Guest guest Posted March 8, 2012 Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 I haven't washed my kefir culturing jar yet and it's been several months. There are tiny kefir grains clinging to the walls of the jar and you don't want to get rid of them do you? Maybe I will wash it once or twice a year, but at this point, unless it gets really caked up at the top, I don't have plans to wash my jar any time soon. On the other hand, the finished kefir jars, I do wash after I've emptied the jar. Al Sanitation procedures At first I washed my refrigerator storage jar very often, then about once a week. Now I'm getting lazy & am wondering how often I need to empty, wash & refill. It is the perfect size and I don't have a second one yet. Anyone care to share what you do? LaDonna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 SO far, I just strain my kefir from my culture jar into a clean holding jar, and put more milk in on the culture and the bit left in the jar... I learned about keeping a culture going that way when we had dairy goats, a LOT of milk coming in, and we were making cheese and yogurt; there were some cultures we found out did better if you did not clean the jars out every time...so i just applied that knowledge to the kefir...and it seems to be working well for me. I haven't had any issues with the kefir caking up around the motuh of the culture jar; then again, I am using a wide mouth food grade plastic jar and I stir the kefir with a plastic spatula to help break up any thicker areas in the kefir before straining it. When my culture grows some more, and I need to start it in a second jar, I will not only put the grains and milk in there, but will also put some of the batch of kefir in there as well to help keep the strains of bacteria going. BY then, maybe I can get hubby to start drinking it; in fact, I plan on getting THAT going this week; I have several kinds of FRUIT on my shopping list! Now, the jars I a using to hold the strained kefire, those I was once they are empty...and I scrape the curds off the sides and make sure to mix that in with my last cup of kefir out of the jar...*LOL*...I WIKES my kefir!-- Kim in TX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 10, 2012 Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 I know I dont personally wash the jars every time. Sometimes I do just cause it seems so wrong to leave it alone. So I do make sure to rinse really well when I do so and I tend to use very little detergent , if any. To clean a jar in these conditions, you really dont need that much to clean it. A little goes a long way. April > > I learned about keeping a culture going that way when we had dairy goats, a LOT of milk coming in, and we were making cheese and yogurt; there were some cultures we found out did better if you did not clean the jars out every time...so i just applied that knowledge to the kefir...and it seems to be working well for me. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 Hi April<  So you don't rinse the milk grains, is that correct? and how much kefir grain should u use in your milk.?  thank you God Bless America From: nicolateslarules <nicolateslarules@...> Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2012 9:25 AM Subject: Re: Sanitation procedures  I know I dont personally wash the jars every time. Sometimes I do just cause it seems so wrong to leave it alone. So I do make sure to rinse really well when I do so and I tend to use very little detergent , if any. To clean a jar in these conditions, you really dont need that much to clean it. A little goes a long way. April > > I learned about keeping a culture going that way when we had dairy goats, a LOT of milk coming in, and we were making cheese and yogurt; there were some cultures we found out did better if you did not clean the jars out every time...so i just applied that knowledge to the kefir...and it seems to be working well for me. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 The articles I've read about hte history of kefir indicate that the milk was kept in goatskin bags and cultured with kefir grains. Obviously it would have been impossible to wash the inside of a goatskin bag, and they certainly didn't have washing detergent. My guess is that the bags were refreshed every now and then, whenever there was a piece of spare goatskin lying around that wasn't used to make shoes, clothing, etc. Also I saw a segment of Bizarre Foods with Zimmern in Outer Mongolia and he was visiting a group who lived in a yurt, they were culturing mare's (horse) milk with grains. They put the mare's milk in a skin and did not clean it out afterwards, they just scraped (wiped) the skin lightly and reused it all over again. Kim On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 12:02 AM, s <cstevens3625@...>wrote: > ** > > > Hi April< > > So you don't rinse the milk grains, is that correct? and how much kefir > grain should u use in your milk.? > > thank you > > > God Bless America > > From: nicolateslarules <nicolateslarules@...> > > Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2012 9:25 AM > > Subject: Re: Sanitation procedures > > > > I know I dont personally wash the jars every time. Sometimes I do just > cause it seems so wrong to leave it alone. So I do make sure to rinse > really well when I do so and I tend to use very little detergent , if any. > To clean a jar in these conditions, you really dont need that much to clean > it. A little goes a long way. > April > > > > I learned about keeping a culture going that way when we had dairy > goats, a LOT of milk coming in, and we were making cheese and yogurt; there > were some cultures we found out did better if you did not clean the jars > out every time...so i just applied that knowledge to the kefir...and it > seems to be working well for me. > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 26, 2012 Report Share Posted March 26, 2012 I never rinse my milk kefir grains. Have not yet, but not to say that I won't do it in the future if there is a contamination. Al Re: Sanitation procedures I know I dont personally wash the jars every time. Sometimes I do just cause it seems so wrong to leave it alone. So I do make sure to rinse really well when I do so and I tend to use very little detergent , if any. To clean a jar in these conditions, you really dont need that much to clean it. A little goes a long way. April > > I learned about keeping a culture going that way when we had dairy goats, a LOT of milk coming in, and we were making cheese and yogurt; there were some cultures we found out did better if you did not clean the jars out every time...so i just applied that knowledge to the kefir...and it seems to be working well for me. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 1, 2012 Report Share Posted April 1, 2012 Al,  How do you store the extra milk kefir grains?   God Bless America From: " ouched63188@... " <ouched63188@...> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 4:14 PM Subject: Re: Re: Sanitation procedures  I never rinse my milk kefir grains. Have not yet, but not to say that I won't do it in the future if there is a contamination. Al Re: Sanitation procedures I know I dont personally wash the jars every time. Sometimes I do just cause it seems so wrong to leave it alone. So I do make sure to rinse really well when I do so and I tend to use very little detergent , if any. To clean a jar in these conditions, you really dont need that much to clean it. A little goes a long way. April > > I learned about keeping a culture going that way when we had dairy goats, a LOT of milk coming in, and we were making cheese and yogurt; there were some cultures we found out did better if you did not clean the jars out every time...so i just applied that knowledge to the kefir...and it seems to be working well for me. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 2, 2012 Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 I haven't really needed to store the extra grains as they were going to other people. If I have too many to culture my regular quantity of kefir, I will put my 1Tbs of kefir in 1/2 gallon of milk, then the extra grains go in a pint jar with fresh raw milk and put in the fridge. I am needing to store some for me for backup as I do not have a backup. But, I do not want to freeze them as I'm reading that the grains change after being frozen. I'm probably going to dehydrate some but just haven't gotten around to doing it. Al Re: Sanitation procedures I know I dont personally wash the jars every time. Sometimes I do just cause it seems so wrong to leave it alone. So I do make sure to rinse really well when I do so and I tend to use very little detergent , if any. To clean a jar in these conditions, you really dont need that much to clean it. A little goes a long way. April > > I learned about keeping a culture going that way when we had dairy goats, a LOT of milk coming in, and we were making cheese and yogurt; there were some cultures we found out did better if you did not clean the jars out every time...so i just applied that knowledge to the kefir...and it seems to be working well for me. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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