If you have reached this blog on the Happy Belly Foods website you probably already know how essential microbes are to all biological life processes and why probiotic and prebiotic fermented dairy foods like kefir and yogurt pack a powerful health punch.  To add to that, both are very simple and easy to make at home. So absolutely no excuses to not make your own.

If you have a good starter culture making yogurt is literally child’s play.  I learned to make yogurt from my mother before my teens and continue to make it. All it takes is sterile warm milk to which some fresh starter culture is added and then left to incubate in a warm undisturbed space. Yogurt takes about 8 hours to incubate or set and another 4-6 hours to chill and firm up in a refrigerator. That’s it! * Sterilise * Inoculate * Incubate * Chill* The 4 Fold Path to yogurt nirvana! 

But what if you don’t have some starter culture? Would a pot from the supermarket do? The answer is that you’d have to be very lucky to get a viable yogurt batch that way. Sadly, most commercial yogurt producers use freeze-dried starter cultures to produce their yogurt. These commercial starters produce a single batch of yogurt with an expected outcome. However, they lack regenerative potency and soon the yogurt produced is slimy, stringy, with ‘off’ notes and unviable. 

In cultures where most homes make their own yogurt, a ready source of starter yogurt culture is never further away than a neighbour. As mentioned earlier, that is not the case here where almost all yogurt available is produced using freeze dried culture.  Despair not, all is not lost. You can make a yogurt starter from scratch. It does take a little patience but at the end of it you have a starter culture that is robust and viable and which you can share with your friends with pride.

I am now running two yogurt making workshops at Bore Place, Bough Beech, Chiddingstone TN8 7AR. The first workshop is about learning to make yogurt from a Happy Belly starter yogurt, learning to develop a starter culture from scratch. The second workshop showcases the versatility of yoghurt, transforming it into Labneh and Paneer cheeses. There is lots of tasting in both workshops and a Q & A session to whet your appetite and curiosity. As part of the workshops you will get a pot of Happy Belly yogurt to take home to enjoy and to use as your starter culture. The workshop will run from 10am – 12.30pm.  To book a place please go to https://www.boreplace.org/whats-on/4362/yoghurt-making-workshop .

There is something magical and deeply satisfying in transforming milk into different delicious and nourishing forms; in creating an infinite abundance of products from such a simple base. Among these the drawing of golden ghee out of creamy milk is supreme. The process reunites us with our most ancient past. The rhythmic churning of a wooden charni spinning back and forth is meditative in its effect and usually has me singing.

The earliest recorded reference to ghee (Sanskrit : Ghritam) is found in the Rig Veda, the oldest text known to humankind, compiled by Vedic seers and sages several thousand years ago.

The root of Ghritam is ‘grh‘ which means luminance. Luminance from the Sun (sunlight) is transformed into green plant matter by photosynthesis; which in turn is transformed by grazing cows into milk; microbes transform milk to curds which is transformed by churning into butter; butter is transformed by heat (fire) and reveals the ghee ‘hidden in milk like the Divine Lord in Creation’ to borrow an analogy from the Rig Veda itself.

The invisible link between Sun, Cow and Ghee was noticed by Vedic seers and recorded in scripture, the cow was enshrined as sacred in the culture and ghee made essential in all sacred rituals, daily nourishment and healing processes.

The numerous superlatives given to ghee in the Vedic scriptures gives us a sense of its importance to the sages.

“Tongues of Gods” - Rig Veda. Food becomes its most delicious and nourishing when cooked in ghee

“Navel of immortality” - Rig Veda . The source of all life , literally transformed sunlight.

According to Ayurveda ghee has and imparts Sattvic guna - A state of perfect balance of energies. Ghee increases ojas, the juicy essence of the five elements of life, improves intelligence, intellect, memory, clarity of vision, suppleness of all organs and joints, radiance of skin , strengthens one’s aura , increases rasa the juicy pleasures of the body and so on.

At Happy Belly Foods we try to honour the antiquity of this sacred food by keeping steadfastly to tradition in the making of our ghee. We use only organic raw milk from cows who graze peacefully in organic green pastures full of herbs and wildflowers. Milk is then cultured and churned the Vedic way.

The amplification of finer and more subtle forces by microbial recycling and the creation of vortices by churning is common to both the Vedic Sciences and Biodynamics. We incorporate both these principles in the way we make ghee, with the intention of imbuing it with the most refined and subtle qualities.

Mother Yashoda and Krishna by Jamini Roy

Raw cow’s milk kefir is beneficial for almost everyone. Those with milk sugar (lactose) intolerance may need to introduce raw milk kefir gradually into their diet to be able to digest it fully. Those with a milk protein (casein) sensitivity may find the pre-digested proteins in raw milk kefir easier to digest than milk though we’d advise trying a small amount - a few spoonfuls initially and progress from there.

