down to earth

I made yoghurt today. It's easy, delicious and inexpensive, costing about half the price of supermarket yoghurt. You can make yoghurt with any kind of milk, low fat cow's or from goat or sheep milk. All your equipment should be clean and make sure you use clean tea towels. Adding milk powder to the milk will make a thicker yoghurt.

You can use ordinary bought yoghurt as a starter, but make sure it doesn't contain gelatin. Generally the organic and biodynamic yoghurts have no gelatin. You can buy specialist milk thermometers, but for some reason they have very small dials. I've got a candy thermometer with a bigger dial for my older eyes. You probably need to use a thermometer until you know what the temps feel like on your clean finger. After that, it's easy enough to judge by poking your clean finger in the mix.

RECIPE

4 cups milk

½ cup instant milk powder, more if you want thicker yoghurt

3 tablespoons plain yoghurt at room temperature

Pour 4 cups milk into saucepan and clip a thermometer to the side of the pan. You need to pasturise the milk again to make sure only the beneficial bacteria grow. Heat milk to 80 - 95 degrees C or until little bubbles form around the edge of the pan. Stir the milk while it's heating to stop it scorching.
When the temperature is reached, remove the milk from the stove. Stir in the powdered milk. Leave the thermometer clipped to the pan and cool the milk to 40 - 50 degrees C. To speed up the cooling process, you can transfer it to a cool bowl or put it in the fridge.
Add the starter. Place the plain yoghurt in a small bowl, stir in 1/3 cup of the warm milk and mix until smooth. Then stir the starter mixture into remaining milk and mix well.
Incubate the yoghurt in the crockpot (or in a warm place like an oven on low heat). Preheat the crockpot on low for about 15 minutes, until it feels very warm to the fingertips. Pour yoghurt mixture into the crockpot, cover the crockpot, and turn off the heat. At 35 to 45-minutes intervals, heat the crockpot on low for 10 to 15 minutes then turn off the heat.

The mix needs to incubate for 3-5 hours at a temperature of 43-45 degrees C. Do not shake or disturb it during incubation. After 3 hours, check to see if the yoghurt is set by gently tilting the container. If yoghurt is set and firm, place it in the refrigerator and chill for 6 hours before serving. If not, continue to incubate. Check the yoghurt every hour and place in refrigerator as soon as it sets. The longer the yoghurt incubates the tarter the flavor will be. If your yoghurt sets within 3 hours, but you'd prefer more tartness, continue the incubation process for another hour or so. Yoghurt making is only successful if you use fresh viable cultures, so check the use by date on your yoghurt starter and make it as soon as you can after buying it. Once you've made your own yoghurt you can use it as your next starter.

If you want to sweeten the yoghurt, you do it after it's made. You can add jam, fruit, sugar or honey to sweeten it. When you've got your homemade yoghurt you can use it to make delicious quark cheese - either savory or sweet. There is a photo of my homemade quark cheese on this blog somewhere.

I thought I'd give those interested in our aquaponics system a bit more info. Aquaponics is an intergrated system of growing fish and organic plants, our plants are vegetables. Our system is situated on the back verandah and is connected to the electrical plugs in a little brick shed closeby.

We have a 3000 litre fish tank (see above) that contains a submersible pump. Water is pumped up to the two grow beds above that are filled with gravel and vegetables. The water contains all the fish waste (ammonia, nitrates etc) and when it is pumped to the grow beds, it fertilises the plants organically. The water then falls back into the fish tank as clean water.

This is from:

http://www.aquaponics.com/InfoVillageAquaponics02.htm

How Does it Work?
In aquaponics, the nutrient-rich waste-water from recirculating aquaculture provides a food source for the growing plants and the plants provide a natural filter for the water the fish live in. This creates an ecosystem where both plants and fish can thrive. Aquaponics is the ideal answer to a fish farmer’s problem of disposing of nutrient rich water and a hydroponic grower's need for nutrient rich water.
The key to a successful aquaponic system is a healthy colony of beneficial bacteria. These bacteria convert fish waste into nitrate and other elements which are used by plants as they grow. Without the bacteria, ammonia and nitrite levels, which are toxic to fish and plants, would quickly rise.
Aquaponics can be used to produce large quantities of food in very small spaces in an environmentally friendly way.

This is our fish tank after it had been running for about a month.

We have enough room to humanely farm about 100 silver perch, a fish that is native to Australia's Murray-Darling river system. We chose silver perch as they're a good beginner fish, they taste good and can tolerate a wide variation in temperature.

You can see the baby perch peeking out of the plumber's pipe

we put in for them to hide in.

These are the heirloom Brandywine tomatoes riping in the winter sun. They were planted in late March. The photo was taken this morning.

This is a marketmore cucumber, another heirloom vegetable.

It's using the celery as a growing support.

Aquaponics is a brilliant way to grow edible fish and organic vegetables and fruit in the same small area. Once your system is set up and has matured, you'll be getting organic produce simply by feeding the fish. Imagine that, no fertilising, no watering, no weeding. As a lifelong vegetable gardener, I think that's a pretty good way of growing food.

