New here - and LOVING kefir!

[Guest guest]

But I have a question. . . . . . . . . .

We live in the currently HOT state of Montana (over 100F for the better

part of all of July). I learned of kefir both from a friend of mine

who's been raising dairy goats for some thirty years or so as well as in

the book, _The Maker's Diet_.

This friend gave me some starter to begin our home exploration into the

world of kefir with some of her goat milk. Absolutely wonderful!

Since I don't always have access to the fresh milk she provides, I

decided to try this with some organic cow's milk from our local health

food store-milk which is also non-homogenized, so has the cream floating

at the top. I shook it up and combined it, with some of the starter, in

a glass jar. The kefir turned out just fine.

(I'm learning as I'm going, mind you-it appears I don't need to worry

about whether the milk is homogenized or not??? Please let me know on

this!)

But since then the " problem " has arisen.

There was a little milk left in the container, so I combined this with

some new non-homogenized milk into another glass container to make some

more. When I checked it the next day, it looked like a relatively large

chunk of butter was on the top. I skimmed that off and strained the

kefir. Then I strained the kefir again, because I wasn't happy with how

it looked. And there were still some yellow spots among the kefir

globules. I have this in a separate glass container in the fridge.

This kefir tastes fine, but is a little grainy yet.

I put some more starter into another glass jar to try yet again-this

time with a mixture of the non-homogenized milk and

homogenized/pasteurized (still organic) milk. Before the end of the

day, there were already a couple relatively large butter-looking lumps

in this.

I took those out this morning, but there are still more lumps.

What are these? Are they some sort of butter? (If so, can it be eaten

as such? I assume it could be. . . . . .) Is this affecting the kefir

starter itself? Should I just put this back into the kefir?

Thanks in advance for your input.

I'm looking forward to learning even more!

- Lemmon

Mom of 3

List Owner, LDSspecialones

and LDSspecial_hs

(http://

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" The most important instruction our children will ever receive will be

that which parents give to them in their own home, if parents diligently

teach their children the way our Father in Heaven would like them to

follow. " - Elder L. Tom

[Guest guest]

re: separation of butterfat in cows milk

Just stir everything together well before straining. If it tastes good, it

is good.

The only questionable milk is ultra pasteurized milk. All other grocery milk

is fine.

Marilyn

On 8/2/07, Lemmon <cathy@...> wrote:

>

> But I have a question. . . . . . . . . .

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Sounds good-- I'll do it. But I'm going to not mix back in the

larger chunks of " butter " . I'm going to try eating them-- spread it

on toast or melt it onto popcorn or something. Have you or anyone

else done this? I guess I'm not seeing how it could be " bad " to

use. I'm wondering if this is just something to expect to happen

when I use the non-homogenized cow's milk, then. Goat's milk doesn't

have nearly as much cream, so this hasn't been an issue at all with

the goat's milk kefir I've made.

(And that's good to know about the ultra-pasteurized milk. I'm

trying to keep our family away from pasteurized milk altogether-- but

that's really not very easy. Not until we get our own milk goats, I

suppose. . . . . . .)

-

>

> re: separation of butterfat in cows milk

>

> Just stir everything together well before straining. If it tastes

good, it

> is good.

>

> The only questionable milk is ultra pasteurized milk. All other

grocery milk

> is fine.

>

> Marilyn

>