Feedback

[Guest guest]

Hello,

I am in the thinking stage of setting up more pages for different

purposes. Off Topic will be one page for sure where you can talk about

all the other wonderful cultures out there or anything you want,

including kombucha, one of my favorite beverages, but off topic for

this group.

I was considering having a " Feedback " page but I think it will be best

kept here. Just make sure you write " Feedback " in the subject line.

When you get kefir grains from someone here, I want you to leave

feedback, ebay style. I want you to be brutally honest in your

evaluation. This will keep those who pass on their kefir grains on

their toes as far as quality and service go. You are going to see just

how brutal Marilyn can be.

So I will start; plus I will add a little history for interest.

I got my first batch of kefir grains in 1974 from a customer at a

health food store in Livonia where I worked. Her instructions were,

put them in milk, strain the next day, use them over and over again

giving them a fresh change of milk every day. That was it. Evaluation:

Excellent kefir grains; best instructions; can't tell you who she is.

I had these kefir grains for years. After we sold our goats I didn't

make kefir for over a decade. About five years ago I wanted to make

kefir again and went to the internet and found Adnan from Toronto.

He's the one who wrote the software, ston Software later named

torontoadvisors. Coming from Canada it took a week to get to Ohio. The

very first batch I made with them was good. Conclusion: they were

exceptionally healthy at his end.

Shortly afterward I joined Dom's list and got some from a couple of

his list members and some dried ones from him. One person offered

Tibetan Mushrooms and all I had to do was send a self-addressed

stamped envelope. She sent them on a Thursday by first class mail and

I didn't get them for ten days. (This is something you will learn not

to do, that is, ship too late in the week. Why first class mail took

ten days is still a mystery.) They smelled bad when I got them and

most people would have thrown them out. They took about two weeks to

recover good enough to drink it with daily changes of milk. It took

months before they started growing. I don't remember her name and I

hope she has discovered a better way to ship kefir grains by now.

Another list member whose name I also forgot sent me her strain which

I promply called Giant. These were big and beautiful and started

growing immediately.

Dom's dried ones took a full six months for them to make a good

representation of what kefir should taste like. Other people would

have given up. Part of this long time span was my fault. They were

using too much milk that I could not spare. I fed all the kefir these

grains were making to the dogs. It was discouraging. I had my other

three strains going so from time to time I put Dom's strain in the

refrigerator, just to save on milk. But this set them back every time.

I'm sure they would have recovered much sooner if I had kept them on

the counter continuously. After this experience I couldn't recommend

getting dried kefir grains. I didn't want anyone to have to go through

that experience of so much wasted time and milk.

Then someone on Dom's list asked the blue eyed sister, Denyse, how

long her kefir grains take to reactivate. She said four days. Four

days? That was interesting. So I dried some of my kefir grains and a

week later, reactivated them. Sure enough it only took four days. Now

I am friendly to the idea of drying kefir grains for the purposes of

shipping them long distances. It is probably best not to send any that

are too old because I'm sure they are just like seeds. They can get

stale. For sure don't dry any that aren't in tip top shape. Only dry

your healthiest, most active kefir grains. Never dry any that have

been in the refrigerator recently and therefore already semi-dormant.

I got one more strain from someone who had cancelled his order from me

because he got some locally. They were growing great guns for him so I

ended up buying some from him. This man lives in the state of Iowa and

I promply named these kefir grains " Iowa " . Many of my customers have

the Iowa strain. These doubled every three days if you can believe it.

He never shipped any before so I told him how to do it. They were great.

This post is way too long for an example of how to give feedback

because of all the history. But you get the idea.

Cheers,

Marilyn