Newsletter April 2017 Sourdough and a Bad Dog

Email from a Reader

Hello Sharon,
Thank you so much. We received the Baker’s Sampler yesterday.

So far, we sampled the chocolate bread (yay dessert), gingerbread (I really enjoyed the clove) & English muffin-cinnamon (toasted- cut in half as disks, slathered in yes, pasture-raised butter).

Your newsletter post about including animal fat in the bread was super-inspiring. The fat lends a singular satisfying element.

When I was a child, we would visit Argentina and have "factura" which are tea time pastries made of bread and tallow and sugar topped with quince jam or a custard. OMG

In my most recent baking exploits, 2 sourdough & 1 bread event slowed things down:
1. Jasper my redbone coonhound dog got into a batch of sourdough
2. I neglected to feed a starter and got mold :(
3. Jasper ate a full pan of bread.

Jasper is the quintessential "bad dog" when it comes to food.
Worse than a chocolate lab.



I finally baked a loaf again. This loaf was a full-on buckwheat starter with milk kefir whey, coconut flour, salt, eggs, bacon drippings & chicken schmaltz (chicken fat). I forgot to add both chia and flax seeds. It was still a success.
Half is frozen, half is high above out of any possible dog reach.

My prior successful bread batches consisted of:
teff starter made with milk kefir whey
coconut flour
olive oil
flax & chia gels
bacon drippings

I baked these uncloched (uncovered) and they became very DENSE biscuits.

The next trial, Round 2, baked up softer, given that I used a cloche (cover).

On another note,  I am using Milk Kefir to boost my starters because it seems to be beneficial for me. Also, I have not had great success with water kefir. Also, my kombucha seems too sugary.

Joyous, delicious baking to you :)
C.

Hello C,
Thanks for your feedback of my Baker’s Sampler so far. Also thanks for the interesting and humorous stories of your baking adventures. It is obvious to me that Jasper is a well educated dog as he truly enjoys the benefits of sourdough starter as well as the finished bread.

Sorry to hear your starter got mold. Gluten-free starters are more delicate than wheat or rye starters and need to be fed regularly to prevent spoilage.

I’m so glad you found my animal fat post inspiring. I hope more people will come around to the possibility that animal fat builds health rather than hurts it. It is a good source of energy that digests slowly, reducing hunger. Using animal fat is also a good way to rotate your diet rather than eat the same fats all the time. (Food rotation is important for people healing leaky gut. Everything in moderation, of course.)

One questions about Factura, the Argentinean tea time pastries made of bread and tallow? Could you taste the tallow or did it blend into the pastry? I never noticed a tallow or lard taste in my breads or cookies when I use it. However, sometimes when I use a soup fat that had been heavily seasoned, the taste of the seasonings goes into the fat, and then into the bread, giving it some delicate, savory spice.

I found your buckwheat-coconut flour bread very interesting as far as flour combinations. I always think of buckwheat making a very spongy bread that tends to be dry without enough water in the starter. I also think of coconut flour as a super absorbent flour with a tendency to be dry without enough oil in the finished product.

In my experience, using those flours together might make a severely dry bread. However, the oil, bacon fat and eggs would help balance any density as would chia and/or flax gel.

I must try this combination the next time I experiment. The bonus is that I could use up a trifle of the enormous amount of fat in my freezer.

Sometimes I use a “cloche” or cover for the breads during baking and really appreciate the soft top it gives. Other times I like the slightly crusty tops. Cloches can be oven-proof glass, clay, (sometimes people use clean flower pots), or a simple metal baking pan placed over the bread pan.

I’m glad to hear the milk kefir is working well for your starters. For those who are unfamiliar with milk kefir, it is a culture that will ferment milk into a yogurt-like product. The actual combination of bacteria and yeast are different than yogurt cultures so the taste and texture are different than yogurt.

In my early gluten-free sourdough experiments, I used it as a booster and saw that it gives a bit more lift than water kefir-boosted starters. Unfortunately, I had to give it up because I couldn't tolerate it. I continued making it for my family, though, making milk kefir liquid for morning hot cereal as well as milk kefir cheese. I would snitch a bit as I made the cheese. I really loved the sour, creaminess of the milk kefir cheese.

