Kefir, CSY, and CSY cheese Verdicts

The Kefir we started for the first time last night:

I drained out the "grains" and put more milk over them to set out overnight tonight and ferment...merrily we roll along! Tasted the kefir that was strained off and YUM! Maria, you were right, it's delicious! For some reason I just love that slightly sour taste, almost like sour cream, and I'll be sharing a fruit smoothie with my husband ...shall blend it up tonight, mmm!

The continuing daily-reproducing Caspian Sea Yogurt:

I'm not caring as much about slight differences in the consistency. We're pouring off the whey, and since either it OR the actual CSY itself can be used to start another batch, I'm just using the whey as part of starting the recurring batches. I like the CSY blended, and J likes it any way it happens along. I'm pretty impressed we've got quarts of it daily. It's so digestible it doesn't seem to cause many of the symptoms plain milk can. Today we begin using real milk instead of store-bought. We may see some differences in the consistency and taste, who knows? And we're being extra scrupulous about kitchen cleanliness, too, what with all the milk being mixed up for this and that. We've never really been big milk consumers before, but since this is such a quality nutrient-rich food (the CSY) J and I don't need the portion sizes of other foods for our meals...it's VERY rich and filling by itself. We'll be keeping some fruits and veggies with our daily eating, but the CSY has taken over where meat and starches used to predominate. The improvement in how our bodies feel has been gentle and immediate. We are still being careful of a "healing crisis" from the "die-off" of the unhealthy stuff in our bodies...meaning the bad bacteria. As good bacteria found in the fermented foods like the kefir and CSY predominate in our digestive systems, they sort of set up an offensive action against any pathogens lurking in there...which can manifest in feeling kind of yuck as these make their way out of the body. We'll be taking some psyllium seed or flax seed caplets whenever we feel that way, to help usher the dying bad bacteria on out more quickly. We've heard that helps alleviate or minimize die-off discomfort. This is all new to us, so we'll see. So far, so good!


The CSY cheese-making experiment:

I'm laughing!! Oh, well YES I should wait till the CSY is a lot thicker before trying this again. All but a TEASPOON drained off, and after following the instructions to leave the cheesecloth-clad strained CSY out (covered) overnight, all that remained was a TEASPOON of soft cheese. So J and I split it. And yes, it would be very good with minced herbs mixed in and used as a spread or dip. Especially in larger quantities...ha!

That's all for now. With all this milk consumption and fermentation going on around here, pretty soon we'll need our own cow!