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Published 2014
The kefir grains vary in size from something like a wheat grain to something large enough to be described (quite incorrectly, it need hardly be said) as a ‘mushroom’. In fact, they are not single organisms but conglomerations formed from the sediment which is created in kefir by the active micro-organisms. This sediment contains bits of coagulated milk protein, with live cultures of various Streptococci and Lactobacilli and a yeast described as Saccharomyces kefir, and other miscellaneous detritus. It is apt to clump; thus, when kefir is made in a skin bottle or round-bottomed container which is agitated (as by being attached to a nomad’s saddle) the sediment rolls into balls.