Discovering kefir

One day last fall, Paul returned from work and told me his fellow faculty were asking about the various items in the bento box he had taken for lunch. One of them said, "My wife is really into making kefir." The word was slightly familiar, and I thought it was a dairy product, but that was more of a guess than knowledge. "That's interesting. I'd never thought about making kefir," I said before quickly excusing myself to google it. Here's what Wikipedia reported:

Kefir (alternately kefīrs, keefir, kephir, kewra, talai, mudu kekiya, milkkefir, búlgaros) is a fermented milk drink that originated in the Caucasus region. It is prepared by inoculating cow, goat, or sheep's milk with kefir grains. Traditional kefir was made in skin bags that were hung near a doorway; the bag would be knocked by anyone passing through the doorway to help keep the milk and kefir grains well mixed.

It didn't sound all that appealing to me, but on our next trip to Trader Joe's I picked up a quart of strawberry flavored kefir. Not that bad, rather like a smoothie, but fairly expensive. Of course if I made it, it would be more reasonable. It's worth a try, I thought. I picked up a quart of plain kefir on my next trip to the store, forgetting what I had read about the culturing. It's not like yogurt or sourdough or buttermilk, which use a small quantity of the product to culture a larger quantity. Kefir is cultured from grains that are added to fresh milk and then strained from the milk after the desired stage of culturing has been reached. Apparently I'd have to come by some grains. On kefir.net, a "body ecology diet" website, I could purchase a starter package for only $26.95. It was for a pack of six, each of which could be used seven times. Then I found kefirlady.com: "Real kefir grains are the genuine article from the Caucasus Mountains, not to be confused with direct set cultures that eventually lose their potency requiring you to reorder again and again. Real kefir grains never need to be reordered. With proper care they last forever." That sounds more like it. The kefir lady asks for a twenty dollar bill (real cash only) for four tablespoons of real kefir grains, a bit more than I wanted to pay to experiment with something that had a good chance of failing and an even better chance of succeeding in making something I didn't even like.

I put the idea out of my head until coming across this post from a Freecyclist:

>My kefir grains are multiplying like crazy. Let me know if you're interested in some. Pick up in ......

I responded immediately and arranged for a pick up the next morning.