavorings can be added. Many people use fresh fruit, fruit juices and concentrates, extracts, and herbs of many different combinations. It has a fermented taste to it that you have to get used to if you don't normally eat/drink fermented foods. When I drink it, it reminds me of pop (or soda, for all of you who don't live in the midwest!) and many people find it to be a great substitute! You can even make root beer or cream soda flavored water kefir, though I much prefer the fruitier ones. You can check out my picture tutorial on how to make water kefir.

Nearly a gallon of kefir grains... I had to give them all to Heidi 

because I just can't seem to throw any away!

Why drink water kefir?

Water kefir is an excellent, dairy-free probiotic. Nourished Kitchen names it as one of it's top 10 dairy-free probiotic sources. They also talk about WHY probiotics are vital to our health. Personally, I can tell a huge difference in my body since drinking water kefir. In the name of full disclosure, I'm going to share exactly how water kefir has helped us.
I've become more regular. I don't feel as bloated as I used to. I have to admit, at first it was a bit tough. The kefir kind of... cleans you out. In a good way though. No diarrhea or anything.  It also makes you crave sugar like CRAZY at first. I think that's your bad yeast dying off. It can also cause what is called a "healing crisis". You can read more about what a healing crisis is here. Just be sure to drink lots of water along with your kefir, especially at first. Other testimonials:
My husband's IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) has not given him any problems since he started drinking the kefir. He would have almost daily attacks before.
My oldest daughter, who has had problems with constipation in the past, has not had any problems since drinking it either.
My mother-in-law usually takes Nexium (a medication for frequent heartburn) daily. Since drinking water kefir, she has cut way back. She told me today that she hasn't had to take it at all in four days! She has also been amazed that a stubborn toenail fungal infection that she has had awhile is clearing up since she started drinking the kefir.

This has been with only having our kefir for a couple of months now. My mother-in-law has only been drinking it for a couple of weeks. We are loving this stuff!

This website has a list of water kefir health benefits here and here, go check it out!

And for those of you who want to have a quick comparison of kefir vs kombucha, or to see exactly what kind of probiotics are in each, Common Sense Homesteading has a great post on it!

Flavors to try

I've been experimenting with many different flavors. My favorites right now are blueberry, blueberry pomegranate, and strawberry-lemon. My husband loves orange.. my sister-in-law loves grapefruit... my mom loves cranberry pomegranate... and my second mom loves pina colada. Here are a list of flavors we've tried or are going to try:

Orange- Love this one. Very tasty and refreshing.

Strawberry- Very good, though I prefer the lime and lemon combos better.

Strawberry-lime

Strawberry-lemon

Lemon-lime

Cream soda (add vanilla extract)- You only need a tiny amount to get the right flavor.

Root beer (add root beer extract)- Again, just a couple of tiny drops or it's overpowering

Pomagranate- love this too! But the pom-blueberry is probably my favorite

Pom-blueberry

Pom-cherry

Pom-raspberry

Blueberry- This one is also really, really yummy. My little Ever loves this one the most. The blueberries pop!

Cherry

Raspberry- Make sure you squish them a little bit to release their juices. I like a raspberry-lemonade a lot.

Raspberry lime
Raspberry lemonade

Triple-berry

Mango- Very interesting flavor. I like it!

Strawberry Mango

Pineapple- Don't use too many or it burns your nose! I had this one last night and it was strong, but good!

Pina Colada  (shredded coconut, pineapple, and coconut extract)- My mom and her best friend's favorite

Mojito (mint, lime... easy on the mint if you are using extract)

Rosehips

Hibiscus

Basil

Lemon Verbena

Grape

Watermelon

Apple

Apple Cinnamon

Ginger

Coconut

Cranberry

Cran-raspberry

Cran-apple

Peach- Doesn't taste like peach exactly, but it's still good

Mint

Orange-Pineapple

Raspberry Zinger (tea)

Ginger-mango

Mother's Milk tea
Acai berry- LOVE this too!
Plum- This was really good as well!

