Welcome to Gaia! ::

If you buy a yogurt maker, it will come with instructions specific to the machine and perhaps even some starter mix. You can get them for pretty cheap at a department store, I believe. I ordered mine from Amazon. (:

However, if you don't have a yogurt maker, you can still make homemade yogurt.

INGREDIENTS:

* Milk
* Plain yogurt

PREPARATION:
Here are Phyllis Hobson's techniques for making yogurt if you do not have an appliance designed for it.

With a thermos
Almost fill a thermos bottle (preferably widemouthed) with milk heated to 100 degrees F.

Add 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt and mix thoroughly. Put the lid on and wrap the thermos in two or three terry towels. Set it in a warm, draft-free place overnight.

In an oven
Pour 1 quart of milk into a casserole dish and add 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt. Stir well and cover the casserole. Place in a warm (100 degree F.) oven with the heat off. Let it sit overnight.

On a heating pad
Mix 1 quart of milk and 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt. Set an electric heating pad at medium temperature and place in the bottom of a cardboard box with a lid. (A large shoebox works well.) Fill small plastic containers with the milk-yogurt mixture; put on the lids. Wrap a heating pad around the containers, then cover with towels to fill the box and let sit, undisturbed, for 5 to 6 hours.

In the sun
Pour 1 quart warmed milk into a glass-lidded bowl or casserole. Add 3 tablespoons plain yogurt and cover with the glass lid or a clear glass pie pan. Place in the sun on a warm (not too hot) summer day and let sit 4 to 5 hours. Watch it to make sure it is not shaded as the sun moves.

On the back of a wood-stove
Many grandmothers made clabber by setting a bowl of freshly drawn milk on the back of the stove after supper. Make yogurt this way by adding 1 cup starter to 2 quarts milk and let it sit, loosely covered with a dish towel, on the back of the cooling wood range overnight.

In a crockpot
Preheat a crockpot on low for about 15 minutes, until it feels very warm to the fingertips. Put covered containers of yogurt mixture into the Crock-Pot, cover it, and turn off the heat. At 35- to 45-minutes intervals, heat the Crock-Pot on low for 10 to 15 minutes.

yogurt is wonderful!

not just for being refreshing and natural

but because you can keep making it from itself!

the culture is self-renewing.

sourdough bread is like that too.