When making yogurt, use the highest quality ingredients:

Yogurt making at home can save a significant amount over buying ready-made yogurt in the grocery store while still using the best ingredients. 

• Milk: When making yogurt, use the highest quality of milk possible.  While your options will vary depending on where you live and your preferences, high quality milk options for yogurt making may include whole versus low fat milk, organic versus conventional milk, non-homogenized versus homogenized milk and raw versus pasteurized milk. 
  

• Yogurt Starter: A high quality yogurt starter culture is also imporatant for yogurt making.  We recommend choosing a reusable yogurt starter made with organic ingredients.  A reusable yogurt starter means you only have to buy yogurt starter once--not every time you make yogurt.
  

• Flavoring: You can use organic fruit, raw or conventional honey, stevia, sugar-free (aka all fruit) jam and flavor extracts such as vanilla at the end of the yogurt making process (add the flavoring once you've successfully made yogurt--not during the yogurt making process)
  

Yogurt making is very easy to do at home:

Yogurt making at home can be done in just a few minutes a week.  You will need milk, a yogurt starter culture and flavoring (optional).  The exact process you use for yogurt making will depend on the type of yogurt starter culture you use.  There are two main types of yogurt starter culture for yogurt making.  First is the thermophilic culture which requires heat.  Yogurt making with a thermophilic culture involves heating the milk to 160 degrees, allowing the milk to cool to 110 degrees, adding the yogurt starter, mixing and then placing the mixture in a yogurt maker or some other appliance that can maintain a temperature of 110 degrees for 4-24 hours (a low-teperature oven, crock pot or cube-shaped dehyrator also will generally work for yogurt making).  The second type of yogurt starter is a mesophilic culture.  Yogurt making with a mesophilic culture is quite a bit easier.  You simply add the yogurt starter to the milk (straight from the refridgerator), mix and set the mixture (covered with a cloth) on the counter for 12-18 hours.  Yogurt making with a mesophilic culture only requires the temperature be maintained at 72-78 degrees so the warmest part of your home (typically the kitchen) is generally the perfect place for yogurt makng.  With either the thermophilic or mesophilic cultures, once the yogurt is finished culturing, it should sit in the refridgerator for a minium of six hours before eating.  Once the yogurt making process is complete, you can add your desired flavoring (see above).

Yogurt making doesn't require buying yogurt starter culture for each batch:

Buying yogurt starter each time you make yogurt gets expensive.  Yogurt making with a reusable starter culture is an economical solution.  Reusable yogurt starter cultures come in six varieties (two thermophilic varities: Greek and Bulgarian and four mesophilic varities: Viili, Filmjölk, Piimä, and Matsoni).  With a resuable starter culture, yogurt making is easy as a small amount of each batch of yogurt is used as the starter culture for making the next bactch of yogurt.  Please note, the yogurt starters you buy in the grocery or health food store are generally a one-time or limited use variety.  A truly reusable yogurt starter culture (such as the type we carry) can be reused indefiately (with proper care) for unlimited amounts of yogurt making.

Yogurt making doesn't require a special yogurt making appliance:

If you use a mesophilic (low temperature) yogurt starter such as the Viili, Filmjölk, Piimä, and Matsoni varieties, yogurt making doesn't require a yogurt maker or any other special appliance.  The yogurt starter culture will work just sitting at room temperature.  Even if you use a theromophilic (heat-loving) yogurt starter such as our Greek or Bulgarian varieties, you don't necessarily need a special yogurt maker for theyogurt making process.  You may also be able to use a low temperature oven, crock pot, cube-shaped dehydrator or any other device that can maintain a temperature of 110 degrees for the duration of the yogurt making process.

Yogurt can be made with raw milk:

If you use raw milk, our mesophilic (low temperature) starter cultures can be used to make truly raw yogurt.  Yogurt making with raw milk involves a few extra steps to ensure the starter culture is preserved and therefore reusable long term.  Click here to view the yogurt making instructions for our low temperature starter cultures.