Snark and I made homemade yogurt last night. We've heard a lot about homemade yogurt turning out runnier (and, yes, snottier in texture) than store bought yogurt, but this morning when Snark took it out of where we kept it warm overnight, it actually looked very thick. It's in the fridge now. We haven't tasted it yet, but I'll report back later when we do. So far it looks very beautiful and solid.

One reason we decided to try to make our own yogurt was all the plastic involved in buying yogurt from the store. A person can only reuse so many yogurt containers before she has too many containers and needs to start recycling them or throwing them away. Ours were piling up. We use them for bulk items and leftovers, but we still had too many yogurt containers! And, actually, as Evan pointed out to me a few years back, recycling plastic is about just as harmful as it is to create the plastic or dropping it directly into the landfill.

Here's a comment on this subject by Eureka Recycling, "Unlike glass or aluminum, plastic recycling does not 'close the loop' because most postconsumer bottles are not made into new plastic bottles even though the technology exists to do so. Instead, plastic bottles are made into products that are not in turn recyclable. Furthermore, plastic resin has limited ability to be recycled because its quality degrades every time it is reheated. When we collect and remanufacture plastic, we are only delaying its disposal. The final destination for all plastic is either in an incinerator, where it releases harmful chemicals to the air when burned, or in a landfill, where the byproducts of that plastic’s gradual deterioration can contaminate groundwater."

Or an even briefer comment by H. C Flores from Food Not Lawns, "Plastic recycling is a hoax--don't buy it. All phases of plastic cause water pollution, ozone depletion, and cancer. Avoid it" (58).

Anyone seen Penn and Teller's episode on recycling? I haven't seen it in a year or two, but it's interesting, if not a little depressing.

Anyway, our attempt at making yogurt hopefully means we'll be supporting one less plastic product when we buy our food. I admit that's a challenge since so many things come in a variety of plastic containment (confinement?) (I'm channeling Mary Daly). Okay, so I've just gone on a long, ranty tangent as I tried to say simply, "We made yogurt--yay!" Sorry about that.

Snark's also in the process of sprouting clover seeds (day 3) and mung beans (day 2). More on that later!

I've got to leave for work in a few minutes, so that's it for now.