How I Make Yogurt In An Instant Pot

On the Bartl Homestead, we eat a LOT of yogurt. We cook with it, freeze it, add it to smoothies, the list goes on. So naturally I wanted to find out if there was a way that I could make it myself. I bought an Instant Pot about a year ago and it just so happened to have the yogurt function on it which makes yogurt making very simple. So below I am going to tell you how I make my own yogurt in the Instant Pot along with how to make it if you don't own this wonderful invention.

The basic ingredients you need for making yogurt is a gallon of whole milk and 3 tbs. of unflavored Greek yogurt with many live cultures (we use Chobani). You will also need a thermometer of some sort (I use my digital laser thermometer that I also use when soaping) and a whisk. If you are wanting Greek yogurt you will also need a strainer, a large bowl, and a cheesecloth or nut bag for straining out the whey. I actually use a flat cloth diaper because it is thin enough to strain out the liquid like cheesecloth but I can also wash it and reuse it.

The yogurt making process is pretty time lengthy due to the incubation period. Plan to be messing with your yogurt for two hours and then waiting on it to incubate for an additional 8-10 hours. I like to make mine first thing in the morning. So I would start heating my milk at about 8am, start the incubation time at 10am, and then straining and putting the yogurt into a container between 6pm and 8pm. Or you can also start it at night two hours before you go to bed so that when you wake up in the morning your yogurt is ready to be put in a container.

BASICS OF MAKING YOGURT

1. Heat whole milk to 180 degrees.

2. Cool milk to 110 degrees

3. Add yogurt culture (pre-made yogurt).

4. Incubate for 8-10 hours at 95-115 degrees

(going above 115 will kill your culture)

5. Place in a container and refrigerate.

So an Instant Pot isn't necessarily needed but definitely makes life easier. If you don't own an Instant Pot, you could heat your milk on your stove or in a crock pot and then incubate it in the oven with the light on only or in the crock off covered with a big towel.

MAKING YOGURT IN THE INSTANT POT

After you have made sure your Instant Pot is cleaned well, pour your gallon of milk into the pot and cover with the lid. Old milk works great if you are needing to get rid of it. The milk I used in this tutorial had already expired which made the perfect opportunity for yogurt making.

Press the yogurt button which will start heating up your milk. Your Instant Pot should read "boiL". If it does not press "adjust" until the display reads correctly.

Once your Instant Pot beeps, remove the lid, and give your heated milk a good whisk to break up hot spots and check the temperature. If the milk is 180 degrees then you are ready to move on to cooling it down. If your milk is under 180 degrees like mine always is, you will need to heat it again. You can do this by either running another "boiL" cycle by pressing the yogurt button and pressing adjust until it says "boiL" OR you can merely press the "Sauté" button. If you select "Sauté", be sure to frequently whisk the milk so that it doesn't burn while repeatedly taking the temperature until has reached 180 degrees.

Now that your milk is at 180 degrees, you can start the cool down process. To do this you can either take the pot out of the Instant Pot and set it somewhere to cool or if you are impatient like me, you can set it in the sink in an ice bath. The goal is to get the milk down to 110 degrees. Make sure to give your milk a good stir to get an accurate reading on the thermometer when you check the temperature.

Once your milk has cooled down to 110 degrees, you can now add your yogurt culture. Take out 1 cup of the milk and whisk it together lightly with 3 Tbsp of your already made yogurt. Pour this back into your milk in your pot. If you are wanting to add sugar, vanilla, or flavorings, you can do so at this point. We tend to keep our yogurt unflavored and unsweetened since I use it to cook and bake with. Now place the pot back into the Instant Pot and cover with the lid.

 

 Press the Yogurt button so that it says "8:00" hours. Make sure it doesn't say "24:00" and if it does just press "adjust" until your get "8:00" on the display. If you like your yogurt a little more tart and thicker, press the "+" to move the hour to either "9:00" or "10:00" depending on how tart you like your yogurt.

Once you have adjusted your incubation time to your liking, the Instant Pot will start and the screen will now say "Yogt".

Once the Instant Pot beeps that it is done, open the lid to see the glorious huge pot of yogurt you now have. If you are wanting plain, regular yogurt you can dump this into a container and refrigerate. If you are wanting thick, creamy Greek yogurt continue to the next step.

Set your strainer inside your large bowl and place your cheesecloth (or other straining material) into the strainer. Spoon your yogurt into the lined strainer and let it sit for a couple of hours. I set mine out for at least two hours. Due to the size of my stainer and bowl, I have to do this part in 2 phases, straining only half of the yogurt and then the other half. 

