I have a TON of interest in fermented foods/drinks. They can provide great digestion support and help the immune system among many other benefits that my family NEEDS! ….BUT! They also slightly terrify me. When I make them myself that is. In the past I have made fermented lemons, kombucha, fermented garlic and honey (YUM!) and now kefir. I have been wanting to try to make homemade sauerkraut for such a long time but the fear is pretty strong that I could mess that up and potentially DIE from botulism poisoning. Which I’m fairly sure is almost 99.9 percent sure NOT to happen but that tiny chance has always held me back!!! However with the other stuff I have done, that fear is not there so much. I guess I trust myself enough to know if something were ‘off’ my nose would know it. You can tell pretty quickly by giving something a good look over and take a strong smell of it to know if it is ‘off’ or ‘safe’. For instance, I’ve been doing kombucha now for over 4 years and I’ve never even washed the vessel! I always give it a good look over for every new batch and it always looks the same and has the same vinegary smell that tells me all is good. IF it were to develop mold that CAN be dangerous but I would know right away that it would look off and it would smell off and the taste would be off…my instincts would reject it you know? So anyway… on to my topic for today! Homemade Kefir! Kefir is fermented milk, or in my case coconut milk. I was a little nervous on my first batch of this that maybe I would do it wrong and make myself sick but it was a HUGE success!! I’m not a fan of cow milk on any level so I used canned coconut milk and it is SO GOOD. Kefir benefits include: promoting gut health/bone health/stress relieving/muscle health/immune boosting, and FULL of vitamins and minerals. I was on a discussion board about my poor digestive health and bloating and there were SO many comments about how great kefir is so I knew I had to give it a try. The results were almost immediate AND it tastes so awesome. My recipe is super easy. Try it and give me some feedback!!!

Coconut milk kefir:

• two cans full fat coconut milk well shaken to mix the liquid and the cream
• kefir starter – I bought this from amazon

Make sure the full fat coconut milk is fully mixed. Pour both cans into a large mason jar. Mix in one packet of kefir starter and mix well. Cover jar with a coffee filter or something similar that will allow it to breathe and secure with a rubber band. Let sit in a dark spot on counter or in cabinet for 18-24 hours. It should have a slightly sour but still pleasant coconut smell. There should of course be NO mold or any type of smell that smells ‘off’. Mix well again and put into fridge. Start off only drinking 1/4 a cup or less a day and working up from there. ENJOY!!