Yea, I just use the starter. Much easier since I skip the straining part, and anyway, for sure the starter has what looks like grains in it. I thought I read in Dom's site that he actually thinks it's best to leave some of the previous batch of kefir when making the new one.
Sometimes I think maybe it's too easy to be true? But the kefir I make looks ok and not rancid or anything. We've been using it for the past 2 months and none of us has gotten sick or anything. So I'm figuring it's ok.
Would that be a correct assumption? if there was something wrong with the kefir, we would have some sort of stomach upset right?