Hi,

I've got an interesting question.

I bought a water kefir grain from (can't remember her name) on this
list. I made a few batches with it. The grain is fine. The kefir is
tasty. Life is good.

The other day I put some Whole Foods dried papaya into a jar with the
kefir grains and some raisins and water. The batch was fine. When it
came time to throw away the papaya and raisins to start the next batch
I found I couldn't tell the papaya from the kefir. The color and
texture was identical for both. Thinking I was being clever I decided
to separate what I thought was the kefir grain from the other two
things I thought were papaya. I put one piece in one jar with water
and raisins and the other two pieces in another jar with water and
raisins. I figured that the jar that fizzed the next morning would be
the jar with the real kefir grain in it.

Well ... both jars are fizzing this morning and the raisins have
floated to the top of both jars. Now I'm really confused. Could the
real kefir grain have incoculated a piece of papaya with its magical
properties? Do I now have two (or three) kefir grains? Will the papaya
eventually rot and then I'll know it was just a temporary helper?

Any ideas as to what's going on?

Thanks,
Sol