We are two for two this weekend and I am a happy camper.  We made a gallon of yogurt today. HUGE success. I had made a half gallon last year, soon after getting the goats. Not so good. The oven was too warm and the yogurt was very sour, chunky, and rather "goaty".  In a word –  inedible. I am not one for complicated directions or fiddling with food (ha! This from the woman who just took pork fat to make her own lard lol!) and just haven’t tried it since. After the lard success we decided to dig out the yogurt maker and then also try some in the half gallon jars.

If you want to give this a whirl you can find directions here or any number of sites online.  We were starting with raw milk so I pasteurized first then cooled the milk to 115 degrees and added the plain yogurt and some sugar. (it mentioned online that this made for a less tangy yogurt) We poured into sterilized jars and put the small ones into the maker and the larger ones into the oven set to ‘warm’.  Five hours later we had awesome yogurt.  A bit less firm than storebought, so we may try adding plain gelatin next time.  Incredibly good eating though.

You can find recipes at Stonyfield  One that is especially good is yogurt cheese – you drain 2qts of yogurt through a cheesecloth covered strainer overnight and it comes out the consistency of cream cheese.  I am told you can do more than eat it also.  Mixed half and half with honey it makes a good facial mask. Natural Beauty

Some health benefits are touted here: yogurt for health  and Dr Sears

Other dairy news to report is that we sold our Nubian cross doe and the last wether today. It was another wonderfully serendipitous situation. (thats a word right?) We had decided to sell the doe while I was pg and definitely needed to sell the wether but just hadn’t advertised. I got a call a week ago from a woman looking for a family milk goat. Turned out she wanted a wether as well for the doe’s companion.  Today she brought her family out and they bought both of ours. They are another homeschool family and the animals will be pets (vs bbq) so we are thrilled. The animals will have a good home and we get to help another family trying to do for themselves. Win win. My favorite!