Local yogurt, please

Can’t get to the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market for locally-made yogurt? Here’s a great option: Dairyland’s Saskatoon Berry Yogurt. It's made in Saskatoon with milk from Saskatchewan cows.

This yogurt was the inspiration of Sandy Purdy, owner of Prairie Berries saskatoon berry orchard at Keeler, Saskatchewan. It includes saskatoons from several orchards and is for sale across Western Canada in stores that carry the Dairyland brand. (Co-op)  

“Yogurt is a healthy food and berries are healthy, so we thought, if we pair berries with yogurt we’d have a really healthy food,” says Sandy.

Last year, she stepped into the Dragon’s Den on CBC television and came away with a financial offer to help market saskatoon berries further afield. The broadcast garnered a lot of interest from across Canada (and even the United States) which she is hoping to parlay into deals with more food companies, including Dannon, the world’s largest yogurt maker.

Good luck, Sandy!

Yogurt at the farmers' market

Love berries? Love yogurt? You'll really love this creamy berry yogurt available at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market.

Gerry Hounjet makes the yogurt using live yogurt cultures and locally-grown berries, including saskatoon berries from the family orchard at Grandora. There are 15 different flavours and flavour combinations, including mixed berries, vanilla and good old plain.
The sugar free yogurt is sweetened with stevia. 

Gerry sells about 300 containers of various sizes per week. You’ll see lots of folks, especially children, spooning down the small personal sized yogurt for a market breakfast.

So, what’s his most popular flavour? “I’d like to say saskatoon berry because we grow them ourselves,” says Gerry, “but honestly, sour cherry takes preference.”

Yogurt, please

We Canadians are hungry for yogurt. According to StatsCanada, our yogurt consumption more than doubled from 1998 to 2008 - from 2.4 litres to 5.4 litres of yogurt per person per year. It was just .03 of a litre in 1960!

According to Dannon, the largest maker of yogurt in the world, Canadians eat twice as much yogurt as our American friends.

Since we love our yogurt, perhaps you'd like to try making your own. It's easy. There are many websites explaining the process. You might start with this one: Yogurt Everyday.

When I make yogurt, I buy Dairyland milk (it's from Saskatchewan cows) and a good, plain natural yogurt (not low-fat) with live cultures. I leave the yogurt to incubate on the counter in an insulated soup thermos. Make a couple batches at home until you find a process that works best for you. Let me know how it goes...

Week 42 - YOGURT

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week – 28 January 2006

Breakfast – Yogurt with stewed rhubarb.
Lunch – Cheese and bean sprout sandwich.
Dinner – Roast pork, spinach orzotto, roast carrots and potatoes.

YOGURT
I prefer unflavoured yogurt because I like to add my own fruit. This time of year, I am mixing yogurt with stewed rhubarb (canned last summer) and sour cherries (frozen last summer). It’s quite easy to make yogurt at home. All you need is milk and a little bit of cultured yogurt from the grocery store. I make yogurt in a 4-cup thermos, but you can make it in any container with a tight lid.

Heat four cups of milk in a saucepan on medium heat until it boils. Let it boil 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Let the milk cool down until you can stick a finger in it and count to ten. Stir in 2 Tbsp. of cultured yogurt. Pour the milk into a thermos (or other container) and leave on the counter overnight. You should have yogurt in the morning. Refrigerate. Be sure to reserve the last 2 Tbsp. of this yogurt to make the next batch.