I would make the milk kefir, which means adding the kefir culture to the milk and let it sit on the counter until it separated. For cheese, I would pour it into a strainer lined with a cloth, tie up the cloth and let the whey (water) drip out.  Depending on how long it hung and how much whey dripped out, I could make yogurt, cream cheese or farmer cheese. The whey was excellent for boosting starter or just drinking as a probiotics tonic.


 Milk Kefir separating
   
Milk Kefir strained with a metal strainer for cheese. The whey drips into the bottom of a bowl for other uses.
If you are interested in trying Milk Kefir, here's a link to an excellent company to purchase the culture. Cultures for Health

Thanks again for your feedback and sharing!
All the best,
Sharon

I received a follow up from C about how the taste of the animal fat blended right into the factura pastries from Argentina.
 

Grains or Not?

Currently in our culture, an extraordinary number of people have digestive disorders and challenges, some involving gluten sensitivity. There are now two well known diets recommending the elimination of grains: The GAPS diet and the Paleo diet.

The GAPS diet recommends removing all grains from the diet for a period of time in order to let the digestive system rest and heal. They believe that this protocol will heal people of the gluten sensitivity, allowing them to eventually tolerate gluten products after they heal. Many people have embraced the Paleo diet which also suggests removing grains from the diet and theorizes that humans are not meant to eat grains.

If you are focused on healthy eating and are trying to heal your body from digestive issues you have probably heard of these diets. For those of us that seem to heal slowly or barely at all, we are always looking for the next food or supplement or diet or practitioner that might help us turn things around. It can be grueling.

I have heard from people that have made progress on the GAPS diet. They will often turn to my book and gluten-free breads as a stepping stone before they reintroduce gluten breads. I have also heard from people that didn't do well on the diet. They were always hungry or their issues simply did not resolve. Some lost an alarming amount of weight and felt like they were starving.

I don't know too many people who practice the Paleo diet although a dear friend of mine has embraced it as a last resort after going through years of tests and different practitioners. She finally was diagnosed with intestinal parasites. Her practitioners are trying to strengthen her body to prepare for the parasite treatment. After many years, her health is finally improving on this diet! Removing the grains has really worked for her although she said she had to get used to the feeling of never feeling full after a meal. The Paleo diet eliminates all grains, gluten-free or otherwise, as well as legumes.

It could be very easy to fall prey to cultural pressure to go grain-free. As I get older, I need less grain at meals. Is it because I'm healing and utilize and assimilate my food better? Is it because I should be grain-free? Is it because humans need less calories as we get older? Is it because my blood type is a grain-eating blood type? (remember the blood type diet?)

As a child, I had blood sugar fluctuations. As an adult, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroid disease, the symptoms of which, mimic hypoglycemia. We now know that these symptoms are linked to gluten sensitivity. Once, I tried going without grains which became a severe blood sugar roller coaster. I simply could not function. Proponents of those diets might say I'm grain-addicted but if grains makes me feel healthy, strong and clear headed and going without them makes me a nonfunctional mess, I don't see eating grains as an addiction or a problem for me.

Some people never need grains at a meal. Some people always need grains at a meal. It seems that for me, grains are fuel...and I need them to feel clear headed and stable. But not everyone seems to need them for fuel.

Those of us who are able to heal on a grain-free diet are fortunate that they have found the next step that moves them towards optimal health. Those of us that heal using other methods are also fortunate for the same reasons, that we move on to the next level of health. That's what it's all about. To get to the next level. And the next. And the next...until we feel good again.

People's bodies are different and people's histories are different. People's bodies need different diets at different times in their lives. No diet is right for everyone, no practitioner is right for everyone and no food is right for everyone.

Our generation has a host of new diseases that have baffled conventional medicine. The answers are coming slowly and seem to have to do with having access to clean food and water while minimizing medication and environmental toxins.

Grains or Not? The answer will always lie with how you and your children react to grains or no grains. Your gut knows what it needs and will let you know, if you pay close attention. If you are the parent of a small child with food sensitivities, until your child can tell you how s/he feels, you must trust your own instinct and observations over the many strong messages out there.

A mother of a young child asked my opinion about something I've heard a number of times:
"Fermentation will completely eliminate the gluten in wheat or rye bread."