You can then dump your yogurt out of the cheesecloth into a container with a lid. The liquid that you have strained out is called whey. This is great to keep in a mason har and refrigerate for adding to bread or smoothies. Whey is a great source of protein and can be added to almost anything as a substitute for water.

The whey and the yogurt will last in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.

That's it! I will say it is time consuming but if you plan accordingly, you won't be working on it that much and you get a large amount of homemade yogurt for a small amount of effort.

My boys love to have their yogurt with a tablespoon of local raw honey and a 1/4 cup of granola. I bought popsicle mold bags on amazon to fill and freeze with yogurt that I have blended with fresh fruit. The boys love having these yogurt pops as a cool snack in the summer and I have piece of mind because I know every ingredient in them and they aren't full of sugar.

Have you made your own yogurt or are you interested in making your own? Comment below with your homemade yogurt ideas!

My fruit trees are not being very fruitful

At this time in the end of summer season, we are normally picking pears. I love to make pear sauce, pear butter, and plain ole canned pears. It has been almost tradition in August for me and the kids to go out early in the morning to pick pears so that they could be peeled, sliced, and cooked to make all sorts of delicious goodies. However...this year my pear tree is on strike. I don't think I can find one single pear. I know! Ridiculous right?! Here's the kicker. It's not just one of my trees. It's all of my trees. And not only my pears trees but my satsuma tree and fig tree. After having a crummy blueberry season, I feel like I'm being kicked in the gut while I'm still down. It's almost a feeling of defeat. Leaving me with questions of did I not fertilize them properly or fertilize them enough. Is it lack of water? No that could not be it with the amount of thunder storms we've been having. So, what is it??

Have you ever gone through something emotionally or spiritually and found that other things happening around you have an odd similarity? If you didn't already know, I lead the women's ministry at our church. I also (used to) have an online business. I devote a lot of my time to crafts, sewing, soap making, basically anything that lets me create something with my hands. But this year, since the beginning of January, I have had no drive. I felt a strong need to take a break from all of these things so I did. I stopped everything. And I mean everything! Just ask my husband. The whole house was a complete wreck. I felt like I had given so much of myself that nothing was left to give. I thought to myself that this break wouldn't last long. But two weeks turned into two months, two months turned into four, and here I am sitting in the end of August and I'm still not 100% back.

My father-in-law had told me one day that sometimes fruit trees don't bear fruit some years. Some years they may give you loads of fruit and others barely give you even one fruit. Fruit trees also aren't able to give fruit all year long. Some trees can give you two harvests a year while others traditionally only give you one harvest a year. People are the same way. The bible speaks a lot about fruit trees and it's similarities to mankind. "Be fruitful" the Lord says. "Good trees bear good fruit". As a Christian I find it my duty to always have a way to bear good fruit and do so multiple times. But have you ever just stopped and given yourself a season of rest.

Have you ever had a year where you have done countless good things (volunteering, starting up programs, hosting a dinner, put in hours of hard work)? How about a year where you feel like you haven't accomplished anything? And when we have years like that we tend to compare the not so great years with the really great years. Which leads to us beating ourselves up or getting burnt out. I had found myself burnt out. I couldn't physically do anything anymore. I was done. Just like all of the fruit trees on my property, I had nothing left to give. And in that I also found myself wallowing in self-pity, doubt, anger at myself, and sadness. Depression decided to sneak its way in. Kind of like a fungus on a tomato plant that creeps in on a dewy night and takes over the plant in a matter of days. That was me. Totally taken over. Feeling like I couldn't come back. I would lay in bed at night pleading to God to come help me climb out of the pit that I put myself in. I felt like He had abandoned me. 

Thankfully through the help of some very wise counselors in my church, they helped me realize that God will never abandon you. He is never ignoring you. He is merely waiting for you to come to Him. I had to put my pride aside and admit that I am not perfect. I wanted to sit in my pit and blame Him for putting me there. I wasn't coming out until He admitted his wrongdoing in not helping me when I was overwhelming myself. But God wants us to be reminded to have a season of rest just like the fruit trees. He is a gentleman and will wait for you to come to Him. To come to Him and say "Ok God...you were right...I'm overdoing it". Now I am not saying that you have to take a season of rest from everything you love and devote yourself to. But a little break from one things of the many we all do these days is good and almost demanded. However a time limit on those breaks is also essential. Just like the trees. They know when they need to rest, store up nutrients to create good fruit and bare fruit. Have you had enough of my analogy yet haha. But it is so true.

