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Laying half nakid out in the sun to get my daily dose of vitamin D is beginning to require more caution. The temperatures are climbing faster in the mornings, and lasting longer into the night. I go out on the deck to do it fairly early in the morning to keep from getting the full blast of the noon sun. Not today. It was cloudy, and so I waited until around 11 o'clock. I didn't stay out long, but I'm sure I got more than enough vitamin D.
My effort to acquire kefir starter grains are looking up. One of the ladies on one of the kefir e-mail discussion groups offered to send me some water kefir grains for the cost of mailing them. She will send them priority mail once she receives the cash and my mailing address. Water kefir is very interesting stuff. I haven't read as much about it as I have milk kefir. Since kefir happens through fermentation it has a small amount of alcohol in it. Usually 1% or less. It can be bumped though. Ginger beer seems to be a favorite with some of the people I'm communicating with now.
The experiment I wrote about where I used two teaspoons of inulin in a pint of water along with the contents of a probiotic capsule seems to be working. Tiny little bacteria globs are getting bigger, so last night I added a spoonful of honey to see if that would help the bacteria grow. At least this way I'm finding out if the bacteria in the probiotic capsules is actually there. They come from reputable companies, so there is no real reason to doubt that the probiotic bacteria are alive and kicking. The more I study this topic, the more I realize that this is not rocket science to make happen.
I just went downstairs to check on my experiment. There are more clumps and they're growing. If nothing else I'll be getting my money's worth from the additional fermenting. The dry capsules advertise billions of bacteria in each capsule, but kefir has trillions. According to what I've read and seen in the media, the more the merrier. Providing my GI tract with lots more friendly bacteria helps it to digest the food I eat.
This is more important now that I've already lost most of the molar teeth I used to chew with. The milk kefir not only uses the lactose in milk for fermentation, but essentially it means that I'm drinking pre-digested food. Doctors say that diabetics can drink kefir with no negative results, and so can people who are lactose intolerant.
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