Yoghurt making

 One of the benefits of living on a dairy farm means I have access to a lot of raw milk. Many years ago I tried my hand at cheese making but found it very time consuming and the results were not at all what I hoped for! At the moment, I limit myself to making yoghurt once a week, a job which takes very little time and with delicious results, especially when teamed with some frozen raspberries or passionfruit puree as a lunch time treat.  I have finally honed my recipe to give me a thick creamy texture, with a dollop of honey to take away any excess acidity.I heated the milk up while I was having breakfast, added the culture and poured it into a wide-necked thermos. By this afternoon, my weekly batch will be ready to put in the fridge.

It's the last day of autumn finally. It's been such a busy time and the cupboards and freezers are full to the brim. This past weekend is the first weekend I haven't done some sort of preserving in months.
Last weekend I made passionfruit syrup from some of the black passionfruit which are just falling off the vine at the moment. The flavour is so intense. I have only tried it with water so far but I am sure it would be delicious with soda or mineral water or drizzled over ice cream. I also made another batch of feijoa jam from windfalls from the tree. I don't really look after the feijoa tree much, it just seems to survive on its own. The jam is very fragrant and tastes a bit like pineapple. I suppose that is why the feijoa is sometimes known as the pineapple guava. I have tried making it in the breadmaker on its jam function but also just the old fashioned saucepan method. I think the old way gives a better texture and colour even though it is more time consuming.