So take time for yourself. Remember that you will not always be bearing fruit and that's just fine. You will still be enough.

How I Make Elderflower Syrup

As I said in my last post, the summer rain is never ending! It's continually pouring and every time I try to make a scheduled effort to get some outside work done it starts sprinkling again. Oy!

At last the rain held off enough for the hubs to run outside and collect some elderflowers for me. Elderflowers grow wild around our little homestead. Elderflowers will eventually turn into elderberries which you can use to make an awesome syrup to use in the winter for boosting your immune system. But because I have found an over abundance of these fantastic plants, I have collected some of flower heads to make a syrup. This syrup not only makes a great addition to any summer time drink but is also great for summer colds and hay fever. 

A book I recently discovered, The Apothecary, had a great recipe to follow but I tweaked it a little bit. This book also has other great holistic recipes and explanations of common plants. I was lucky enough to snag this gem out of the "free to good home" at my local library. But fear not! I will share with you how I went about making my own! 

You will need about 20 elderflower bunches. Make sure after you have correctly identified your elderflower bush (not to be confused with pokeberry) and have collected your flower heads, leave them outside for a few hours so that any little creepy crawlies that are on/in the flowers can find shelter elsewhere. This is best done outside. Trust me.

Next I picked all of the flower heads off of their stem and put them into a large bowl. This is the most time consuming part. I found that using a fork to gently pull the flowers off of the stem worked best. Make sure to check back thru your flowers and pinch off any stem you see that might have snuck into your bunch. The stem consumed in large amounts can be toxic so please take your time picking them out. I then zested two lemons and two limes, sliced them up, and added the slices and zest to the flowers.

Obviously to make a syrup you will need sugar, so 6 cups will need to be added. Let this sit for about 2 hours so the sugar can mingle with the citrus and flowers.

Then add 8 cups of boiling water. This will then need to sit for 24 hours. I like to cover mine in plastic wrap since the ridiculous amounts of fruit flies in our house during the summer also like the taste of syrup.

At this time you should have a beautiful honey colored syrup with little flowers and citrus slices floating in the deliciousness.

I then take my mesh strainer and carefully ladle scoops of syrup into a glass measuring cup so that I can pour the syrup carefully (and as mess free as possible) into pint jars.

Some little flecks of elderflowers could slip through the mesh and into your syrup but that ok. The flowers are edible and because the pieces are so little it won't matter. But if you are worried about it you could always use a coffee filter or cheesecloth.

I have also used these little 2oz glass bottles to store some syrup in to give away to some of my other homesteading friends.

If you are wanting to make an easy elderflower tea you can heat 3-4oz of water and add 1 oz of Elderflower syrup. It's a sweet citrusy drink with a honey like taste.

Use Elderflower syrup in replace of simple syrup in almost any drink to not only sweeten your beverage but also provide you with great benefits from the flower.

print recipe

Elderflower Syrup

by Steffane Bartl July-18-2017

A modified recipe from "The Home Apothecary"

Ingredients

• 20 Elderflower heads
• 2 Lemons
• 2 Limes
• 6 cups Sugar
• 8 cups Boiling water

Instructions

1. Collect correctly identified Elderflower heads from an area away from major roadways. Let set outside for a few hours to let unwanted insects crawl away. 2. Pick flowers off and put into a large bowl capable of holding 10 or more cups. Picking off flowers can be made easier with a fork. Be sure to pinch off potentially toxic elderflower stems and discard. 3. Zest and slice lemons and limes. Add to flowers. 4. Add sugar, stir, and let marinate with citrus and flowers for 2 hours. 5. Pour boiling water over mixture and stir. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 24 hours. 6. Stir then strain syrup in mesh strainer and pour into jars or sealable bottles. 7. Refrigerate for up to 3 months and add to any summertime drink. Or mix 4 parts hot water with 1 part syrup for a soothing tea for colds.

Details

Prep time: Cook time: Total time: 23 hour 59 mins Yield: ~6 pints

In with the new and out with the overwatered

Last week down here in coastal Alabama we had an absurd amount of rainfall. Usually to a gardner that would be a good thing. More rain = no need to turn the sprinkler on. Something I would normally rejoice over but when you can't go out in the garden for almost three weeks it does a number not only to me but also to the plants (note the tomato "sticks" coming out of the pots).

I sit around stuck in the house just thinking about how terrible everything is going to look. How overgrown my cucumber plants are going to be. How much work I'm going to have to do to restart everything. But then the excitement starts to roll in again. Just like in the spring time minus the excessive amounts of humidity and heat. I can't wait to get out there and dig my hands into the earth. I get to plant little seeds that will turn into big beautiful plants with veggies galore as opposed to my bin of lettuce mush.

