How To Make Greek Yogurt

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Lark

HOW TO MAKE GREEK YOGURT

Supplies

Greek Yogurt (plain) – for the starter. Purchase the best you can afford. A small container will do. Make sure it has ALL the active cultures.
Sauce Pan
Milk – I tried all different milks. Whole, 1% and 2%. I now always use 1%
Digital Thermometer
Measuring Tablespoon
Whisk or Spoon
Cotton Floursack Dish Towel – for straining the yogurt. I buy mine at Walmart. 100% cotton
Large Bowl – to hold 2 quarts

1. Pour 2 quarts of milk into saucepan. I use a digital thermometer. Scald the milk, which is 175 -180 degrees, continually stirring so it doesn’t burn on the bottom. Take off the burner and cool to 120 -125 degrees.

2. Remove about 1 cup of cooled down milk and stir in 4 tablespoons of yogurt. Now put this back into the cooled down scald milk in pan. Stir and mix well.

3. Place cover on top of sauce pan. Place sauce pan in a warm place. I put mine by a heat register, on carpeting and wrap a towel & then a blanket over the towel.

4. Let set for 6-8 hours. Until it is a custard type consistency. It seems the longer it sits, the more tart it tastes. I have forgot mine and it sat 9 hours, it still tasted good.

5. Take a large bowl and place it in the kitchen sink, laundry tub or bath tub, which has a faucet long enough to hang the dish towel from – for straining. We are now ready to strain the yogurt. Take the floursack dish towel and center it over the bowl. Pour the yogurt from the sauce pan into the bowl that has the dish towel over it. Now gather the 4 corners of the dish towel and tie it to the faucet, letting it hang over the bowl to drip the WHEY into. The WHEY is the liquid dripping from the yogurt. I leave mine drip for 15 – 30 minutes. The longer it drips, the thicker your yogurt becomes. I have forgotten mine and let it drip for 2 hours…it was like cream cheese. If this happens, just add some of the whey back into the strained yogurt and mix to the thickness you want.

6. After straining, scrape the yogurt from the towel and put in a container. I use GLASS.

7. I don’t care for the texture of the finished yogurt, so I beat mine with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes to make it smoother.

8. Place in the refrigerator. It will thicken up.

9. You now have GREEK YOGURT. Don’t be shocked that you only have 1 quart of yogurt. This is what makes Greek yogurt so expensive, it is half of the milk you put in.

10. REMEMBER: Don’t throw away the WHEY. There are many, many uses for the WHEY. I will discuss this another time. You can store the WHEY in glass bottles in the refrigerator for up to 6 months. Mine gets used much quicker than that.

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Growing Sprouts – Easy, Inexpensive and Nutritious

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Lark

GROWING SPROUTS – EASY, INEXPENSIVE and NUTRITIOUS

Yes, you could go out and purchase a SPROUT KIT. But those of you who have known me for a while know that I am a thrifty lady. I like to use and reuse things I have at home. My friend, Barb, told me it was easy to grow sprouts and she was right. It is also much more nutritious than what you buy in the store. God only knows what are in those sprouts and how long they have been sitting at room temperature.

SUPPLIES
Glass wide mouth jar.
Wide mouth lid with fine mesh screen. I bought mine at a health food store for $1.50. You could use cheesecloth and a rubber band.
Sprouting seeds. Broccoli, alfalfa and radish are the seeds that I am using right now.
Paper towel
Water

  • 1. Measure and put in jar 1-2 tablespoons of broccoli seed or your seed of choice. Two tablespoons will fill the jar with sprouts.
  • 2. Fill jar with water and place screened lid on or cheese cloth secured with a rubber band.
  • 3. Let jar filled with water and seeds set for 8 hours.
  • 4. Drain water out of jar. Set on counter near sink and out of direct sunlight. 2-3 times a day fill the jar with water and drain again. You don’t want the seeds setting in water. Just rinse and drain.
  • 5. Around the third or fourth day you will see the seeds starting to sprout. Keep up rinsing and draining.
  • 6. Once you see most of the seeds sprouted (my broccoli seeds took about 6 days until done) I spread the sprouts out on a paper towel & placed them by a window so they got more light. This will help them GREEN UP a little more. I let them in the brighter light for a couple of hours. NOT DIRECT SUNLIGHT.
  • 7. Now place the finished sprouts in a bowl of cold water, swish them around. You will see seed husks floating around. I scoop them out with a little sieve or just use your fingers. If you don’t get all of the husks out, no big deal you will just have a little more fiber. Drain the water from the bowl. My salad spinner works great for getting all the water out.
  • 8. I place my sprouts on a paper towel and roll them up and place in a zip lock bag and store in the refrigerator.
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    Amaryllis Bulbs – The Forgiving Plant

