Milk Kefir

 This has nothing to do with what I'm weaving and everything to do with what I'm eating!  I have recently been looking at making soft cheese at home and while I was doing my research I learned about milk kefir.  A search on Craigslist was all it took to start this journey.

Milk kefir may be one of the strangest things.  It is probiotic milk that you may have seen in your local supermarket.  But you can easily make it at home.

It starts with small cream colour lumps called milk kefir grains.

Place about 2 tablespoons of them in a glass jar with 2 cups of milk.  Lightly cover the jar with a piece of plastic.  And let sit on the counter for 24 hours.

After 24 hours the milk has slightly thickened to the texture of thick cream.  Pour the milk kefir through a plastic strainer to separate the kefir grains from the milk.  Use plastic as the kefir reacts with metal.  Then it is time to make a smoothie!

This smoothie is 2 cups milk kefir, ½ cup frozen peaches, ½ cup frozen blueberries and 2 tablespoons maple syrup.  Yummy!

The milk kefir grains can also be used in full fat cream and the end product is crème fraiche.  The milk kefir can also be used to make cheese, but I'll talk about that another time.