The name 'kefir' means 'good feeling'. Kefir is a kind of powerful yoghurt with some advantages.
Kefir has a very good balance of amino acids, including the essential ones that the body cannot make itself. In particular it is loaded with tryptophan, the precursor of serotonin, that helps keep us us happy and tends to be deficient in modern farmed food and also cooked food. It also contains good supplies of the B vitamins including B12. It repopulates the gut with friendly bacteria and is anti-antiseptic. It can help with candida. Acetylcholine in it improves sleep and is good for memory intelligence, learning, enthusiasm and and general mood. It contains lecithin which helps in the assimilation of fats. It contains 'right-rotating'lactic acid (as opposed to 'left-rotating' lactic acid found in other yoghurts) which revives cells. As the lactose is pre-digested by the culture, kefir can often be taken by people who are normally dairy intolerant.
Kefir can be made with milk at room temperature- no heating is involved and it has an exceptionally helpful nutritional composition. You just put the culture (it looks a bit like cottage cheese) into the raw milk - in an airtight glass container for about 24 hours, strain with a plastic sieve and use the liquid that drains out for eating, drinking or recipes. Raw milk is preferable but not essential and cows', goats', sheeps' milk are all suitable. We have only succeeded with animal milks and are happy to make kefir this way but we hear that it is made in some places with non-animal milks such as soy,coconut, nut or seed milks. Fruit needs to be added to these milks to give the culture the sugars it needs. We are still waiting for more specific information as to how to successfully make kefir from non-animal mlks and some people who are intolerant even to raw dairy products would value this information this so please let us know if you have a method that works! Kefir can be made into a mild soft cheese. This kefir culture has been cared for, bred and fed entirely with raw, organic milk in lush South Devon. It is a living thing, can live forever and can be used indefinitely. It will continue to grow (doubling in size about every 16 days) and the extra culture can given away or even eaten. The package contains an instruction sheet with a couple of recipes.