Kefir cheering up!

[Guest guest]

On 10/3 I wrote to Marilyn off-list because my water kefir grains were

sad, and dying. Nothing seemed to work. After a few exchanges of

email, Marilyn said she believed the culprit was an over-growth of yeast

on the surface of the grains, because i did not rinse regularly (I had

heard different options about rinsing and not rinsing) and gave me a few

others suggestions in addition to regular rinsing (correct amount of h2o

for volume of grains, ratio of water to sugar, calcium and so on).

Well - it's been less than a week - and the grains have gone from a

scant teaspoon of small, sad grains the size of coarse salt to a

generous tablespoon of fat, happy grains the size of small peanuts!

I've been focuing on making the grains happy - not on the drink. I

used a bit more ConcenTrace mineral drops (in addition to coral calcium

powder) than is good for best flavor. So the liquid has gone down the

drain each time. I just put these fat and sassy grains in a pint jar

of sugar water, with the mineral additions (assuming it goes well) for

the last round of ICU care. By Monday, I hope to be back to making

drinkable kefir water, and getting continued growth (though I wouldn't

expect it to be quite this fast, not sure . . . )

Thank you Marilyn.

Wish me luck fellow kefir kulturers!

Ev