water kefir: our well water, vacation, & other newbie questions

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I ordered some dried water kefir grains from Marilyn oh, a month or two ago. I

think they

are doing great and we love the kefir they make, but I'm not sure if things are

headed

south or not. Thanks in advance for your kind help and reading through my novel

here.

We have a filter on our well for iron, manganese, and sulfur--no water softener

though.

We had hard water to begin with, and this filter increases the hardness. I'm

told to about

8.4-ish. This should be good for the grains, right? They seem to be multiplying,

but are a

variety of sizes from 1 cm across down to getting rinsed out of the strainer. I

have been

using " natural cane sugar " and organic/unsulfured dried apple rings. I recently

split up the

grains into two quart jar batches. I'd say there was about 1/2 cup grains per

jar. In one

jar, I continued with the apple. In the other jar I put half an untreated dried

peach or

nectarine(cannot remember which). The apple jar worked like normal. The grains

in the

other jar looked like they were turning white and shriveling a bit so the next

time I left

fruit out then went back to apple. Now both jars are back to looking the same:

most of the

grains are translucent, several are opaque-ish and have something white on their

surfaces.

They still make great kefir in 48 hours. All the while bubbling and acting like

a lava lamp-

-going up and down. Am I doing all this right?

Next question: I want to put all the grains into a half gallon jar. I've seen

" ratios " on this

forum for milk kefir. What is the ratio of water kefir grains to sugar to water

to fruit?

Vacation questions: We are going to drive from Oregon to Indiana and back with a

camper.

I'm planning to take our water kefir with us and buy distilled water along the

way to rinse

and brew. I understand I need to " supplement " the water. Do I need to use a

pinch of sea

salt and 1/4 t of calcium or just one or the other? I'm confused about using

liquid or

powdered calcium. I think I would prefer liquid better--which is really the

better to

use/which to the grains like?

If I wanted to dry some grains before we leave to have as a backup at home, how

many?

90 degrees, right? for how long? Can I put them in a food dehydrator(if it has a

low

enough setting) on one of those sheets meant for making fruit roll-ups? I

understand

water grains really don't like being refrigerated.

Miscellaneous questions/dispelling myths: Is it ok to use metal utensils when

handling

water kefir (such as SS strainer, fork & spoon for picking out the fruit)?

If I want to use ginger as the fruit, what form do I use? If I use chopped

fresh, can I sew it

up in a pouch of clean muslin so I don't have to pick it out of the grains? If I

used

dried/candied, do I reduce the amount of sugar?

How important is it to get every last piece of dried fruit out when rinsing the

grains?

How important is it for all the sugar to be dissolved in the new water before

adding the

grains back in?

Can I keep the finished water kefir in the 'fridge in one of those " sun tea "

jars that has the

plastic spigot at the bottom?

OK, I think that's it for now. If you made it this far, thank you so

much!!!!!!!! And if you

decide to respond to any or all of this, thank you ever so much more!!!!!!