Or, you could use the bread proof setting if your oven has one. Other methods include using a food dehydrator, a rice cookers warm setting, a heating pad set to low, or a crock pot set on its lowest setting. If you have none of these things, you could use a sunny window or a car in the sun. Note that light exposure may degrade the nutrition in the milk. It is best to maintained the temperature below 1. How To Make Vanilla Ice Cream. F 4. 9C, dont allow it to go below 9. F 3. 2C blood temp to 1. F 4. 3C is optimal. Additionally, you could place the container of yogurt in warm water in a sink, large bowl, or small picnic cooler. Choose a yogurt maker. There are several categories of retail yogurt makers available today, if you decide to use a yogurt maker which is recommended. Yogurt makers allow for the safest and timeliest incubation of the yogurt bacteria. The untimed, resistance heated yogurt makers are generally popular because of their low cost. They tend to be less expensive because they are designed with no control over the temperatures needed to properly incubate the yogurt bacterial cultures in the dairy product used. They are designed for average home temperatures but higher or lower environmental temperatures can change the time it takes to make the yogurt and quality of the yogurt produced. They generally come with smaller cups and must be used repeatedly throughout each week to provide for daily consumption of yogurt. With larger families, they can become impractical because of the time it takes to make a given quantity of yogurt. The temperature regulating yogurt makers are more expensive as they require more electronic components to be able to maintain temperature settings. There are two types within this category Another type has an optimal factory temperature setting which is maintained regardless of environment. You cannot adjust the temperature setting in this type. There are yogurt makers which combine some of the features found in some of the above categories. For example, one yogurt maker provides a factory set regulated temperature with a time display and cut off feature. This unit is capable of producing a quality yogurt result in as little as 2 hours as the temperature setting is well above popular home yogurt culturing temperatures. It allows the user to use more than cup sized containers, although they are supplied in several sizes with the yogurt maker. You can use a gallon size container or 4 wide mouth quart containers to make as much as a gallon at a time. However, with the taller jars, either a larger cover may be needed or towels may be used to cover the gap between the supplied cover and bottom heating and control unit. Know the benefits of a yogurt maker. The user can adjust the temperature setting of the yogurt maker to maintain the proper temperatures associated with the bacterial strains used in the culturing of the yogurt. Once set, they will maintain the setting, regardless of how warm or cold your home or kitchen may be. Yogurt makers which allow the user to set the amount of time the yogurt maker applies heat to the containers. While this time setting may be handy should you need to leave the yogurt maker unattended, it is suggested the user remain in the general area home so that if anything should go wrong like the unit failing to shut off granted a rare occurrence may deal with the situation. Place the containers of the cooled milk and starter in the yogurt maker. Make sure they are evenly spaced out and standing up straight you wouldnt want them to tip over or the yogurt could leak out. Supply a cover to keep in the heat. That maintains the containers at a temperature which, hopefully, allows the bacteria in the tempered dairy product in the containers go grow and thrive to make yogurt. Check to see if the yogurt has firmed up. In due time depending on bacterial strains used, temperature and food available in the dairy product the dairy product will firm up to a yogurt consistency. This can take as little as 2 hours and can last 1. The shorter times usually result in less tart yogurts and longer times provide completion of the bacterial growth. For those lactose intolerant folks, the longer times may produce a more digestible yogurt. Remove the containers. Once the yogurt has gotten to the consistency and time desired, the containers are removed from the yogurt maker and placed in a refrigerator to cool for storage until consumption. The containers, which may be supplied with the yogurt maker, can be small cups so that the user can eat the yogurt right out of the cups. Containers as large as a gallon or more can be held by some yogurt makers for those who need large amounts of yogurt on a regular basis. Make sure your yogurt is ready. Try gently jiggling one of the containers the yogurt will not move if it is ready and you can take it from the yogurt maker and put it in the refrigerator then. Or you can wait and let it get more tart for 1. How to Save Tomato Seeds. Image by wintersown. Its nice to be able to save your own tomato seeds You may have brought home a particularly delicious tomato from the supermarket, or gotten an heirloom tomato from a Farmers Market, or grown one in your own garden that is so wonderful you want to save the seeds from it and grow them next year. Nothing ever tastes quite as good as a home grown tomato So, how do you save the seedsThe method is easy to do. This seed saving processis a process of fermentation. Select to save seeds from a tomato that has a flavor that you love. Take your chosen tomato and slice it in half across the middle its equator. With a spoon or your well washed fingers scoop out the seeds and their gelatinous goo into a clean cup or container. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the seeds. Cover the container with a piece of plastic wrap and then poke the plastic wrap with a paring knife or pen point to put a small hole in it. A little fresh air needs to get in and out of the cup to help foster fermentation. Place the container of seeds in a warm location a sunny windowsill or the top of the refrigerator are both excellent sites to place the container of seeds. Now Mother Nature will take over and begin to ferment the seed and water mixture. This takes about two or three days. Each night remove the plastic wrap, stir the seed and water mixture, and then replace the plastic wrap, if you use a new sheet of plastic wrap then dont forget to put a small hole in it for air transpiration. The top of the liquid will look scummy when the fermentation process has seperated the goo from the seeds. It also helps destroy many of the possible tomato diseases that can be harbored by seeds. Take the container of fermented seeds to the sink and with a spoon carefully remove the scummy surface. Then pour the containers contents into a fine kitchen sieve and rinse the seeds with water several times. Give a few sharp taps to the sieve to help remove as much loose water as possible from the seeds. Line an open plate with a piece of waxed paper or a large automatic drip coffee filter. Place the rinsed seeds onto the wax paper or coffee filter and spread them about so they are in a single layer. Place the plate in a safe location where the seeds can dry for a few days. Stir the seeds a few times during the drying process to assure that all their surfaces are evenly dry. Spread them out again into a single layer after each time youve stirred them. Tomato seeds are thick and can take up to a week to dry thoroughly. If youre having a rainy week that drying time may lengthen by a few days. How do I know when the seeds are dryDried seeds move quickly and easily across a plate, they do not stick to each other. How do I store them I like paper packets or some folks like plastic. Whichever envelope style you choose is a matter of personal preferance. If you choose to store your seeds in plastic the seeds must be BONE DRY. How do I label them Tomatoes are generally self pollinated so there is rarely a chance of cross breeding. If you save and trade your seeds you might wish to describe your trade offering as open pollinated tomato seeds. That way the trader knows that Mother Nature was solely involved in the fertilization of the flower which produced the tomato that you have saved seeds from. Onto the packet write the tomato variety name if you know it or a very good description if you dont, add the term open pollinated if youre sharing or trading your tomato seeds, and also add the current year to the packet description. And thats that Do enjoy saving tomato seeds and growing your own tomatoes at home from them. Home saved tomato seeds are a wonderful gift to tuck into a holiday card for when you want to add a little something extra, or to share with friends and neighbors.