This is the time where I can't get enough literature on gardening and all of the age old advice from veteran gardeners. The public library is my go to place. I get to let the little ones play in the kid section while I dive into a good read about planting pumpkin seeds in June. My most recent find has been Month-by-Month Gardening in Alabama. This book has been like heaven during the recent rainy days. I love this book so much I decided to purchase it to add to my collection of go-to reads.

I finally got up enough courage to take a peek at the damage tropical storm Cindy had done. It wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be. The garden definitely has to be completely redone but it is that time of the year anyway.

My herbs however must have really needed a good watering or they were just well sheltered from the storm against the side of my shed because they look great! The oregano is just about taking over one little corner of my herb garden and the cilantro that I had planted from seed before the down pour is finally starting to look like cilantro.

The blueberries though...checking on my three bushes hurt deep. I was only able to collect maybe 1/3 of a cup of berries and thats it. For the entire season. What's the point of even attempting to put those up?! I ended up saving them for the boys' breakfast which they were very pleased to gobble up in 5 seconds while I cried silent sobs in the corner. I am going to have to visit a local blueberry garden down the road from me just to be able to store some for future blueberry muffins and such. But that doesn't bother me in the least! It's always fun to see what other gardeners are growing and how they have plotted it all out.

So with the start of a new gardening season that was forced upon me three weeks early thanks to Cindy, I remember that God's timing is perfect in everything. Maybe He will guide me to find a new gardening buddy who grows pears due to the fruitlessness of mine. Perhaps He will lead me to a person who has a better way of naturally fertilizing my blueberries to result in a higher yield next year. There is always a purpose, a plan, and a lesson to learn. It's kind of a love hate relationship haha. I love learning new ways of doing things to perfect the way I accomplish tasks but I hate having to fail first to make that happen.

If you look hard enough though, you will find God plants little glimpses of hope around you. For instance this fig is on the verge of becoming ripe and I'm on my last jar of strawberry fig preserves! Until next time friends!

Planting my roots in my rubber boots

This year I have taken a huge step back to evaluate where I have been, where I am going, and where I want to be. Am I doing what I do because it's what I want to do or am I doing what I do because it's what I think I'm supposed to be doing/what people expect me to do. Ten years ago if you had asked me what I would want to be I would have told you a doctor...a brain surgeon (not kidding)...or my back up...a college professor teaching biology. Never! Ever! did I think I would end up in a 70 year old farm house full of kids, laughter, and dirt and be perfectly content. 

This past year I had an absolute break down because I could not juggle everything that I felt was expected of me. Seeing how other moms were winning in pretty much every category made me feel inadequate. While they were out with their well behaved kids and spotless homes, I was slumped down in a peanut butter and jelly stained couch surrounded by legos and dirty clothes that had made a home on the floor of my living room for the past 4 days. I couldn't figure out how to get into a routine much less maintain it all while being perfectly sane and investing 100% of myself into my children and husband. When my sweet husband finally told me I needed to seek help because he could see I was sinking, I started looking for a counselor.

Fast forward 6 months and you wouldn't believe I had come from such a dark, depressing slump. The sad part is there is no telling if or when that slump will come back. But here's the kicker, I'm not the only wife, mother, or PERSON who has gone through this very thing. And a few months ago God gave me a verse that has pressed me forward to share about this weakness...

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 

2 Corintians 12:9

God has been slowly opening my eyes to my little heaven here and I have thankfully been able to take in much more of every sweet moment and the beauty around me. The precious peace that I have been praying for has finally met me where I'm at. Although I'm not sure how long it will last because trials do come, I am blessed to be where I'm at, what I am, and what I have become.

With this new look on life and a stronger confidence in who I am, I have taken a liking to a new hobby. Gardening! It has consumed me! But it's not just gardening...it's raising chickens. Cows. Soap Making. Sewing. Stocking my pantry with things we have grown. Canning. Pretty much everything and anything that has to do with homesteading. I am obsessed y'all!

We have grown everything in the garden this year (with an exception of the purple heirloom tomatoes) from seed. From SEED! Something I never thought I could do! We always just went and visited the big box stores to stock up on plants that we knew nothing about.

I go out in my garden every day, sometimes twice a day, just to look at all the beautiful things God has allowed to grow in our little plot.

The colors of everything and being able to physically put my hands on it all gives me such a great sense of accomplishment I've never been able to experience.

