Homemade Yogurt with Fruit on the Bottom

I have been dying to *try* making our own homemade yogurt. Yesterday, I decided, was going to be the day to do it.

I love fruit on the bottom yogurt, so that's what we made.

Making your own yogurt is very easy! I will try to keep the directions as simple as possible, so that you will try it as well!

You will need:
1/2 gallon of whole milk (I used whole)
1 cup of organic plain yogurt with live cultures for your starter
1/2-1 cup of honey or raw sugar depending on how sweet you like it
2 Tbs. of pure vanilla extract
fruit spread

I used 6 half pint jars for the fruit on the bottom for single serve portions. I put the remaining yogurt into a quart jar for vanilla yogurt. Use sterilized jars and lids!

For the fruit I used homemade fruit spread; strawberry, blueberry, and peach. Fruit spread is more like a fruity topping you'd put on your ice cream. Not quite jam, but spreads nicely.

Pour your milk, vanilla, and honey/sugar into a sauce pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 180 degrees. It will look frothy on top. Place pot into cold water to cool it down to between 110 and 120 degrees.

Once your milk has cooled to desired temperature take out one cup of the warm milk. In a separate bowl have your cup of yogurt in it. Add the cup of warm milk to the yogurt and swirl it around in the bowl or stir VERY gently and slowly. Just enough to mix it.

Work quickly and put as much fruit in the bottom of your jars as you'd like. The thicker your fruit spread the better. My strawberry fruit spread was a little too thin and did not work out well. The pig will enjoy it very much!

Once the yogurt mixture has been poured into your jars, put on the lids and leave them in a warm place for about 20 hours. I left mine in my oven (OFF!). You could place them in a draft free place with towels over them to keep the heat in.
I made this batch about noon and left it to sit till the following day.

Once the yogurt has set up, you can place them into the frig. After a few hours, we took them out to try them!

I got thumbs up from the kids! We will be doing this again and again! You can tweak it any way you like as far as flavors go. The blueberry flavor was our favorite! Sky's the limit as far as fruit goes.

If you are nervous about having fruit on the bottom you can just make vanilla yogurt and add the fruit on top. Granola would also be a nice option!

It took me about an hour to prepare this yogurt. It's a waiting game really. Patience!


"This I recall to mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. they are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." Lamentations 3:21-23

Frozen Herbal Blocks for Your Livestock

One of the best ways to ensure that your livestock will have access to fresh herbs during the winter and early spring months is to freeze them. At harvest time you will need to grind, chop, or puree the herbs from your garden.

I like to make ice blocks with our herbs. We use them in our cooking as well as feeding them to the animals. It's always nice to be able share the benefits of home grown herbs with your livestock to ensure good health through the long winter months and early spring.

Pumpkin is also something I like to freeze for the animals. It is a natural de-wormer and the ice block provides mental stimulation for the animals as the chew and chop on a large block of pumpkin ice.

I freeze ice cube size for the chickens and larger blocks for the pig. I just pour the smashed pumpkin into a quart freezer bag for her.

You can concoct any kind of herbal block you need depending on the livestock you are giving it to. I chop up my herbs and pack them into ice cube trays. Add a little water to each square so the herbs hold together. Once frozen, pop them out of the tray and put them into a labeled freezer bag. Pull them out as needed!

It's a natural way to keep your livestock healthy while you wait for gardening season!

Proverbs 15:17 "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith."

For the Love of Pigs

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From a very young age I have been smitten with pigs! I collected piggy knick-knacks, stuffed animals, and even visited a pig farm when I was younger. The squealing, oinking, and the smell, oh the smell, couldn't drive me away!

The visions of being a pig farmer danced in my head from that moment on. Many pig-less years went by between then and up until a few years ago. Now (thanks to the good Lord and a loving husband) I have had the pleasure of raising our own precious piggies!

Since spring is so close, and spring means piglets, and piglets mean cuteness, I wanted share of few of the cutest pig ideas that I have found from around the web.

In honor of all things pink and piggy-like let's start the pig-spiration!

Pig Pen Cake! Cuuute! This would be fun to (try) to make with the kids!

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Chocolate Pig Cake! I thought this was so clever and looks fairly easy to do!

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Piggy Cupcakes. C.U.T.E.

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Piggy Cake Pops would be perfect for a barnyard gathering!

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Happy as a Pig in the Mud! Truly adorable! (No link available! If this is your cute piggy, please let us know so we can link back to you!)

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Piggy Rolls. I think these would be delicious as cinnamon bread as well!