This woman's sister was pressuring her to give her gluten-sensitive child sourdough wheat bread, saying it was safe and would not hurt her since it was fermented. The mother was hesitant, given her child's other anaphylactic allergies. This is where I began ranting. I apologized for the rant but she said "Please, I really want you to tell me how you feel about thisl". I ranted and railed for awhile and finally got to a place of composure again whereupon I said:

             "Even if the tests say that fermentation will completely neutralize gluten, the tests still don't speak to the depth of the child's complicated medical history and stressed digestive and immune systems. The tests test the gluten, not the patient. New diseases cannot be resolved with blanket statements that worked in the past, even if they fed people for millenia, like sourdough bread. And you know how committed I am to the concept of sourdough bread!!

I strongly believe in traditionally prepared foods as they dramatically helped me to heal. But so did removing gluten from my diet. Together, they helped me heal. Our current diseases are deeply complex. Our road back to health can be equally complex since we have little information about these diseases upon which to base healing treatments."

New diseases, new theories, new treatments. Our bodies will let us know what works for us. I support you to trust your gut and exercise control over your body as well as your child's body. And keep the faith that you will heal. It makes a big difference!

Famous for more than 15 minutes...I hope

I was recently video-interviewed by Missy Cohen, a local health coach, for her cable program, New Beginnings in Health. The interview is now being aired by my town's cable station, WACA, Ashland, Massachusetts. Click Here for Missy's website.

Missy carefully read through my bread book, Art of Gluten-Free Sourdough Baking, so she could really understand my baking techniques. She wanted me to share my healing journey as an inspiration to those that have health issues but have not yet found their unique ways to recover.

This made her an excellent interviewer as she asked questions that built upon each other and helped me share a clear overview of the larger concepts of my work as well as many of the details.

I was really enthralled to see myself on TV!!
I hope I'll be a bit famous for more than 15 minutes.

Click here and Watch the 28 minute video and let me know what you think!

How To Buy Gluten-Free Without Getting Duped

Here's a fabulous article from the Daily Beast, on healthy gluten-free food vs. gluten-free junk food. I'm proud to say my recipes and products fall within their "healthy food" parameters! I've added my own photos:-)
 
By Nicole McDermott for Life by DailyBurn


A quick trip down the natural foods section of your grocery store likely reveals box after box showcasing “gluten-free” on the label, indicating items free from wheat, rye, barley or crossbreeds of those grains. Now, the buzz phrase is infiltrating the rest of the aisles—on pasta, cereal, and even items like sauces, popcorn and potato chips that never even contained gluten in the first place. From 2011 to 2013, the gluten-free market grew 44 percent. More than half of consumers who buy these foods (65 percent) do so because they think the items are actually healthier. But, reading “gluten-free” on a product’s label doesn’t always mean it’s automatically a nutrition rock star.
Compared to whole-grain foods, gluten-free versions often lack essential vitamins and nutrients and turn to added sugar and fat to make up for taste and texture. They’re loaded with refined un-enriched grains and starches, meaning the grains have been milled (a process that removes dietary fiber, iron and many B vitamins).
While it’s generally better to just ditch processed foods and stick to whole, real foods when possible (for instance, fruit, veggies, nuts and beans) we all crave some carbs and comfort food every once in a while—gluten-allergy or not. Learn how to buy healthier gluten-free products—from pasta and bread to crackers, snack bars and cereal—with our tips and insight from Rachel Begun, R.D., gluten-related disorders expert.

Gluten-Free Pasta
Tons of conventional pasta brands have joined the gluten-free ranks with their own varieties. But beware: Though bigger brands have the ability to produce pasta for a fraction of the price, most varieties have sub-par nutritional value.
Watch out for:
While gluten-free and regular pastas typically have the same amount of calories per serving, some of the former options have only one gram of fiber versus many whole-wheat varieties that have six. And though whole-wheat pasta has only a small amount of iron in every serving, most gluten-free brands lack any vitamins or minerals at all. “Some gluten-free pastas are made from empty starches and refined grains, thereby providing little in the way of nutrition,” Begun says.
Look for:
Try to purchase pastas made from whole grains like quinoa or brown rice to add back some of that iron and fiber. “Fiber, protein and healthy fats all contribute to satiety,” Begun says, “meaning they fill us up on smaller portion sizes.” Look for brands with ingredients like flax seed, rice bran and nut flours, which add healthy fats to the mix and keep us fuller, longer.