So while the house continues to grow into a bottomless pit of toys and dirty dishes, I find my comfort in my garden and the treasured giggles coming out of the sand box not too far from it.

I hope this post has in some way blessed you. Take time to find what you love and dive into it full heartedly. The laundry mountain can wait, underwear can be turned inside out (only kidding!), but taking in what the Lord has given to you could pass you by. Take in the beauty of every season. He is blessing you friend. His grace is all around you. You just need Him to pick you up out of your weakness so that you can see His perfection around you.

I think I'm obsessed with wood grain...

Since I didn't do a post last month, I thought I would go ahead and do it now and then big you this months post in the next couple days or so. As per my usual excuse, we have been super busy and things get chaotic, one thing leads to another and I forget to post about the progress of the house. I thought that by this time I would be able to help more on the house but baby duties call and I only get to go over to help for a couple hours at a time. 

I have however been able to complete a project of mine which was to create a wood wall out of pallets. I wish I could have taken pictures of the process. Basically, we cut the boards apart from about 5 pallets with a sawzall (because trying to pry them apart would break the boards). Then I would go through the stack of boards and find a couple that were the same width and nail them in a horizontal pattern to the studs. I continued to do this while staggering the boards all the way up the wall. All in all I think the wall turned out beautifully. I have seen similar walls that people have done which were stained but I like the rustic barn wood look so I just left them the way they were.

After my wall was complete my husband and his mother got started on the tile flooring. We decided to go with a wood grain print and lay them in a herringbone style. Below you can see my husband is the process of mudding the tiles to the floor.

From this project of remodeling the house, I have concluded that I am completely obsessed with wood grain. I have it on my walls, on my floors, and on my ceilings. We did manage to find a ceiling fan that looks like a wood log with blades coming out of it which went with our theme. Below is a picture of the finished living room with the walls and the floors completely done (although you can't see the tile floors in their full glory due to the dirt and dust covering them).

Remember that old dark kitchen we started out with?

Well we finally got the cabinets painted white to bright up that dark gloomy place! And we just installed them not to long ago.

We were going to add granite countertops but our budget wasn't allowing us to do so and since I love wood we decided to go with butcher block. Now my husband is bent on making everything himself so he took on the challenge of building the countertops. According to him it wasn't difficult at all. He took a couple 2x4s, cut them in half, and glued and nailed them together in a staggered pattern. Once the boards were dry he cut the countertops to size, gave them a good sanding, stained them to my specifications, and voila! I am very pleased with the outcome of them. I think they are extremely gorgeous.

If you are wondering what that thing is in the cabinet in the picture below, it's a vibrating chair that we put my son in when he comes with me to work on the house to keep him occupied and happy.

The next post will hopefully be a virtual tour of the finished house. I am so excited that all of this hard work will finally come to a close and we will be able to move into our "new" home. Until next time...

Steffane B.

Sheetrock...&more sheetrock

January 9, 2013 our little baby boy was born. I think this gave my husband more motivation to finish the house because ever since we got back it has been non stop work on the house for him. He has been working on a number of things (much of which I couldn't take pictures of because I was at the rental taking care of our new baby boy). 

The plumbing in the bathroom had to be redone because we decided to move the bathtub, toilet, and sink into more logical spots. So my husband had to cut out the subfloor, figure out the direction the pipes run, take the metal pipes out and replace them into their new positions with PVC. He had also been working on the laundry room plumbing as well (just mainly running it to where it needed to go because there wasn't a laundry room in the house to begin with). And then the sheet rock...

Almost everything in the house has been covered with sheetrock. The laundry room is done minus the installation of the sink:

Below is a picture of what you see when you first walk in through our front door (click the picture to enlarge). To the left is our dining room and the middle/right side of the picture will be our living room. The wall on the very right that doesn't have sheetrock on it will actually end up have vertical boards on it which will end up being the back part of our built in entertainment center.

Below is a picture of what our kitchen is looking like at this exact moment. Still no finished shelving yet, but all in good time. To the very right of the picture, you can sneak a peak into the wide open hallway with the bathroom and the small hallway which leads to the laundry room and "man cave" (for now...) :

I tried to do a small panoramic of the bathroom to show you the haps but the sun was shining in through the window and put a glare on the lights the hubs just installed:

The only room that has any mud on the sheetrock is baby boy's room:

And...that's pretty much it for now. I'm sure the next couple of posts are going to be kind of boring due to all of the sheetrocking and soon we will start tiling the entire downstairs. Until next time...

SteffaneB