Yogurt is quite interesting but requires a little more work. It's recommended that we heat the milk to 180F before cooling it down and adding the cultures... this seems to defeat the advantage of using raw milk as it kills off everything live in the milk. The milk then simply becomes a food source for the bacteria....

Before I shifted to Kefir I was using quart jars to make my own yogurt. I would first heat about three quarts of milk, cool it down to about 100F then stir-in a store bought 6oz container of yogurt as a starter. Pour this mix into the quart jars, then let it sit for about a day in a camping cooler alongside two gallon jugs filled with hot water from the tap. With it inside the cooler you only need to change the hot water once more during this process in order to keep the temperature yogurt-friendly.

Once you made one patch this way you can set aside about a cup or two of this batch and add this to the next batch you make.... you don't need to by store-bought yogurt for quite awhile again, since the live strains will transfer quite readily.

The nice thing about kefir is this elimination of the heating stage.... just sift the kefir grains from the newest batch and add it straight into the new milk as it comes from the fridg. Put that in the cooler the same way that's done with the yogurt and after 24 hours you're in business! The raw milk is still raw, with a big added bunch of happy goodies! :^)


I haven't a clue as to how much ACV we should be using.. and I suspect if anyone thinks they know they probably don't really... not even the manufacture... I use about two cap fulls as part of my salad dressing, alongside Braggs amino acids and a good splash of olive oil... makes for a nice combination... couldn't really do the vinegar alone... a little bit pungent for my taste... :^)