the Urban Farmchick: You never know

what you are going to find in them there boxes.

So you know I've been cleaning, purging and sorting, right?

After seeing this fb post a few weeks back I was reminded that what seems like a really long time ago, I also made yogurt. I go through stages you see. I used to grow a whole lot of sprouts, make yogurt and jam . . . . I started sprouting again a year or so ago and do still make jam from time to time. This past summer I made a lovely batch of apricot jam. But, for some reason, I stopped making yogurt. I probably stopped eating yogurt for a while then when I picked it up again plain yogurt was so readily available. Now, plain greek yogurt is my go-to yogurt. Mixed with just a drizzle of my own honey, mmmm.

Well, back to the cleaning, purging, sorting part of this story . . . while I was cleaning, purging and sorting, I came across my old Salton Yogurt maker. Yay! I knew there was a reason I saved things! I thought it was long ago gone, or at least that the jars were gone. But alas, there it was, jars and all ~ well almost all. Now I get to make 6 jars instead of 7.

And, I forgot how easy it is when you have an incubator.

If you are a regular at the country market then you know Wilma of the Slate River Dairy. She makes really wonderful yogurt. I mix Wilma's yogurt with greek yogurt.

I wanted to make my own once again so that I could control the fat content.

If you aren't into making your own yogurt or don't have an incubator (by the by, some dehydrator's come with a yogurt setting) then Wilma's yogurt is the absolute next best thing and, it comes in these really cool returnable bottles.

A quick tutorial then:

There are two ways that I know of to make yogurt. You can buy a yogurt starter from the health food store. It should contain active culture and probiotics - read the package.

You can also use yogurt. This time around, because I love Wilma's yogurt and I know it is made locally, of local milk products and contains no additives or other stuff, I used Slate River Dairy yogurt.

Measure 1 litre of milk. I used 1% milk. Heat to 180 degrees F. My yogurt maker comes with a thermometer spoon! Let cool to 75 degree F. Add 2 Tablespoons yogurt to 1/4 cup cooled milk - mix well. Add this back into the remaining cooled milk. Stir well. Pour into jars and place in the yogurt maker.

I no longer have the instructions for my yogurt maker so I really didn't know how long I should leave it in the y.m. Because I made this in the evening, I just plugged in the y.m. and went to bed. When I awoke, voila, 6 lovely, homemade jars of yogurt. Just the right tang in my humble opinion.