Yogurt and good things to read

It has been another exciting week here in western MN. A lot of the snow is gone and we are enjoying being outside a lot more. Some of the diver ducks are starting to migrate north and it is fun to see the changes happening every day! We have been doing research on tapping maple trees, and have had some success with Amy's parents in Northern WI. So, we think we have a pretty good idea on how to get it flowing next spring. We have started our seeds for the garden. 338 tomatoes so far and lots of other seeds to go. No, we are not planting that many, be we had lots of requests from friends and neighbors to buy our plants last year. Every thing we grow is heirloom and organic. And it seems that a lot of people are tired of genetically modified and are looking to plant better gardens.

We want to take the time to let you know about a magazine that we think is just outstanding! It is called Mother Earth News. It is by Ogden Publications. Ed has been reading it for a couple of years now, and it is full of great ideas and information for anyone looking to be more self sufficient, a better gardener, a better livestock farmer, and just better living all around. And it has a lot of information about organic growing and living as well. We have gained some very valuable information from this magazine. For example. We will be building a chicken coop and a bee box this spring from designs in articles that we have read. We really recommend this magazine to anyone looking for information in these and other areas. It is also are available on-line and you can get some very valuable information there as well. Go check it out! We haven't found another magazine with as much information for the same price. It is really reasonable. $14.95 a year, and you can get a renewal for $10.00.

They have two other magazines out as well that are called GRIT, and The Herb Companion. We don't know a lot about these, as we have just subscribed to them. But if they are anything like Mother Earth News, We are very excited about receiving them.

We have had some people ask us how to make yogurt. And we are happy to share! It is a very easy process. The best milk to use is raw unpasteurized. I know that not many of you will be fortunate to be able to get that, but if you live anywhere near an organic dairy, as we are, you will be able too. Otherwise, use organic whole milk from the store. You can use milk that isn't organic, but we wouldn't advise it.

All we do, is heat the milk to 100 degrees fahrenheit, add two tablespoons of yogurt culture, per quart of milk and keep at 110 degrees for 8 hours. Then store it in your refrigerator. That is it! The easiest way to keep your newly made yogurt at 110 for 8 hours is to have a nice sized dehydrator that has a timer and a temperature setting. If you don't have that and if your oven goes low enough, you can use that as an option.

Most people however, place their jars on a heating pad and wrap them in a blanket for 8 hours. That maintains a high enough temperature for the culture to grow. We use quart mason or ball jars for ours and it works out quite nicely. For those of you that don't go through that much yogurt a week. You can always use pint jars, or share or barter with your friends and family.
For the yogurt culture, just use plain yogurt you can buy from the store. We use Stonyfield organic. It has worked well for us. After the first use, you can just use your own yogurt after that.

Thanks for all the comments and questions that we have been receiving. It has been really amazing to hear from so many people. If you have questions you can email us at pineandprairietradingpost@yahoo.com. Or just leave a post on here. We will respond to you individually, or in a future blog if there is a lot of interest on the same topic.

We are still working on our website, and are looking forward to sharing that as well.
Have a great spring and enjoy the nice weather as it comes. And if you enjoy the small amount of information we have to pass along, please, let your friends know about us!

Have a great week!
Eddie and Amy