BTW, for those of you who are worried about excess water use, our system is set up entirely on rainwater we harvested from our roof. You do need to top up a little water when it evaporates off and if you have problems with water quality you might have to change some of the water, but when the system is running well, you use very little water, much less than in a conventional soil garden.

If you're thinking of setting up a system, you'll get all the help you need here:
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/

A stockpile is a large amount of non-perishable food, cleaning products and toiletries that are purchased at sale price and stored in a cupboard until needed. I started my food and groceries stockpile by allocating $5 from my grocery budget for items on sale. I only ever bought things I knew I'd use and what would keep for a reasonable amount of time. The larger the stockpile became, the less I shopped, because I already had most of what I used at home. Now I shop about once a month for staples, and once a week I buy fresh milk and whatever fruit or vegetables I need that we're not growing in our backyard.

I'd like to point out that a stockpile cupboard is not a pantry. Above is a photo of my pantry cupboard. In the pantry I keep food that is currently being used. My stockpile cupboard (pictured below), which is not in my kitchen, holds food and groceries that have not been opened. It's like my mini-supermarket that is open all hours.

Alternatively, if you can afford it, allocate a set amount for your stockpile. Sit down and work out what your family uses and eats. Look at your menu plan and your grocery list and write a list of every item that will sit on a shelf for a long time without an ill effects. Turn yourself into a squirrel - stockpile those items that are on sale, go searching in your neighbourhood for bargains and when you find something, snap it up and add it to your cupboard. Remember that stockpiling is an ongoing process so don’t be upset if you can’t start with a bang. Go at it steadily so that you are sure that what you have is really what you need.

Start with things like:

toilet paper, toothpaste, tooth brushes, tissues, tampons, shampoo, conditioner, soap, or whatever toiletries you use;
anything canned - chick peas, beans, tomatoes, fruit, fish, condensed or evaporated milk (good for desserts and treats) etc.;
anything dry - pasta, beans, lentils, rice, milk, flour, sugar, spices, oatmeal, cornmeal, tea, coffee, dried fruit;
things in jars - honey, jam, pasta sauce, Vegemite, tomato paste;
cleaning and laundry items: supplies for homemade laundry soap (soap flakes, washing soda and borax), white vinegar, bicarb soda. These items are kept in a separate cupboard;
medical supplies: aspirin or paracetamol, bandaids, peroxide, tea tree oil, antiseptic wipes or cream, any medication your family needs - asthma puffers, contraceptive pill etc.

Only you know what you'll need. Study your buying habits and start putting away those items you buy every week that have a good shelf life, as well as those you use occasionally. Of course, one of the great side effects of stockpiling is that theoretically, you should never have to pay full retail price for anything in the stockpile. By stocking your cupboard with marked down groceries and sale items, you can "shop" from your stockpile, knowing that you're paying less than most other people who are shopping each week. So always keep your eye open for bargains and, when you have a chance, stock up on every item you use. If you can buy 20 cans of tomatoes for $5 (25c/can) and have them sitting in your cupboard waiting for the day you make spaghetti sauce or tomato relish, it's better than rushing out to the supermarket and paying full price for that same item, in my case 89 cents to one dollar for normal retail canned tomatoes. By the time your 20 cans of tomatoes are used, they will have come on sale again, you should grab them and replenish your stockpile.

Just a quick word on dried goods. When you bring home things like flour, rice etc., whack it in the freezer for a week or so to kill any pantry moth larvae it might contain. Always make sure you put dried goods in a sealed container when you open them as well. It's better to be safe than sorry. Remember when you add to your stockpile to add goods to the back and take from the front. Doing this will help you rotate your stock. Always be guided by the “best before” or “use by” dates if your groceries have them. If they do, remember that they will need special attention and must be used before those dates.

I was really disorganised and scatty at work yesterday. It didn't help that the day before was a public holiday so I tried to do two days work in one. My main problem was that I hadn't planned anything and hadn't written in my diary or notebook since I was at work last week. I used to have an excellent memory, I used to be strong and rarely got tired, but those things are now in the past for me. Now if I need to remember anything, I need to write it down; if I want my time at work to be productive, I need to plan out what I'm going to do before I get there.

I've realised I need to do that at home too, so from today I WILL be more organised. I have given myself a nice working area at home. It's our old kitchen table that I'm using close to my computer to do things like save and store seeds, keep my household journal, answer letters, write in my diary and various other tasks common to a sustainable home. The table is supposed to keep things organised and away from the kitchen table we now use. But the truth is that things still spill onto the kitchen table and my table here is a real mess.

When it's neat and organised it helps me to remain on track and just by looking at it, I get the feeling that I'm in control and all is well. However, when it gets to be like it is now, it does my head in and even if I'm organised on a particular day, looking at the mess on the table, cuts me off at the knees.

It's 6am now. I'm going to post this with a photo I just took of the table (please forgive me for adding my rubbish to the visual pollution of your day), I'm going to write my week in my diary so I know what I'm doing, and I'm going to clean up the desk as soon as I have breakfast. Then I will work on the "to do" list I have staring at me on my monitor. I have that Google dooverlacky that helps you with your daily tasks. I LOVE it because it's always at the side of my screen and I can add to it as soon as I think of things. Ladies and gentlemen, the list is a full one. I will be back.