I Killed It!!!

Like many of you we have been making our own yogurt for years.

Our former CSA farmer on the eastern side of the state, Steve Keune, had shared a starter culture of mjölk or as it is more commonly known filmjölk about fifteen years ago. This creamy, slightly tangy yogurt-like dairy product is about the easiest way to make yogurt in the universe.

It cultures right on the counter! Add milk to a few tablespoons of the last batch, place it in a corner of the counter, unrefrigerated, and 24 hours later, you have a new batch. No heat, no timing, just yogurt. To keep it going it needs to be cultured weekly. We learned to make a pint of fresh mjolk weekly - enough to make a smoothie and use some for topping soups, stews and etc. We easily handled that amount and kept it fresh.

I shared my batches with plenty of friends and relatives over the years and, up until two weeks ago, only lost it once before in 2008. Steve provided me with another starter but I knew I better be ready in the future just in case it happened again. I couldn't keep depending on Steve now that I'm across state.

Around March, I noticed my culture getting weaker - a little more watery and a little less firm. I used whole milk and every couple of months half and half to boost its fat content to see if that would work. It was hanging in. I had some heavy cream for a recipe and thought, "I'm going to make a batch with that!" and see if I can add some muscle to the mjölk. The next morning, I found a completely broken yogurt. One sniff told me the tale. I killed it! A sniff of the cream told me why. It had turned and I hadn't noticed.

Filmjölk culturing on our old family highchair

Luckily, I had done my homework and checked the internet. There are a number of sites that sell starter cultures. I ordered two. When it arrived, we mixed the culture in a pint of fresh milk and put our baby by the specified 70-77F spot (a little tough during WI fall-towards-winter) near the pilot light on our gas fireplace. The instructions said it would culture within 12-48 hours.

We waited anxiously.

12 hours - still milk!

24 hours - still milk! (gulp)

36 hours - mjölk!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're back in business again. Today we had a delicious smoothie and started our weekly culturing again. Tomorrow morning, our fresh baby will be waiting  again!

Why Organic?

For us, the transition to almost all organic food was gradual. We added more locally grown, organic veggies early on in our lives because we could access that easily in our garden and at farmer's markets. Fruit was more difficult since very little was available that way. So we bought conventionally grown fruit until I saw a grocery store worker stocking a fruit bin with latex gloves. It really came home to me at that moment how much pesticide was on that fruit.

Of course we had been reading -alot - on eating in a healthy way; the state of corporate food production and control of seed; GMOs and more for years.  Our natural health practitioner also encouraged us to go organic. We had been using the Environmental Working Groups Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists to help us navigate.  We looked at each other,  did some math on whether we thought we could afford organic fruit as opposed to consuming unneeded pesticides and the decision was made.

We had been working towards more organic meat for years before that. Each time we moved to a different city, I  stopped making my homemade broth because I needed to source organic chicken and beef. The whole point of a slow broth making is to extract flavor not just from the meat but from the bone - a good broth gels. As I mentioned in my post on making chicken broth, the thought of extracting antibiotics from the bones as well was like an anathema. This recent article in Mother Jones is a telling on the use of antibiotics in animals in the food industry.

We don't eat organic to live forever. We eat it because it is healthier for our bodies. It is supportive of our small family farms that raise food they want to eat straight from the fields and humanely raise their animals (yup, we visit the farms we buy from). It often means that we buy locally and in a direct eye-to-eye-contact way that lets the growers know how much their sweat and effort means to us.

And the money we spend on organic? It's not always as expensive as people think. I like this comparison our Viroqua Food Co-op published last year. And if we do pay more, it's where we prioritize our household expenses. We think it's worth it!