Homemade Greek Yogurt

I eat a lot of plain whole milk Greek yogurt, which is not only expensive but uses a lot of plastic. So, I got myself this little Bear yogurt maker that does Greek yogurt, regular yogurt and also soft cheese and fruit wine.

I'm struggling with finding non ultra-pasteurized milk where we live, so it takes a bit longer to get it to the right coagulatin', but the strainer setup really creates the perfect texture I like (which is like Fage Total). 

We used to have a yogurt maker with the individual glass containers, but I didn't exactly like the sloppy wet yogurt that it produced. And it always smelled a little sour in the kitchen after it ran its course. So, I stopped using it a long time ago and ended up donating it when we moved to the mountains.

This one, on the other hand, has no smell when it runs and it has the Greek yogurt strainer so I can get it to the consistency I like. And I, once again, have a lot more control over the ingredients going in and can minimize the plastic, especially if I get milk in returnable glass bottles. 

You basically heat up the whole milk (or whatever you are using) to 180 degrees Fahrenheit and hold it for a few minutes at that temperature, let it cool to 110 or so and then mix in your yogurt starter. And then into the Lil' Bear on the 'Greek Yogurt' setting it goes for 10 hours, or until it reaches a consistency you are fond of.

Also, when I'm making it myself...I can use the whey for other projects (replacing the water in things like bread or oatmeal). But, more importantly, this yogurt is organic and lactose-free, because that's the kind of milk we use. If you don't like it plain, I'm a big fan of our Coffee Yogurt recipe.

Do you prefer Greek yogurt or regular? Or none at all?

Affiliate links (this is not a paid advertisement, this is something I researched on my own):

Here's the little fellow I got:

Bear Yogurt Maker, Greek Yogurt Maker Machine with Strainer and Timer Control, Stainless Steel Inner Pot, Automatic Digital with 2 Glass Jars 1 Quart for Home Organic Yogurt, Cheese, Fruit Wine

Cultures for Health Greek Yogurt Starter Culture

Our OG EuroCuisine YM80 Electric Yogurt Maker if you want the one with the little glass jars

2026 Pantry Challenge Week #1

I've been a fan of Three Rivers Homestead on the Tubes for a while now and have followed her annual Pantry Challenge. It's a great way to focus on using up all that you've preserved, stored, dehydrated or frozen. For us, living in the mountains, it's also super beneficial because sometimes we get snowed in and need to rely on what we have on hand because getting to the store can be a bit of a challenge in itself (although, frankly, I'm in walking distance to our little town grocery, so it's not that dire).

As of this writing, we are supposed to get 20 - 30" of snow in the next couple of days, so this week I'll be hunkering down and doing a bit of baking. But, enough about this upcoming week! I started this Pantry Challenge on January 1st, and wanted to give you a report.

But first, the rules I've adapted... I'm allotting us the ability to buy some dairy (milk only) and fresh fruits and vegetables. 

I don't have enough canned or frozen vegetables on hand to last us, although the challenge does make me focus on using up what I do have, which isn't much. We just aren't big canned/frozen vegetable consumers. I'd rather rely on stored onions, garlic, squash, potatoes and sweet potatoes during the winter months and throw in fresh greens and other longer storing vegetables like carrots, parsnips and broccoli. 

I do have a lot of frozen fruit and canned fruit, so we'll be using those up. Which is a good thing, otherwise I'd be ignoring them since, during peak fruit season, I'm apt to just throw stuff in the freezer because it's too hot to process. And then promptly forget about them.

As for the dairy - I'm planning on making my own yogurt during the challenge. I also have a lot of cheese making supplies (aka enzymes and starters) hanging out in the freezer, so I'll be making some soft cheeses as well. Stay tuned for that.

Week 1:

I started off the New Year by making chicken stock out of the roasted chicken that we had for Christmas Day. I had frozen the carcass, along with some other vegetable ends and simmered it in the crockpot. I also soaked some dried red beans overnight to make Hoppin' John for New Years Day dinner. I had defrosted some bacon that's been hiding in the freezer to use as well. And so, for dinner, we had that. We ate this for dinner leftovers the next two nights.

