The Urban Homemaker (<A href="http://www.urbanhomemaker.com">www.urbanhomemaker.com</A>) carries freeze-dried Kefir starter for $4.50. Here's the blurb."Kefir is not only healthy, but delicious and easy to make. It is a fermented milk mixture which far surpasses other cultured milk products in it's nutritional benefits because the milk is not heated before adding the starter and because the very fine curd is easily digested. What I particularly like is that no appliance is needed! Kefir helps to restore the intestinal flora of anyone who wants to improve their health. It is easy to make and delicious when you add flavoroings, sweeteners or use it as the base for healthy smoothies. Since it is fermented, Kefir is tolerable for those who are lactose intolerant. Each package contains six packets of culture, each of which makes one quart. Leftover Kefir can also be used to start more batches without using additional packages of starter."You can throw in any sort of fruit. Most fruits are naturally sweet, so you wouldn't need sugar. But, if you didn't want the fruit, just wanted the plain Kefir sweeter, you can buy raw local honey and drop in a Tablespoon or two. Use raw, local honey because then you get the health benefits. If is it pasteurized, it loses the goodness and much of the bold flavor. Local honey is best because it helps your body acclamate to pollens in the area, in this way it can help desensitize people with pollen allergies.