Gluten-Free Bread
With a super-low fiber content (usually only about one gram per two slices), gluten-free breads may leave your stomach grumbling soon after lunch is over. Quite a few of these loafs use potato starch and tapioca starch in attempts to produce a lighter, fluffier product. Unfortunately, that leaves out many of the healthy nutrients found in whole grains.
Watch out for:
Beware of starches and white rice flour leading the pack on the ingredients label. As a result of using those ingredients, most gluten-free breads have double the carbs of whole-wheat bread (and that factors in the small size of a gluten-free slice). Even whole-grain gluten-free breads are highly processed and contain a long list of ingredients, including added sugars and chemical agents to soften the dough since there’s no gluten present. According to Begun, at this stage in the gluten-free game, refined grains and starches are still necessary to make good quality, better tasting products, “so it’s unlikely to find options that completely eliminate them,” she says.
Look for:
Purchase breads containing seeds and a mixture of healthy grains (like millet and amaranth) other than just brown rice. “Breads with a whole grain as the first or second ingredient are ideal,” Begun says. Extra protein, like pea protein for instance, or all organic and non-genetically modified ingredients are an added bonus.

Gluten-Free Crackers
Yes, it’s possible to have cheese without them, but sometimes we’ve just got to kill that crunchy, salty craving with a cracker. Pretzels aren’t exactly a healthy gluten-free snacking choice as the first five ingredients are typically starches, oils, sugar and salt. Thankfully, some crackers are made of more promising ingredients.
Watch out for:
Just like the other foods on this list, we have a similar guideline for crackers: Steer clear of varieties with low protein and low fiber content. Crackers that list cornstarch as the first ingredient? Those are a no-no unless you’re a fan of baked, flavored cornstarch, which features no fiber, no protein and a whopping 24 grams of carbohydrates for a very small serving.
Look for:
According to Begun, options made mostly from gluten-free whole grains and nut flour reign supreme. Seek out varieties that include seeds—like flax, chia and sesame—which add nutrients including omega-3s and protein. Bean powders may be tossed into the mix to increase the fiber and protein count even more. Look for at least three grams of fiber and three grams of protein for a more satisfying crunch.

Gluten-Free Snack Bars
Granola and protein bars make for a convenient, grab-and-go snack. They’re pre-wrapped, mess-free, and easy to toss in a gym bag or briefcase before heading out the door. Unfortunately, many snack bars rely on sweet syrups and coatings for optimal taste rather than optimal nutrition.
Watch out for:
“Avoid bars with an added sugar as the first ingredient,” Begun says. Many snack bars on supermarket shelves, gluten-free or not, are loaded with the sweet stuff. Chocolate or yogurt coatings are a major red flag, too. Some labels feature incognito sugars with less recognizable names including brown rice syrup, maltitol, evaporated cane juice, dextrose and sorbitol. “There are very few snack bars on the market that are truly a healthful option,” Begun says. And, many bars print “gluten-free” on their labels just to appear healthy.
Look for:
Try to find bars with high protein counts. As a rule of thumb, choose bars with more grams of protein than sugar (shoot for at least eight to 10 grams). Products made with naturally gluten-free ingredients like nuts, seeds, gluten-free grains, beans and dried fruit tend to be the healthiest options. “Protein enhancers such as whey, whole soybeans and pea protein are good, too,” Begun says.

Gluten-Free Cereal
For gluten-free eaters, most conventional cereals are automatically off the table (unless you’re looking in the natural foods section of the grocery store), since the majority of boxes on the shelf include wheat. There are a few gluten-free friendly mainstream cereals, but they’re generally lacking enriched vitamins and nutrients.
Watch out for:
“Just like their conventional counterparts, gluten-free cereals can also be loaded with added sugars,” Begun says. A good rule of thumb, she says, is to stick to options featuring five grams of sugar or less per serving. While puffed grains (light and air-filled grains created by high pressure and steam to increase their original size)—such as puffed white rice—are a good low-cal option, but the high heat used during manufacturing destroys a lot of their nutritional value.
Look for:
Choose cereals with gluten-free whole grains such as brown rice, oats (make sure they’re certified gluten-free), quinoa, amaranth and millet. If you want to try out puffed grains, opt for fortified versions, meaning essential vitamins and minerals like iron and amino acids are pumped back into the cereal. Seeds are an added bonus. Or you can buy your own gluten-free cereal grains and whip up a semi-homemade cereal.
Yes, it’s easy to point fingers at most of the food found in boxes and bags (read: processed), but that doesn’t mean gluten-free eaters have to cut out pasta, bread, crackers, snack bars, or cereal forever. With the right ingredients and nutrition stats in mind, gluten-free buying is a little less complicated and a whole lot more satisfying.

