konfused about kefir

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I've got an interesting question.

I bought a water kefir grain from (can't remember her name) on this

list. I made a few batches with it. The grain is fine. The kefir is

tasty. Life is good.

The other day I put some Whole Foods dried papaya into a jar with the

kefir grains and some raisins and water. The batch was fine. When it

came time to throw away the papaya and raisins to start the next batch

I found I couldn't tell the papaya from the kefir. The color and

texture was identical for both. Thinking I was being clever I decided

to separate what I thought was the kefir grain from the other two

things I thought were papaya. I put one piece in one jar with water

and raisins and the other two pieces in another jar with water and

raisins. I figured that the jar that fizzed the next morning would be

the jar with the real kefir grain in it.

Well ... both jars are fizzing this morning and the raisins have

floated to the top of both jars. Now I'm really confused. Could the

real kefir grain have incoculated a piece of papaya with its magical

properties? Do I now have two (or three) kefir grains? Will the papaya

eventually rot and then I'll know it was just a temporary helper?

Any ideas as to what's going on?

Thanks,

Sol