I also defrosted some 5 Seed Whole Wheat bread from the freezer (from a batch I made 2 weeks ago). We used this for toast to go with some jam I've been trying to use up. I also made a big batch of granola to eat for cereal and to go with yogurt (when I make some).

I defrosted some chicken to use in a Chicken Tortilla soup for another dinner. Since I had soaked too many beans for the other night, I simmered the rest of the red beans in leftover chicken stock to use as well. My son had made some pasta sauce that was sitting in the fridge, so I threw that into the crockpot with the rest of the ingredients for the chicken soup, so that didn't go to waste. 

I got a griddle for Christmas, so I decided to make some flatbread to go with the soup and it turned out great. Honestly, it was a naan recipe. I got rid of my tortilla press when we moved and I didn't have the energy that day to make tortillas, so naan it was! And it was a hit. I thought we'd have leftovers of the bread, but they were all eaten. 

Last night, I made a "Hamburger Soup", although it's really just more of an enormous pile of vegetables and ground beef. I made it with some of the chicken stock, some tomatoes and a lot of herbs. I used some of the Yukon Gold potatoes we grew this year that were hiding in the pantry. I dialed back on the amount of broth so it was more of a stew. I thought we'd have leftovers, but it was gone before I knew it. Are you sensing a theme here?

Oh! And the Boil Advisory was lifted Sunday afternoon, so no more of that shenanigans! That added an extra layer as I didn't want to use anything that needed to be rinsed when I was planning dinners. 

I feel like I'm missing a few things - I'll try to keep better track this next week.

How long am I doing the challenge, you ask? I think Jessica runs hers for the months of January and February. My plan is to do at least through January and see where we are. I do have an Azure Standard delivery scheduled for late this month, but I may put it off unless something is on super sale and we absolutely need it. Otherwise, I might just stick to things like more carrots, onions and the like if we're running low (and the snow situation doesn't make it difficult to go pick it up).

No (Potable) Water for the New Year - A Dry Run

Last evening, a water main in town broke, sending a flood of water down the hill into neighbor's homes and flooding the streets, creating a skating rink of ice. When I initially heard about this, I filled a ton of water bottles and glasses on the off-chance that we'd lose access to water. I didn't want to have to dip into our emergency water stores.

Not too long afterwards, we got the warning that the City of Roslyn was under a Boil Advisory. Twenty-four hours later, the water main has been fixed, but we still can't use the water without boiling. We are definitely lucky in that we never lost water or water pressure, most likely because we are above the break. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for many people in town where they had no water or very little water pressure. Or were flooded. A neighboring town offered a water fill-up station for those impacted more than we were.  

All that said, we are still able to run the dishwasher with the "Sanitizing" setting on, run the washing machine and take showers. Although, I felt like we could lose water access at any moment.

I considered this a bit of a dry run, with pretty minimal impact. Others were not so fortunate. But, even just having to boil water to use for drinking water, brushing teeth and cooking was still a reminder that we are always mere minutes away from losing a very valuable and precious resource.

Since we have a ton of snow outside, I took advantage of the fast cooling by putting our pots of boiled water outside on the deck to make the turnaround from boiling to using very quick! Once the water was cooled, I ran it through our pitcher water filter (for good measure) and also to make it easier to pour out of than the pots. 

Worse case scenario if we ran out of water for a more extended period of time? Well, we would have used the water filling station for potable water. Cooking would have been limited to things that needed minimal rinsing. And, if bathing were an issue, I have access at the gym in another town and a ton of body wipes that I have on-hand for use after bike races. 

We do have a year-round natural spring a few miles away with drinkable water if things get super dire. Between that and the water filter (and a more turbo hiking-style water filter) and at least we would have drinkable water. And, that's only if the grocery stores ran dry.