Why Gluten-Free Sourdough?

I created these breads and bread recipes to cope with my own multiple food allergies and sensitivities. After mastering and enjoying old fashioned sourdough rye bread I learned I was gluten intolerant and could no longer eat rye. I learned I was also allergic to eggs,dairy and soy products, ingredients that are often used in gluten-free breads. There were other ingredients used in conventional gluten-free baking that I would rather not use: commercial yeast, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan and guar gums, and sweeteners.

Wanting to continue eating bread, I looked at the ingredients in retail gluten free breads and found there was at least one ingredient I needed to avoid in each one. If I was going to be able to eat bread I needed to be able to control the ingredients.

I began experimenting with some gluten-free flours using the sourdough techniques I had mastered for the rye bread. I learned pretty quickly that gluten-free flours are more delicate than gluten flours and spoil easily. I solved this challenge by boosting the starter with a small amount of a lacto-fermented drink called Water Kefir. I used it to begin all my starters for a number of years. Now, I dehydrate and sell my own Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter as an alternative.

What is Water Kefir?

Water Kefir cultures

Water Kefir is a culture, which is a colony of bacteria and yeast, similar to a yogurt culture. The water kefir culture is added to water, that has had sugar dissolved into it. The fermentation process begins when the bacteria and yeast eat the sugars and in exchange, put probiotics and enzymes into the sugar water. Most of the sugar will actually be consumed by the bacteria and yeast during fermentation. The sugar water turns from very sweet to sweet/sour/bubbly.

There are many uses for this tasty liquid. It can be drunk in small amounts as a tonic or digestive. It can also use it in a gluten-free sourdough starter to kick-start the bacterial activity and prevent spoilage in the starter. This enables the starter to stay fresh as it grows to the size needed for  baking. Water kefir is a culture that must be acquired and cared for. Cultures for Health is an excellent company that offers dehydrated water kefir culture with directions for rehydration.

Finished Water Kefir
Ready to drink or use as a booster

An Alternative Booster: 
Dehydrated Sourdough Starter:

An alternative to boosting a starter with water kefir is to boost it with  Dehydrated Sourdough Starter.  I recently began offering 2 of my own Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter cultures, Brown Rice and Teff. While you have to regularly care for a water kefir culture, the dehydrated sourdough starter will last many months in the refrigerator or freezer until you need it.

Learn more and purchase Sourdough Starter Here

The starters are grown in my recenlty opened dedicated Gluten-free commercial kitchen. Click for photos of the construction!

Track Record of Sourdough
Sourdough baking is an ancient and time tested bread baking technique that was used exclusively until the discovery of modern commercial yeast. It utilizes the natural yeasts and bacteria present on the grain and in the air to leaven bread. Sourdough bread becomes highly digestible because the flours are “soaked” in the starter and as well as during the long rise period.

Some people may remember their grandparents soaking oatmeal the night before cooking it for breakfast. Soaking neutralizes natural enzyme inhibitors in the grain, begins breaking down the tough cellulose fibers, fosters the formation of probiotics and enzymes and releases vitamins. All this makes for a more nutritious finished product that is easy on the digestion with many more nutrients available for assimilation. Sourdough breads have a robust taste, a long shelf life and freeze well.

One other benefit of the sourdough process in gluten-free breads is that it eliminates the need for gums and sodium-based leaveners. For people who want to eat as simply and cleanly as possible, this is a tremendous benefit!


The recipes in my book, The Art of Gluten-Free Sourdough Baking, are free of gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, yeast, baking powder/soda, and xanthan and guar gums. They use whole grain ingredients and minimal amounts of starch flours and sweeteners.

My New Recipes PDF are recipes that I perfected after publishing The Art of Gluten-Free Sourdough Baking. They were developed upon the foundation of experience I gained from the first 5 years and are simpler and use less ingredients. They will become part of my next book and are now available in PDF. The cost is only $10 for all the recipes as they become perfected.

My  baking technique is different than what most bakers are accustomed to but with a little time and patience the technique can be easily mastered. You could be baking your own high quality homemade breads soon!

 Teff Tapioca
 

Rice Quinoa Cranberry English Muffins
 

Teff Pumpernickel

Learn more about my breads and other products

Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread Mixes...At Last!!!