    Posted on February 25, 2013 by Lark

    Amaryllis Bulbs – The Forgiving Plant

    Around ten years ago my best friend asked if I would like a plant she had received and no longer wanted. She told me that it had already bloomed, the leaves were yellow and the bulb looked like it was drying up. She said it was an Amaryllis. I had heard of them, but never had one and I didn’t know how to care for the plant. The pot contained three large bulbs and they were half way out of the soil, which puzzled me. I did some reading up on how to grow amaryllis bulbs and decided to add these bulbs to my indoor plant forest. I kept the pot outside during our Wisconsin Summers and before a frost I would put it in a cardboard box, close the top and put it in my basement. In January I would bring the pot upstairs, clean up the bulbs, transplant it into fresh soil, water it, place it near a window and about eight weeks later I would have some beautiful red flowers. I liked having them bloom after the holidays when the Winter was getting long and I wanted Spring to arrive. Though the years I had neglected the bulbs, not fertilizing ever. The last couple of years during their Summers in my gardens, I have been treating them to a wonderful drink of WORM TEA weekly. The bulbs grew bigger and had babies. The pot now had four large bulbs and three smaller bulbs. I was a happy lady. In October 2012, I again stored them in a cardboard box, closed the top, pushed the box under a table and forgot about them. In February while working on my worm farms in the basement I saw a couple of white stems pushing themselves through the flaps of the box. There was barely any light under this table where the box was stored. Oh my gosh, I forgot about bringing up my amaryllis! I opened the box top and the white stems were twisted like a snake trying to get out through the cracks of the box. There were even bubs on the stems. I brought the pot upstairs, cleaned the dry scales from the bulbs, gave it a very good soaking and placed the pot near a window. I didn’t transplant it or even top it off with new soil. Every day I turned the pot so the stems would get even light. The stems that were all crooked, straightened up tall and strong. In three weeks this plant had greened up and the buds were starting to swell. Through all the neglect that I gave this beautiful plant, the beauty of her blooms shows me that my AMARYLLIS is a FORGIVING PLANT.

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    Lasagna Gardening Method

    Posted on February 15, 2013 by Lark

    LASAGNA GARDENING METHOD

    Last Fall, 2012, I decided to build more ‘LASAGNA GARDENS’. I had tried this method Fall of 2011 and found it very effective. Doing this method in Fall gives the layers time to break down and decompose into a rich soil for Spring planting. You might be asking yourself, “What is a LASAGNA GARDEN?” It is a method of building a very fertile soil, which resembles the layers of a lasagna meal. You can build a LASAGNA GARDEN right over grass, weeds, clay soil or sandy soil. It not only gives you a very fertile garden that you can immediately plant in, but also improves the soil beneath the ‘LASAGNA GARDEN’. There is no tilling, no digging and little or no weeding. Plus, less watering is needed. PERFECT!

    The three main ingredients to a lasagna garden are BROWN matter, which are dried leaves or straw, called CARBON. The second ingredient is GREEN matter, the NITROGEN which can be grass clippings, green cuttings from your yard waste or kitchen veggie scraps. The third ingredient is WATER. Fall is a perfect time to build the LASAGNA GARDEN, since dried leaves are available for free. You will also need cardboard or newspaper (black & white print). You don’t need to make a huge area, just give it a try. I have done this method in a single 3’ area for a tomato plant. I cut a piece of chicken wire and formed it into a circle and filled the circle with my CARBON & NITROGEN layers. You don’t need the chicken wire, but I wanted to contain the layers. The LASAGNA GARDEN should be around 18”- 24”. Here is how I layer my LASAGNA GARDEN. Let’s get started.