It's not a bad idea to run through the mental exercise of this sort. Because you never know when and/if the SHTF. Hopefully, everything will be back to normal soon, as local businesses had to shut down during this holiday weekend. And, after the water clears, I'm hoping that those impacted by the water running through their properties dry out quickly.

Top 10 Homesteading Goals for 2026

I'm looking forward to some 2026 homesteading goals!

Last year, my son and I put up some permanent deer fencing that's tall enough to keep them out. We've struggled with other solutions over the last 6 years as the deer around here are pretty tenacious and have managed to thwart our previous attempts at keeping them out of the garden with other kind of fencing. That and the elk and the black bears. But, that's another very looong story! But now that it's up, here's what I've got planned...

1. Actually get planting "on time". It's hard to gauge when the snow is finally going to be done around here, but I've got hoops over several of the beds and winter hardy row covers that I'll be using to get the season off right. I amended all the raised beds with seasoned horse manure from the neighbors last year, so it should be even more composted this year.

2. Set up our greenhouse. I bought a greenhouse last year, but between the deer fencing and digging up several beds to plant blueberry and raspberry bushes, I never got around to getting the greenhouse set up. I'll need to dig up a bunch of lawn if I want to plant in there, so this will be my big garden project for 2026. I haven't been successful growing peppers in our climate, so they'll go in there. Tomatoes do alright, but not great so I'm hoping to have a bigger crop this year. If there's space, I'll think about getting sweet potato slips and throw those in there since we eat a lot of sweet potatoes.

3. Use the laundry line. We have one of those old school laundry post and line setups out back with a ton of space for drying, well, pretty much everything. I set up new lines last year, I just need to be better about hauling the laundry in and out from the washing machine. It's amazing how much we save on our electric bill when I'm diligent about it.

4. Set up a few rain barrels. Our roof is metal with no gutters. We get way too much snow for gutters, so it will be a little challenging finding a good place to capture rainwater. There's one spot in the front yard in the driveway that consistently has runoff, but it's not a great place for a rain barrel or for getting it to the garden. I know there are other options out there, so I'll be researching some of those expanding tent-like versions for rainwater capture.  

5. More canning and preserving. I was so busy with the bakery farmstand last year, I missed the opportunity to do some canning that I'd like to get under control this year. I'll be starting with Victorian Rhubarb BBQ sauce and pickled asparagus, but first I need to make some jams from the fruit I froze from last summer. Everything just went into the freezer because I didn't have time to do it at the peak of the season (or it was just too hot to can inside). I also want to dry more herbs this year.

6. Possibly getting chickens or rabbits? I go through this every year. Perhaps 2026 is the year we go this route. I did raise quail from eggs a few years ago (more on that in a future post). 

7. Partner with other homesteaders. I have a friend that has a large homestead with goats, chickens and horses. We've been talking for years about doing another project together. She's my egg supplier for the bakery farmstand, but maybe there's goat cheese in our future!

8. Make more, instead of buying pre-made. This applies not only to the food we are eating, but to the other products we use (like dishwasher detergent and laundry soap). I'd like to reduce the amount of pre-packaged food coming into the house, but that requires turning "ingredients" into something my kids will consume. I'm the primary cook/baker in the house (which I like), but I need to be more on top of this.

9. Go in on a pig or beef share. Since I've co-opted my bakery fridge into a freezer, I have space to store more meat. And, because Ellensburg (a few miles east of us) has quite a number of ranches, I should take advantage of getting locally raised meat.

10. Add another raised bed. (And clean up some other plots.) I've dug up the sod for a raised bed, but I just need to build another 8'x4' frame for it and fill it. That part always seems daunting, so I keep putting it off! 

Looking back at my Homesteading Goals for 2012, it's funny how not much has changed! (I even borrowed the photo I took from back then when I did our last pig share.) The location has changed from Seattle to Central WA, so the challenges are different. But the goals remain the same!