Kefir
Yesterday it was a fly I smashed, and today it’s kefir. Those little things that make me happy.
I found a health-food store that carries kefir, plus had the cultures so I can make my own. Kefir is a sour-ish drink made from milk and good bacteria. It’s an ancient concoction, from Russia, the Caucasus area. I had it there, and liked the sour taste of it.
I only recently discovered that the health-food community has adopted kefir as a cure-all, and it’s all the rage in those circles. I love how old becomes new again. Before you know it, bellbottoms will be back (or maybe they are and I hadn’t noticed), and lots of people will think they’re a fresh design.
I confess I had a blast in the store. It has bulk spices and whole grains, weird dried fruits (I bought some Goji berries, which are oddly chewy and kind of good). They also had local honey in a barrel with a spigot, so I bought some honey. Don’t know what I’ll do with that, because I never use it. I don’t sweeten my tea or coffee, and I don’t bake cakes or cookies. Maybe I’ll put it on a piece of toast.
So I bought a few dried herbs and spices (about 20-30 cents each when you buy a pinch), and avoided the local mushrooms. I really wanted those mushrooms, but we’re busy the next several days and no time for that.
But the kefir - absolutely delicious. I like it plain. I like plain yogurt, too, though kefir and yogurt aren’t the same thing.
I really wanted to get my gut in better shape, because I’ve been on way too many antibiotics and worry I’ll get c diff. In googling probiotics yogurt, I discovered that kefir is the latest fad. Now if the health food people would latch onto Russian sour rye bread and unpasteurized butter, I’d be in food heaven.
They also had kasha, and I haven’t had that since dorm breakfasts in Leningrad. It will be interesting to see if it’s as good as I remember, or if I was just hungry and kasha was better than a plate of gross fish in oil for breakfast.
Reminds me of the saying: ?? ?? ????, ???? ????, which translates to shchi (cabbage soup) and kasha, our food. I was never crazy about the shchi, but borscht is good and every couple of years I make a batch.
Good times.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Juli, I love this entry! I don’t think you’re alone in getting excited when you find kefir at a store. And it’s definitely true that everything old is new again. We’re been working hard to educate people about kefir’s benefits since 1986 and there’s still so much work to be done. Luckily, we’ve ensured kefir’s presence in all sorts of mainstream stores, not just specialty/health food stores. It feels great to be able to bring kefir to masses.
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Yay, glad to meet another kefir lover. I’ve got my mom drinking it, too.
What’s odd is that today I saw it in one of the grocery stores. That *has* to be new, because it’s with the orange juice and lemonade, and I do buy those. And it’s your brand, so I bought more. LOL. (Also about half the cost of what I paid in the health food store, which was Helios brand.) They had peach and strawberry.
I LOVE your website!!! There’s nothing I love more than when a company makes a commitment to use local farmers! (I’m from a farm family.)
HEY EVERYBODY THERE’S A COUPON FOR A FREE KEFIR! I have a gardening blog I’m going to post this on, too. Word of mouth is good.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Yep, we’re definitely committed to locally sourced milk. Spread the word to other farm people
By the way, getting our great products into almost any store is possible if people request it from their dairy manager or store manager if it’s a very small store. Stores are usually very receptive to customer requests; a lot of people don’t know that.