  • 1. The first layer will be your SMOTHER LAYER. This layer is used to kill the grass and weeds. Lay cardboard on the ground, over lapping the cardboard by 8” or so. If you don’t have cardboard, you can use newspaper at least 8 SHEETS thick, making sure you overlap all seams so grass & weeds can’t find their way through the cracks. This is our CARBON LAYER, brown layer. Now water this layer thoroughly. The water will keep the cardboard or newspaper from blowing around. Plus, it must be moist to start decomposing.
  • 2. Now we need a NITROGEN LAYER (green layer). Over the cardboard scatter fresh grass clippings (thin layer, to thick and it will mat & smell). Other green choices could be cuttings from your gardens, like deadheading pieces, old veggie plants like broccoli that is finished, radish tops anything GREEN.
  • 3. Time for another brown layer, CARBON LAYER. This time it will be dried leaves or straw. Remember a THIN layer.
  • 4. Sprinkle a layer of compost over the entire area. This will put beneficial matter into your layers. If you have your own compost, great. If not you can by bags of compost at the big box stores.
  • 5. Keep building these layers until you get it about 18”-24”.
  • 6. Water thoroughly.

    • Over my long Wisconsin Winter my LASAGNA GARDENS are being kept moist with the snow and rain I receive. If you are in a drier climate, you will need to water your LASAGNA GARDEN. This will help in the decomposing of the layers, plus it attracts the worms to your LASAGNA GARDEN. Come Spring you will be amazed at how the layers have decomposed and the LASAGNA GARDEN is now only a few inches high. Worms have now found their way into the LASAGNA GARDEN and are doing a great job at stirring the layers and fertilizing the garden with their castings. Now it is ready to plant in.

    If you are planting transplants or potted plants all you need to do is dig a hole in this fluffy LASAGNA SOIL, place your plant in the hole and gently push the soil around the plant. Water it thoroughly. That’s it. If you want to plant seeds, you will need some soil. Make a narrow indentation in the LASAGNA GARDEN SOIL. Add a couple inches of topsoil along the indentation. Sprinkle your seed on the topsoil and cover the seed with more topsoil, according to the seed packet directions. Gently push the LASAGNA GARDEN SOIL back up around your seedling row. Making sure you just push it up around the row, not over the seed area. Gently water the seeds. The roots will find their way down into the LASAGNA GARDEN SOIL and love the rich, fluffy soil it has made. Roots love to have air in the soil, so make sure you don’t walk on your gardens and compact the soil. That is why you shouldn’t make your garden beds too wide, only wide enough so you can reach in and do the work needed.

    Some people say you can start a LASAGNA GARDEN in Spring, but I have only done the Fall preparation of the LASAGNA GARDEN. This is the second year that I have tried this method of soil preparation. I did start a couple new areas, but also just added the layers over my last years LASAGNA GARDEN BEDS. Fall 2012 I decided to tweek the lasagna layers with a few soil amendments in very small quantities, just a dusting of each. I added wood ash, cottonseed meal, kelp meal, bone meal, garden lime, worm castings, Azomite Rock Dust (trace minerals) and Glacier Rock Dust. I am so anxious to see the results of my nutrient rich soil.

    Hope you find this interesting and informative. Please remember this is MY VERSION of the LASAGNA GARDEN METHOD. I am sure you can find others on the internet. This is what works for me.

    HAPPY GARDENING!

    Categories: Blog | Tags: | 2 Comments

    Building a ‘No Turn’ Compost Pile

    Posted on August 10, 2012 by Lark

    BUILDING A ‘NO TURN’ COMPOST PILE

    I am a Wisconsin gardener. In late Spring I start a new compost pile that I continue to add material weekly, sometimes daily, until November. I DO NOT turn this compost pile. It does become a HOT COMPOST PILE. I alternate layers of green, brown and WATER.

    1. Grass clippings (no chemicals), shredded newspaper (black & white), water, shovel full of old compost or soil, clippings of garden flowers/veggies etc., cardboard, junk mail, water. Add kitchen scraps: coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, fruit, veggies. Tissue, napkins, paper towel.

    2. Make sure you water in between the layers you add. During the hot weather I make sure a water more often. You don’t want it to dry out.

    3. I cover my pile with clear plastic so the raccoons are less likely to dig in it. Also, it keeps the pile hotter. This time of the season I am doing a lot of deadheading, cutting back and pulling out, so I am adding to the compost pile daily. Making sure I put a layer the browns (cardboard, junk mail, newspaper or dried leaves) over my greens. Don’t forget to water.

    4. Nature will do the decomposing. I don’t have the strength to turn it and by next summer it will be finished.

    5. Make sure you locate your compost pile in a spot that gets full sun. The less sun it gets the slower the decomposing will take.

    Composting keeps a lot of waste out of our landfills and rewards us with BLACK GOLD. Have fun!

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