Homemade Yogurt **Updated** Cheese and Buttermilk

[lexustami]

I can't buy fresh milk legally in Ohio. Guess I'm gonna have to buy a dairy cow next year.

Take care,

Tami

 

[ozark hen]

Can you say it is for your animals? I mean if you can get it from a local dairy?

 

[lexustami]

I don't know. I just hate feeling like I'm doing something sneaky... I mean, come on. I'm just trying to buy some milk. LOL I'm not trying to find the local crack dealer.

I can buy it legally in PA but I can't legally bring it across the OH state line. LOL

I think I'm going to see if we have some organic stores around here that sell the unhomogonized milk.

I will let you know how I make out.

Thanks.

Tami

 

[ozark hen]

 

[carugoman]

One could find out about one's particular state county and local municipal codes covering everything legal and therefore the inverse is also true- illegal conduct by perusing the free section of the public access library at www.municode.com just scroll down to state county town or whatever you need for the entire US of A . Here in Florida, we're not allowed to buy anything "raw" dairy, but can purchase "raw dairy fit for consumption for pets and or barnyard animals, equine and livestock including poultry." Accordingly, I can 'resale' raw dairy products that contain mostly cultured curds have been aged a minimum of 60 days, said dairy products that also contain fresh whey( as in butter,cottage cheese, buttermilk, yoghurt and sour cream,) have a minimum pH of 5.6 or lower(acidic). Curds start to separate from whey at about 6.0- 5.8 pH and a "hard break" starts at 5.6 pH and lower. Goat's milk, since the fat matrix is much smaller( less saturated fat!),

in cross-sectional dimension than Cow's milk (big fat globules!),

is therefore naturally homogenized.
You have to ask yourself a few honest questions, after you do all your research. Raw vs Pasteurized? Since the advent of pasteurization of all dairy, pandemic tuberculosis has been all but eliminated in this country. Also the other pathogens, that have caused major diseases and illnesses, have been mostly eliminated. True, most of the healthy factors present in raw dairy are also eliminated. So what's the true cost? If you really want the raw dairy...what's the dairy farmer's property look like? Take a tour. See if proper husbandry and veterinary practices are being utilized. Does the farmer practice a viable sanitation program and adheres to it? How does the herd Look? Happy, healthy and moving about? Or is it listless stressed and diseased sickly-looking animals that comprise a large part of the herd? What is the herd's diet most of...grain or grass? Homogenized milk can be used, usually with some minor adjustments to formulas and methods of preparation. It might be best for me to stop here...I don't wish to waste bandwidth nor write a book! All y'all take care!

 

[ozark hen]

I am thrilled to be able to get raw milk. Dairy barns and cows are now under much more sanitary conditions than they used to be. You are right, let everyone decide for themselves and use their own common sense and good judgement. Welcome to BYC.

 

[BrahmaMama]

I know this thread hasn't been posted to for a while, but man oh man! I'm getting all kinds of excited to make yogurt (two of my boys just love yogurt) and cheese, and I don't have any jars, or a huge pot, double boiler, candy thermometer, cheese cloth, etc! I'm definitely putting this stuff on my "list to get" and will hopefully be able to get it soon.

MissPrissy, you have a new fan

We live on an acreage 9. something acres, with the surrounding 111 farmed by my father in law. I would love to make this place self sufficient-not sure if that term is right, lol! This year I'm planning out an awesome garden...wanted one last year, but ended up staying inside the house alot with my youngest son. I mean, there are so many possibilities out here! We just picked up our 4th bottle calf this morning, and will be getting some piglets in the next few weeks. We also have chickens...someday I will find someone I can pay to butcher, because I just can't. I desperately want to learn canning, and hope to grow enough to can stuff for the winter. I believe Ace Hardware here offers lessons towards the end of summer. I don't have any of the stuff yet for it, but when it comes time, I hope to. Unfortunately, my mom wasn't real "domesticated" and cooked easy stuff, or we ate out alot. I try to cook at home, but we still find ourself eating out, and I can see our health is suffering already.

I can't wait to try some of these things!

Dawn

 

[s6bee]

Books, books, books and more books. There is so much info. on gardening and canning. You need to figure out what type of stuff you want to can ( or shouldn't ) Do you need an herb garden, canning garden, cold storage, etc.
A great seed catelog is called seed savers. The website is
www.seedsavers.org it has so many things in there including books on all that stuff. They carry varieties of veggies you won't find at your local garden center too.

I love it!

Have fun, I wish I had the acerage...
Steph

 

[MissPrissy]

Now is a great time to start looking at yard sales and estate sales for canning books, jars, a water bath canner and a pressure canner. Excellent bargains can be found. If you find a previously owned pressure canner take it to your extention office and let them test the pressure gauage and valves for accuracy.

Read. Read alot. If you can't buy the books go to the library. There are two types of canning methods and many food MUST be pressure canned for preservation. Read and learn!

If you plan to have a garden think about what you are planting. Learn how to harvest and preserve it the very best way. There are so many things you can do now while planning for your spring garden and summer/fall harvest. If you have room you can even start your seeds in a warm place in your house and get a huge jump on seedling transplants as soon as the ground is warm in your area. We'll be doing that in February as we can't plant here until mid to late April. I am thinking about some grow lights to get a jump on my starter plants.

Most of all have fun with all that you learn and do.

Good luck with the yogurt. You are going to love it and never want to feed your kids anything but homemade. They will get spoiled, too!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Hi BrahmaMama and welcome to a whole new world! We've now been making MissPrissy's yogurt for quite a while and are definitely not going back to the store stuff. Since you have access to fresh milk, I'm sure yours will be even better than ours.

To start with the yogurt, you don't need a bunch of fancy products. I'm reusing wide mouth pickle jars and they work just wonderfully! So, all you really need to get started that you don't have is the candy thermometer. I think I picked mine up in the dollar section at Target. In the meantime, keep your eyes out for used jars. Do buy new lids, though.

Some of the things that I've found that I love about making my own yogurt:
* Fresher tasting, better textured yogurt with no chemicals or additives.
* No more plastic containers to litter our world.
* Recycling of the many glass jars that other food came in. I use small jelly jars to create various flavors of yogurt - usually using organic fruit spreads from Trader Joe's.
* And one of my favorites . . . Before MissPrissy, Hubby used to insist on the low fat artificially sweetened store brand yogurts which I hated the taste of. Well, one day I made some of the home made yogurt and put some artificial sweetener in it so it'd be like his "old" yogurt. After tasting it, he said that something was "wrong" with that batch. So, although it wasn't planned, by going to freshly made yogurt from home, I managed to break him off of the artificial sweeteners!

So, get started on the yogurt and get back to us on how you did. Then you can move on to the other goodies! You won't be sorry.