Farmer's Daughter?

When I was nine-years old, we moved from town (Jefferson City, Missouri) to a 60+ acre farm out in the "country."  It was quite a shock to me, and I can remember not being very happy about it.  My dad still worked for the newspaper in town, so I wasn't a "real" farmer's daughter.  

When looking back I can see the move provided an opportunity to learn some life lessons I would have otherwise missed.  Many of those life lessons were centered around food!  We had an acre-size garden with every imaginable vegetable, fruit trees (cherry, pear, peach), chickens (from time-to-time), at least one milk cow and herds of "beef" cattle.  In addition, my mom was always finding other local "farms" where she could pick or buy the other fruits we didn't grow, i.e. strawberries, blackberries, grapes, etc.

Although I didn't love the labor of picking fruits or vegetables, processing them and then canning or freezing them, I certainly loved the end product--cherry preserves, blackberry jelly, strawberry jam and more.  

We didn't always have a milk cow, but when we did, my favorite thing to do was to churn butter.  Just when you were about to give up thinking the liquid was never going to come to anything, a few more turns of the churn and you'd hear a clunking sound as the butter came together.  A few minutes later and you could be spreading said butter on a piece of bread, and if it was homemade bread, that was even better!   

Now, before you think I've been making butter here in San Salvador, let me tell you that I have not.  I have, however, been making my own Greek yogurt, which is pretty close to butter, right?  You might wonder why am I making my own Greek yogurt, so here are the reasons, in no particular order:  

• It's easy--I make it in the crockpot.  I use this recipe:  Easy Greek Yogurt
• It's good--thick and rich, even making it with 2% milk
• It's less expensive than buying it--Greek yogurt is quite expensive here in ES.  For the cost of a gallon of milk, I can make 64 ounces of yogurt which breaks down to about $2.50 per 32 ounces of yogurt.  (Yes, milk is $5 per gallon here.)
• It's low-fat and sugar free--regular yogurt is popular here, but almost all of it is full-fat, sweet and fruity.  I can (usually) find plain Greek yogurt at PriceSmart (our Costco), but trips to PriceSmart are a once-a-month, if not less, event.  I use a lot of Greek yogurt in recipes, so I needed a more stable supply.

The process is easy, but not quick--taking about 14-15 hours in total.  There's lots of waiting time, but I do need to be around at all of the critical moments, so it takes some planning.  Here's a picture of the final step which is straining the yogurt to remove most of the liquid.  You can skip this step, saving 2-3 hours and have regular yogurt, instead of extra-thick Greek yogurt.  

  I'm glad I still have a bit of the "farmer's daughter" in me!  It's come in quite handy living here.