There has been a resurgence in yogurt making.  I hear people talking about it and read posts on it more and more frequently.  It is a staple in my diet.  I've made it more or less twice weekly for most of my life.  If you like yogurt and use it often, it pays to make it yourself.  The cost is that of the amount of milk you use and if you make it the way I do, of some additional powdered milk.  That's it. Norma has the costs figured out in her recent post. 

A while back, in 2008, I posted my method for making yogurt.  More recently, I've been reading posts talking about the crock pot method.  I toyed with the idea of using a crock pot several years ago but found that mine stayed too hot for the cultures that I use.  Each yogurt bacteria has, I have been lead to understand, a temperature at which it works best.  Too hot and the culture dies, too cold and it slows down or doesn't work at all.  Also, I like to get it made in a much shorter time frame than the crock pot method uses.  I figure, that if it takes me more than 3-4 hours, something has gone wrong.  Usually, my yogurt works in under three.  My active time in the making depends on how fast I can heat up the milk to scalding.  Not long at all.  The cool down goes on while I do other things, or for about 5 minutes in a sink water bath.  If I have more than 15 minutes invested in the process, I'm lollygagging. The batch I did yesterday went into the frig after about 2 1/2 hours.  

See the way it stays together and yet separates from the side of the pot?  That shows that it has plenty of body.  The texture that you see on the top is from the froth on the milk.  Inside, it is very creamy.  VERY!

I saw this and asked myself.. why shouldn't everyday be fun? 

 Pete the Moose Faces Uncertain Future in Vermont - ABC News.  Check it out!

• There has never been a case of Chronic Wasting Disease in Vermont.

• The advantage to having Pete on the preserve is that the elk that are taken by hunters and as a source of elk meat, are tested for CWD.  Wild deer, shot by hunters this time of year, are not tested.  If CWD was present here, it would be known very quickly.
• The preserve is hardly someone's backyard.  700 acres is a large space.  Go see if you can find a deer or a moose in a 700 acre woodland.  Good luck. 
• There are more than 200 hundred deer and moose living inside the preserve.  Most were born there.  The area was fenced years ago.  No effort was made to remove the native deer and moose before the fence was put up.  It wasn't so much an issue with the state back then.   It is now.  All of these animals are scheduled to be shot in January unless some rational agreement is reached.
• You can help.  Call the governor's office.  Let him know what you think.  Or write to him, or the fish and wildlife.  The link is here. 

• Vermont cares very much about its image.  We depend on tourist dollars and our Made in Vermont trademark. 

(Pete's picture is from an album on his Facebook page.  Good shot, huh?)