On September 10, 2014 (12 years ago) I wrote an update about the Kefir I drank to get my probiotics. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/09/update-of-my-kefir-miracle.html This link and the links included in this blog tell about what happened, when I started and how I got into kefir. I shared grains with others and was very into it for a long time, but then life took over. In 2017 I froze some of these grains to take a little break. Supposedly frozen grains can last from six months to a year. As with most kicks I get into these days, I forgot about them. I still took probiotics but none were as good. I was going to order more but never did.
Fast forward to my refrigerator fiasco. When the refrigerator failed, I had to clean out the old one. Lo and behold, there in the bottom of the freezer was a bag that contained my frozen kefir grains. These grains were almost seven years old.
Most of the old stuff I found got thrown away and I almost threw them away, but decided to add milk and see what happened. I read that these grains could take up to ten days before you could tell if they were dead. To my surprise, by the 2nd day they were active. I tossed the first couple days of kefir in case it tasted like freezer, but after that the kefir has been delicious.
I have learned something from this. I only make what I can drink in a few days. As the grains increase in size and amount, I can freeze a few and share with who ever wants to monkey around with doing this. Most people don't want to do it, so they accumulate. The rest I can feed to the animals or toss. I was always worried about getting rid of them and made so much more kefir than I could drink. It got to be overwhelming so this is a game changer. If I get sick of doing it, I will can put more grains in the freezer for an undetermined amount of time. For now this is great.
This is totally off the subject and a little aside. When the men delivered my refrigerator, one of them saw my Big Foot wind chime. He asked if I ever see Big Foot out here. The other guy said he was from the city and never saw a property like mine. I guess we take so much for granted. I didn't know if I should laugh or if this person was serious. I should have greeted him with this hat. That would have really made him wonder.