Useful goaties...

I'm beginning to get my butt in gear for selling my goat milk lotion in retail stores. I have the fabulous new label designed by my friend B and I have a phone book open looking at printers I will send it to for bids.

I finally called my site provider and I can once again edit my site. I'm not very techie and I was procrastinating on this because it's intimidating to me. Anything I don't fully understand? I procrastinate and let it sit in my "to do" pile for a loooooong time.

Did I tell you I've started making yogurt? It is SO easy!! ANY ONE of you could do it. It's healthier without all the preservatives, lower sugar and you can add any fruits you like. I happen to use whole goat milk because that is what I have on hand. However, you could easily make it at home with 2% or 1% milk.

Take 2 qts of milk (don't use the super, duper, ultra pasteurized kind) , heat it to 115 degrees in a water bath. Add 2 tsp of plain, active culture yogurt from the store. Mix gently but well. Pour the milk into pint or quart jars. (I used a 2 qt jar and it didn't work - I'd stick with the smaller jars!)

Place the jars in a pan of hot water up to the neck and keep at a temp of 90 - 100 degrees for 8-12 hrs. For some reason my yogurt takes a full 12 hrs. Yours might only take 8. I put my yogurt in the oven on the "keep warm" feature at 100 degrees, go to bed and the next day it's ready to go in the fridge.

I was warned that you should not jostle or disturb the jars of milk while they are incubating. The yogurt is a lot thinner than store yogurt because it doesn't have all the chemical thickening agents. When it's ready it is a bit thicker than regular ol' milk and it smells like yogurt.

Cut up 3 or more cups of fruit, add 1/2 cup sugar and voila! You have some really great, cheap, healthy yogurt. If you want to thicken up the yogurt a bit, you can add gelatin. Bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil, add 2 packets of plain, unflavored gelatin and stir until dissolved. Mix it with your sugar/fruit mixture and add to the plain yogurt. YUM!