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Pigs n' Dirt Dessert! I made this for my youngest's birthday last year.



These simple Piggy Pancakes were so yummy!



Today it has been three weeks since we AI'd our precious piggy. We have not seen any signs of her being in heat, so we think she is pregnant! I think if she had a piggy shower to celebrate motherhood she would very much appreciate all of these adorable piggy creations.


"Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness." Psalm 30:4

Signs Your Pig is in Heat & Baby Pictures

Her Sweetness

We decided this year to keep back one of our gilts in hopes of having piglets. It has been quite the experience so far. Lots of unexpected mishaps! Which usually means unforseen expenses! Next week though we will be able to get a better idea if she is pregnant or not because that is when she should go into heat if she isn't.

We decided to breed her by artificially inseminating her. It seemed like a much easier choice than bringing a boar over.

So we began to keep track of her cycle which is every three weeks (21 days). The signs are not difficult to detect, but of course she was not going to let us have an easy time of it.

One of the reasons it was a bit difficult for us was becasue she is the only pig on site. This will make heat a little bit more difficult to detect at first.

Snuggled in the Middle

There is a small window of opportunity (2-3 days) with which you have to work with in order to actually inseminate.

Watching her behaviour and dates was key. This took us a few cycles to put all the pieces together. Granted not all pigs are as difficult as ours is. We have a friend who has a sow that practically tells you she's in heat and no boar is present. Easy peasy for them! Not so much for us!

What we needed to look for:
-loss of appetite
-chewing on things
-swollen and pink vulva
-sticky discharge
-vocal (oinking, grunting etc.)
-looking for attention

and the most important sign, is she standing!

This was the part that gave us trouble! She would not stand! In order to know if it is time to inseminate all of the other signs must be visible and we should have been able to sit on her back end and have her ears go up and forward, and have her hind legs lock up as if she is ready to receive the weight of the boar. This is when you know it's time!

Well, we could not get her to lock up. At all. She showed all the signs, but would not do this one last and very important step. This threw us off these last three months and caused us to miss that window of opportunity.

So Tiny

After three months of tracking her we decided to give it a shot anyway. We had all of the other signs in place, but no locking up. We would have to put her down and send her to the butchers if we couldn't make this work. We thought it was worth the try and don't really want to see her go.

We tried to time everything correctly based on the signs listed above. We were able to put food down for her to keep her distracted so we could A.I. her.

It went as well as it could go. She did move around a bit, which is why
"standing" is preferred! We A.I.'d her once in the morning the first day and then again the following morning.

It's definitely been a learning experience. Not everything goes as smoothly as expected. Animals all have different personalities and things don't always work textbook perfect.

300+ lbs. Later

We will see what happens next week with her cycle. If she shows no sign of going into heat we will know that it was successful and can expect piglets in 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days. Technically, 3 months, 3days since 3weeks have already passed.

If she is pregnant, then we have to pray for a healthy pregnancy, delivery, and that she's a good momma! Yikes!

A Tribute to our Flock~Farmhouse Decor

Spring still seems a ways away! I still have a few projects on my winter list to get done before that snow starts to melt so, I took a little time out of my day to up-cycle a few things I've had on stand by.

I've been staring at these less than desirable pictures for quite some time now. I do actually like the pictures themselves, but since they are meshed together, frame with picture, I really only had one option....

I had to paint them. I did a light sanding (this isn't real wood) and then broke out with the paint.

Once the black was dry, I painted the center an off white.

While the paint dried I cut out the general shape of a rooster and a hen. You can either free hand your chickens on to your picture or find a picture of a chicken that has a shape and size you like, place tracing paper over it and outline it. Cut it out it and you have an outline to go on. You can cut and snip to make it exactly the way you want it.

This project was a little tribute to our flock and all of their hard work laying eggs each day. We won't mention their "paid time off" these last few weeks. ;)

I placed the chicken in the middle of the picture and traced it lightly.

Then, I took a thin tipped paint brush (fancy terms here), outlined the drawing, and then filled it in. I used acrylic black paint.

Once they were dry I hung them up right away. More to do on that to-do list!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the looks of things outside...

I still have time to tackle that list!!

For a little more frugal farmhouse decorating, here is a post on our old metal chair using the same idea of painting a rooster, but this time on the seat. And a post on our  old farmhouse pantry shown in the photos above.

How about you? Is it still snowing where you are? Got any projects lined up to pass the time till spring?

"Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven."
Psalm 85:11