In my opinion, kefir made at home, makes the very best smoothies. Of course I love to just drink kefir on it’s own too. The taste is so satisfying- slightly tart and completely refreshing. When our goats dried up this season, I said farewell to my beloved kefir grains for a little while and sent them on a vacation in the freezer.
      Then recently I discovered a local source for cow’s milk. Although I prefer our own goat’s milk, I decided to get some of our neighbor’s milk and take my kefir grains out of hibernation. I wasn’t sure if they would still work, I had never put them in the freezer before. They did! Much to my delight.
When our goats are in milk, I make a quart of kefir every single day. This is the main way that we consume our goat’s milk. Neither of us drink the milk because we are not sure how well we are able to digest it. I wish I could, trust me, I would be glugging it down like crazy. I come from a family of milk drinkers, after all. I have uncertainty about my ability to digest milk, but I do know that my body digests kefir fantastically. My body loves kefir! Many people who are lactose intolerant can handle kefir because it pre-digests milk more than any other milk culture. Not only is kefir delicious, but it is also so good for you. It adds beneficial bacteria to your system, helping with your digestion.
Jeff and I stick to cultured milk products, which our bodies love. The other way that we comsume our goat’s milk is with homemade, cultured goat cheese – which I will have to post a recipe for eventually.
Here is some more info about kefir:
“Kefir is a cultured and microbial-rich food that helps restore the inner ecology. It contains strains of beneficial yeast and beneficial bacteria (in a symbiotic relationship) that give kefir antibiotic properties. A natural antibiotic- and it is made from milk! The finished product is not unlike that of a drink-style yogurt, but kefir has a more tart, refreshing taste and contains completely different microorganisms… kefir does not feed yeast, and it usually doesn’t even bother people who are lactose intolerant. That’s because the friendly bacteria and the beneficial yeast growing in the kefir consume most of the lactose and provide very efficient enzymes (lactase) for consuming whatever lactose is still left after the culturing process… kefir is mucus-forming, but… the slightly mucus-forming quality is exactly what makes kefir work for us. The mucus has a “clean” quality to it that coats the lining of the digestive tract, creating a sort of nest where beneficial bacteria can settle and colonize…..
Kefir is made from gelatinous white or yellow particles called “grains.” The grains contain the bacteria/yeast mixture clumped together with casein (milk proteins) and polysaccharides (complex sugars.) They look like pieces of coral or small clumps of cauliflower and range from the size of a grain of wheat to that of a hazelnut. Some grains have been known to grow in large flat sheets that can be big enough to cover your hand. No other milk culture forms grains… making kefir truly unique. Once the grains ferment the milk by incorporating their friendly organisms into the final product, you remove these grains with a strainer before drinking the kefir. The grains are then added to a new batch of milk, and the process continues indefinetely.” -Donna Gates

And here is how to make your very own kefir at home: