OT: Kefir Revisited

Man. We're quite a crowd, aren't we? :)

I really want to try this stuff, now. I've wanted to have goats for milk for years. Kefir work in goats' milk?

John
 
Spectre,

I have been raising dairy goats since 88 so if you ever decide to get into them be glad to help you with any questions.

There are a lot of good goat raisers in GA. Go to www.nationalsaanenbreeders.com and click on breeders listings and several from GA will come up.

Jim

PS Keiffer works great in goat milk.
 
Spectre said:
Man. We're quite a crowd, aren't we? :)

I really want to try this stuff, now. I've wanted to have goats for milk for years. Kefir work in goats' milk?

John
Click to expand...


Yes, it works fine in goats milk.

It also works in coconut milk.

I opened two cans of coconut milk and poured them into a quart sized, wide mouthed, glass,mason jar, added a couple of kefir grains and in 3 days had a jar filled with some tasty coconut kefir. :D
 
You guys make me want to initiate another "Great Wisconsin Bar Cheeseburger with Fried Onions" summer quest on the cycles. :rolleyes:

The last winner...er...2002...has since been sold and and the new owners don't appreciate the nuances of a great greasy cheddar-cheese smothered, onion-slathered cheeseburger with too much salt on it.

It may be time for another quest, if for no other reason than to counteract the definite health bias I'm seeing here. :p




Be well and safe.
 
"John, preferred foods: Thai, Korean, Japanese"

I'm with ye, man! In that order, those are my fave Asian food types.

Green Curry, Kimchee, Mandu! Woohoo!
 
"John, preferred foods: Thai, Korean, Japanese"

I'm with ye, man! In that order, those are my fave Asian food types.

Green Curry, Kimchee, Mandu! Woohoo! oh, and lets not forget Gyoza Wasabi!
 
Talked with my daughter Claudia last night about kefir and goats milk. Her goats are dry right now but should come fresh about May she says.:D

Come to find out a friend of hers has and keeps a steady supply of kefir going all year around right here so I won't have to send off for it.:cool: :D

Claudia said she would argue with me over the cost of the goat's milk when the goats started producing again.
That means I'll probably have to find out what kind feed they use and where to get it and take them some from time too time, damned kids won't take any money when it comes too mom and dad.
Makes it hard to do for them.:rolleyes: :grumpy:


.
 
The other day I discovered that one of the local dairies sells their milk in 1/2 gallon glass jugs. This thing just got a whole lot easier. I pour off 4/5 of the kefir from the day before, toss the grains back in, and top off with fresh milk. If the current experiment with skim milk succeeds, my diet's going to see a lot more calcium in it.

I'm also "ripening" a batch seperately for a few days to see how that works out.

I don't know if this agrees with the published information or not, but I've been constantly increasing the amount of milk in each batch and I've found that not only are the grains keeping up, but they're growing far more quickly than I'd thought. I've read that cultures in general tend to grow more quickly and remain healthier when they're getting a constant workout. (Which, to them, basically means a 24/7 buffet.) I grossly overloaded them on one batch, going from a cup or two of milk right up to a quart, but they still got the job done...it just took them an extra day. Interestingly, the batch right after that - another quart - took only a single day.

I brought some in to work today for opinions. Several people were too afraid to try it, a few more thought it was okay, two enjoyed it, and one thought it just tasted like sour milk. I guess it's an aquired taste.
 
My mom always made homemade yogurt when I was a kid. Even though I have milk goats, I hardly ever drink a glass of milk except on cereal. However I love to knock down a glass of kefir or yogurt. Commercial yogurt has powdered milk or gelatin in it so it is thick, but the homemade stuff you can drink. I can't hardly deal with the sweetened yogurt.

I am milking six right now and I got 9 babies so far this year. 2 more to go.

Hey Yvsa, what kind of goats does she raise? I have saanens.
 
Man, I want to try some of this stuff.

Yvsa, are you still coming down towards GA soon?

John
 
HD I don't know if Claudia has any paticular breed of goat or not, just goats I think. She doesn't have but a couple or three I think.

John if everything goes all right we'll be in Tennesee sometime around the last of July, first of August. If gas keeps going up we may not be able to afford to go.:grumpy:
 
I just started 2 gallons of milk for cheese. I think this one is gonna be an aged one. I didn't add any culture, instead I used half raw milk and half pasteurized. I got my old Surge bucket milker running last night so I felt like the milk was probably clean enough to do a raw milk cheese. You gotta age them at least 60 days. I used to do it with culture and rennet, but now I just let the raw milk be the culture. The commercial freeze dried culture I use to make fresh cheese and feta makes a hard cheese too acid.

I am working today on rebuilding the pulsator on my main bucket milker. It has a lexan bucket ( lighter on my wore out shoulder to carry) and all silicone milk lines and inflations which don't hold bacteria and are super easy to clean.
Once I get this bucket running it will save me about 10 minutes or more milking. The old surge is nice but only holds 4 gallons and you have to have a seperate line for each inflation. With the DeLaval style you have one 9/16 central milk line that runs into a Y for the inflations near the end. It's an awesome setup! :cool:

Using the milker I can go and fill water buckets or hay feeders before a doe milks dry if she is a heavy milker. That saves time too.

I got my kefir grains from my milk customer yesterday. They are huge compared to my old ones! Serious C02 when I took the lid of the jar she gave me them in. Came off with a pop. Will start some of that this eve.
 
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