As you can see, the sky's the limit with what flavor combinations you can try. This is just a short list. What flavors have you tried and how did you like them?

Brought to you by Britt

Home/ Unschooling

I want to start out by saying that I, by no means, am a guru.  I've just been doing this for a while.

I was home/unschooled growing up, as was my husband and about 98% of our friends.  So it was natural for us to decided to do the same for our kids.  When my oldest was still very young I had great faith in complete child-led learning (allowing her to lead me in her education thinking this was unschooling) and swore to myself I would never push education on her.  But then she started getting older and as she approached school age I started to panic.
"What Was I Thinking!?!?  How on earth can anyone learn anything by themselves!?  And what if she doesn't want to learn something important!?  Like what 9 x 4 is or how to read!?"
Of course, she had already taught herself basic addition and subtraction and had been read more of the classics then I ever was exposed to at that point and would practice writing by copying bits out of her story books.  I knew she was no dummy.  But what if I was and I was going to screw her up by not teaching her the important things?

We did complete child led learning until she was 6.  Minnesota's mandatory age for schooling starts at 7 and I was terrified that if I didn't start teaching her at least the letters of the alphabet, then it would be the end of the world.  I bought Oak Meadows entire kindergarten curriculum.  It was the curriculum my husband used when they first started homeschooling and is sorta Waldorf-y/Montessori-y (or maybe it is actually one of the two I can't remember).  I was going to be a teacher, with curriculum and be cool.  Like Mrs. Jeffers, only not so scary.  The curriculum was good, and would have been fun, if she had been 4 instead of an advanced 6.  She hated doing the baby work and after about 3 weeks of desperately trying to teach her something, I gave up with the curriculum.  I wasn't to worried since we still had the whole year before we actually started reporting.  We talked a lot, sang songs, read stories and I printed lots of workpages for her.  We just went back to the child led learning and it was a lot better then trying to force the "baby stuff."

Last year my daughter turned 7 and we started school like we had before.  Only this time I gave up on the curriculum idea and just went to workbooks.  I got Brain Quest Workbooks (grades pre-k through 1st) and the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (which we both love!).  I got a new math workbook and just let her have at it.  I got the teachers guide to and tried (in vain) to teach her again.  That was pretty much a waste of time and money.  She devoured the mathbook mostly on her own and we worked together when she was learning something new and she started to read and write more.  She listened to stories about nature, we printed more work/coloring pages, watched documentaries and she was fascinated by the Ancient Egyptians.  In Minnesota there is mandatory testing and I was nervous about it.  But her scores were advanced in everything but reading and writing (we knew those would be lower) and we were all thrilled.  Apparently neither of us were dummys!  Hurray!

We have just started our second year.  We're working with a new mathbook that is entirely to easy so she's been bored a lot lately and I'm trying to skip ahead as much as I can without leaving something important behind.  We're working on learning reading still, but it's going fast and every time we do another lesson I feel so proud that my little girl is reading and I helped her learn that!  I found fabulous social studies and science curriculums that she is loving and it's been easy to tailor information so my 4 year old can learn with her.

Like I said, I'm no guru.  I've had experience being the home learner, and now as the "teacher".  We do fight, but it's mostly over the fact that her brother gets to watch Diego while she has to read or that the math is to easy or that I wont let her look at one of the world history books.  Such big problems, I know.

I just want all of you out there to know, that even having been home/unschooled, married an unschooler and known hundreds of amazing home/unschooled people, I still get insecure.  I'm the one that usually makes it hard for us.  I still push for somethings and I feel like I want to have some structure to her days.  I feel like we are working together a lot more and she is teaching me how she needs to be taught.  I remember my mom telling me once that she learned so much more when she homeschooled us then she ever did from her own school education, and now I see why.
It's kinda cool actually.