Farm Culture

Yogurt on the farm is a soothing and tasty treat. When making yogurt, remember two things: it takes time and slow food is good food!

We use the simplest of recipes for the yogurt:
4 Cups Organic Whole Milk
1/2 Cup Non fat dried milk (Bob's Red Mill Organic version is our favorite)
1 Packet Yo'gourmet (Yogurt starter with probiotics)

Directions:
Pour the plain milk into a sauce pan and bring it to a near boil. In other words, when the milk looks smoky or steamy on top, remove it from the heat, add the nonfat dry milk, stir until dissolved, and allow milk mixture to cool down to 100 degrees. Do not boil the milk.
Once the milk has cooled down to 100 degrees add the yogurt starter. Sprinkle on top, let is dissolve into milk mixture and stir. It will smell delicious!
Now pour this into the containers for culturing. We use the little Girmi Machine. It is so easy to plug it in and walk away.

We usually start the yogurt process at 3 pm, this means it has cooled down and ready to plug in. Then we forget about it until about 6:00 am the next morning. The longer the yogurt sets the thicker and more tart it becomes. We like it on the thick side so overnight gives the yogurt plenty of time to set. At this point the culturing is complete. The individual jars are removed, covered, and refrigerated. Once the yogurt has completely cooled it is ready to eat.

Now it is time to add some homemade jam or jelly is added for a little sweetness. Honey, dried fruit, granola, or nuts are tasty with the yogurt too. Our favorite is some blackberry syrup from the farm.