Pastoral herdsmen from the Caucasus region of Eastern Europe, renowned for their longevity and robust good health have consumed kefir made from fresh raw milk for thousands of years. Raw milk kefir is a time tested superfood which is suitable for: newborns who cannot avail of breast milk and its accompanying beneficial microbes, the elderly with weakened digestion, those recuperating from illness or surgery having undergone a course of antibiotics, those susceptible to seasonal afflictions, those on a low glycemic diet, those affected by Candida, those with gut dysbiosis and even those who just enjoy its tangy fizzy taste !

Local raw cow’s milk from herds grazing in open pastures carries within itself a blueprint of the surrounding microbiota. By consuming it we quite literally welcome in our surroundings. The greater the match between our internal and external microbiome the more at ease we become with our environment and the more resilient we are against seasonal afflictions.

Microbes and their metabolites make raw milk a lot more digestible and nutritious. Pasteurising milk destroys most of its local microbial blueprint, makes milk proteins harder to digest and destroys valuable vitamins and digestive enzymes present in raw milk.

That said, the industrialisation of milk production and loss of source traceability has made consuming raw milk fairly risky. Our raw milk comes from Commonwork Organic Dairy, Bore Place where it is sample tested every other day. This constant monitoring of quality and its systemised record keeping allows us to confidently use their raw milk to produce our perfectly safe raw milk kefir. We and the District Council have tested Happy Belly Raw Cow’s Milk Kefir since 2009 and we have the distinction of having passed every random sample test with flying colours. We can proudly say that Happy Belly Foods is amongst the very few food producers in the UK with approval from local authorities to make raw milk kefir.  

To sum up, we believe Happy Belly Raw Milk Kefir is completely safe to consume for almost everyone and brings with it a host of well-being factors. It sits happily as part of a well balanced and varied diet sourced preferably from local biodynamic and organic producers. 

We have been sampling our Fruity Brew for some months now and have been encouraged by the feedback we’ve received from those who taste-tested it. This feedback helped us fine tune the recipe and we are now all set to debut our new kid on the block!

To ensure our new kid stands on strong legs we sent Fruity Brew samples for testing to our District Council’s Environmental Health Office (EHO) . We sent the EHO team some bottles for tasting too. We are delighted to report that we’ve got a thumbs up from them on both counts.

It is now time to introduce you to Happy Belly Fruity Brew. Our Brew is fermented with culture derived from raw cow’s milk kefir grains. The culture produces a delicious lightly fizzy beverage which is decanted and fermented again with seasonal organic fruits, roots, and herbs to develop aromatic fruity flavours.

The second fermentation is kept ever changing with inspired combinations to delight and surprise. We will launch with apple + ginger, pomegranate + strawberry , pear + fennel and kiwi + ginger; flavours which proved to be the popular during our taste sampling. Where we go from here will be limited only by Nature and our imagination. We invite you to join us on this boundless adventure!

From the most ancient times, certain foods were recognised to have special restorative and health giving properties. These were enshrined within their local traditions and passed on from generation to generation. Our ancestors across cultures have been leaving us a rich legacy of wise traditions to dive into and benefit from.

Growing up I learned from my grandmothers that raw milk and yogurt were helpful in dealing with skin problems like acne and even vaginal infections. The word is now out in avant-garde beauty and wellness circles about the benefits of topical probiotics for healthy skin. The times have finally caught up with my grandmothers!

A raw kefir and colloidal oatmeal pack is my staple favourite to rebalance and soothe irritated skin. 

Do share with us wise food and personal care tips from your family’s traditions with permission to post them in our blogs.

Peace and namaste.

Three Wise Women

I first learned about kefir from my Russian neighbour, Gala, in New York City. It was the 1990’s and many Russians had emigrated to the USA following Glasnost - carrying cherished traditions with them. Gala gave me some kefir grains, which she had brought over from Russia, and set me off on a journey into the micro-cosmological world of friendly bacteria and yeasts. My fascination continues to grow today as I engage with them when making kefir, grape and apple vinegars, relishes, cheese, sourdough breads, yogurt and fizzy home brewed beverages. 

Raw milk kefir is pure and simple goodness in every sense of the word. The relationship between kefir microbes and humans is so loving and easy . We feed them the lactose sugars they need to thrive and they transform raw milk into a tangy and safe superfood that brings us so much well-being. 

As so many of our health issues are connected to imbalances in our belly, we find improvements by just including this simple beverage into our diet.

I had suffered from chronic bronchial asthma since childhood. So many triggers would have me wheezing. When kefir entered our home I never considered it would cure me of asthma but that is what happened without my noticing. Months went by without a wheezing episode. Months grew into years with the last episode I can recall being in 2005. Since then, my lungs have grown calmer, more capacious and elastic to a point where I am able to go deep and strong into pranayama (yogic breathing practices). I rarely pick up seasonal infections and can honestly say I am in better health now than in my youth.  

I have raised my children (now young adults) without ever needing to use antibiotics or drugs. Confident in the workings of their kefir fortified immune system. 

Raw milk kefir has been a wonderful friend to me and my family. When I set up Happy Belly Foods in 2009, it was this love I wanted to share most with my larger family - the local community .

Peace and namaste.