Bake a Gluten-free Sourdough Bread Mix in your own home!! Pumpernickel, Cinnamon Spice, and Simple Dark Bread.

Old-fashioned sourdough technique adds complex flavor, easy digestibility and long shelf life.

Mixes are fully fermented and free of gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, commercial yeast and gums.

Ingredients: Unsprayed, high-protein Teff flour and Organic flavorings.

Assembled in a dedicated gluten-free vegan facility.

www.glutenfreesourdough.com

Letter from a Reader

Hi Sharon,
I purchased your ‘Art of Gluten Free Sourdough Baking’ book a little while ago. It arrived just in time for me to transform my first batch of boosted brown rice starter into a reasonably successful loaf. It was a little flat and moist but with a great taste and lovely chewy texture that is missing in the normal gluten free shop offerings!

I didn’t think I would make another loaf soon so I used the leftover brown rice starter to make pancakes for Easter breakfast and included fruit and some spices. We ate these with soft goat cheese and sugar free jam. Wow! Even my husband and mother enjoyed these. I ran out of bread before my next batch of starter was ready so I used a bought loaf that I had in the freezer. I couldn’t believe the difference in the way my stomach felt.

I have just made two loaves using a mix of brown rice starter with Quinoa flour and potato flour. I had a really good result with these, so much so that I had four slices of the first one that I cut up! They seem to slice easily and last very well.

Thank you so much for putting so much effort into researching and producing this book. I had all but given up on bread until my sister in law brought your book to my attention. I am looking forward to trying some of the other things as well. Like banana bread!

Warm regards and thanks again!
D.B., Australia

Growing Sourdough Starter in the Refrigerator for a Milder Sour

Growing starter in the refrigerator is said to minimize the sour taste of sourdough. It also enables us to reduce the feedings from 3 times a day to twice. I find my starters ferment very quickly these days making me wonder if I have enormous invisible colonies of yeast and bacteria in my kitchen. I also ferment water kefir, milk kefir, and kombucha so I assume there is quite a bit of activity going on.

A friend of mine, Peggy, likes to tinker in the kitchen. She experiments with many recipes and techniques and documents them in great detail. She tried growing a starter in the refrigerator, something I haven’t had time to see all the way through.

Here are her notes:

“I decided to go with a simple loaf of bread using quinoa and sorghum flours.
I had a small amount of rice-sorghum-teff starter left over from making multigrain bread and fed it for four days with alternating and equal amounts of quinoa flour and sorghum flour. I chose to use these because they were what I had on hand. I also was going for a lighter colored bread.

I gave it a little boost with 1 tablespoon of water kefir to perk it up on the second day.

After 24 hours of feedings I put it in the fridge because it was very bubbly and soupy! I didn’t want a strong sourdough flavor this time as I just baked two batches that were strongly fermented.

I continued to feed it 3 times a day continuing to keep it in the fridge.

36 hours later, I removed it from the fridge because it looked flat and dead But four hours later, when I next looked at it, it was furiously bubbling away!!! I had been deceived by the chilled mixture. I fed it and returned it to the fridge.
8 hours later when I took it out to feed it, it was actively bubbling even though it was so cold. I think it liked the fact that I had taken it out that first time for a few hours.”

She said that the finished bread had just enough sour taste to let you know you were eating sourdough. Not overpowering at all!

Water Kefir in the gluten free starter

I recently received this question:

“ In your Gluten-free sourdough starter you use Water Kefir to boost the starter.
Is it possible to start the Water Kefir culture from scratch at home?
Or can I leave out the Water Kefir entirely and still get a successful sour dough starter?”

My answer:
I use water kefir because I had a lot of spoilage in my rice starters before I used it. It acts as a preservative while quickly boosting the bacterial/yeast activity.
After the initial purchase the water kefir culture can live indefinitely with at least monthly feeding and refrigerated storage. You buy it once and use it for all your starters that you begin fresh.

Water Kefir is known in the fermenting community as a living potent drink that gently introduces probiotics, enzymes and vitamins into the digestive tract. This is good news for many people who have taken antibiotics as well as people with unresolving intestinal issues. Making the drink costs pennies and sipping a couple of ounces daily will begin a gentle process of detoxification and repair.

I chose Water Kefir as my booster because it is dairy free, (I’m allergic to all milk products) but one could use Milk kefir, Milk kefir whey or home made active Yogurt.


Order Water Kefir culture at:
Cultures For Health