The Home Dairy Continues

We've been rocking the homemade dairy products as of late!

My husband's new health elixir of choice is Kefir, available at my grocery store for $4 per Quart-Yup $1 a cup! He drinks a cup a day. And wants me to put in smoothies for me and my girl! He did his research though and found you can make your own MUCH cheaper.

So we ordered Kefir grains online and have been fermenting milk on the counter ever since. Yup, ON THE COUNTER. It was kind of crazy at first. Basically you put the Kefir grains in the milk and leave it for a day. Then you strain and refrigerate the Kefir and use the grains to make more. This goes on and on.... And the Kefir grains expand so you can make more and more. Seriously, if anyone local to me wants to make some Kefir let me know and I'll give you some grains. (apparently for hardcore Kefir lovers giving the grains away is the most authentic way to pass the kefir along-Sorry we had to buy ours the first time around!)

Using the milk from the Dairy it is $.29 a cup! BIG Difference!

From the same place I got the Kefir grains, I also purchased a starter for Finnish Yogurt called Viili. Knowing my love of all things Finn, I needed to try this out. NEAT! I've made yogurt before but this was (also) made on the counter with no heat source or refrigeration. SCARY. But we've all eaten it and lived to tell. It's a bit more stringy than traditional yogurt but also not as tart. Again, if anyone wants some Finnish yogurt culture please let me know.

We can eat 2 Qts of plain yogurt a week (It would be 3 but I cap it at 2) That costs us $7 a week. Making Villi, I can make the same amount for $2.35. They had a bunch of different yogurts to make from all over the world and I just know I need to go back and try another.

I'm also holding out for the Gourmet Home Dairy from The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. Where you can make a whole host of dairy products!

One thing I know for sure, no one in this house is going to suffer from a calcium deficiency!!

Another nice benefit is that the milk comes in glass bottles that are returned each week and the kefir and yogurt are made in large glass jars (leftover huge pickle jars from Sam's) so we save 4 plastic containers a week this way!