Discovering Yogurt

Some kids grow up with mothers who read nutritional labels, prepare healthy meals and serve nutritious snacks like yogurt to their growing family. I was not one of those kids. My mother kept a container of lard in the fridge and never met a food she didn’t like to fry in bacon fat. I don’t remember even knowing what yogurt was until I moved to—of all places—Idaho.

As a starving journalist fresh out of college in the ’90s, I landed a reporting job in McCall, Idaho. It wasn’t long until I figured out I needed a second job if I wanted to pay my bills and actually eat real food. I looked for a position where I could work on the weekends and which might lead to story ideas. I discovered yogurt while managing a 22-room bed and breakfast from Friday nights through Sunday mornings and helping make breakfast each day with Mary, the weekend cook.

Not only did Mary know what yogurt was, she actually made it herself. This was a mind-blowing concept to a small-town farm kid who had grown up eating nothing but meat, potatoes, and vegetables from the garden. On Friday nights, Mary would come into work, heat whole milk on the stove in a large Dutch oven, let it cool, and then scoop out about a cup of warm milk and add yogurt from the last batch she had made the week before.

After whisking the mixture until it was smooth, she’d place the lid on the pot of what was now good-bacteria-laced milk and let it ferment overnight inside the (turned-off) oven. She’d even flip on the oven light to keep the milk slightly warm as it set. Then she’d remind me to take it out at midnight and put it in the fridge. By the time Mary came in the next morning— voilà—the pot of milk had turned into a lovely batch of yogurt, ready for her to add fruit or granola and serve to guests. She always saved about a half cup of the current batch to act as a mother culture for the next batch. She also saved a container for me to take home. Mary was my yogurt heroine.

Little did I know, Mary was ahead of her time. Today, making yogurt at home is a quick and easy way to make sure there’s always something healthy in the fridge, and if you don’t have time to make your own, there is surely no shortage of yogurt options at retail. In fact, of every product in the local dairy aisle, no category has experienced more growth in the past decade than yogurt.

At its simplest, yogurt is merely the bacterial fermentation of milk. But just one look at the dozens of brands, types and varieties available today proves yogurt is so much more.

Low-fat, nonfat, regular, light, Swiss, Greek, Icelandic, drinkable, fruit on the bottom: yogurt comes in just about any type or flavor imaginable. Don’t have time to buy granola? Just purchase the brand with granola attached to the lid in a sealable container. Can’t find a spoon? Purchase the brand you can squeeze out of a tube. Looking for something made locally? You’re in luck. This being America’s Dairyland, not quite all of our milk goes into cheese. Lucky for us, some also ends up in Wisconsin-produced yogurt.

I’m not going to lie, fond memories of Mary’s homemade yogurt at that McCall bed and breakfast almost ruined store-bought yogurt for me, but these three local brands are a cut above the rest.

Sugar River Dairy Yogurt

This small-batch yogurt is crafted by Ron and Christine Paris on their farm near Albany, Wis., from the milk of a local dairy herd. The couple produces low-fat, fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt in six-ounce cups, as well as low-fat vanilla, whole milk plain and whole milk Greek-style in 24-ounce containers. They also produce seasonal grass-fed, Greek-style yogurt and seasonal sheep’s milk yogurt in limited quantities. Available at Madison-area grocery stores.

Odyssey Greek Yogurt

A fourth-generation, family-owned business, Klondike Cheese Company in Monroe, Wis., began manufacturing Greek-style yogurt in 2013. Their state-of-the-art facility produces a thick and creamy Greek-style yogurt in plain, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, peach, vanilla and black cherry. This summer, the company will add two new flavors: pomegranate acai and mango. Odyssey Greek Yogurt is available nationwide at grocery stores in 5.3-ounce cups and in larger sizes for foodservice.

Organic Valley Grassmilk Yogurt

Headquartered in La Farge, Wis., Organic Valley uses nonhomogenized milk for its Grassmilk whole milk, cream-on-top yogurt. It is available in both plain and vanilla in 24-ounce containers and six-ounce cups, and releasing in September, strawberry and wild blueberry in six-ounce cups. The vanilla yogurt uses fair trade vanilla and fair trade cane sugar for flavoring. Because the cows producing milk for this yogurt don’t eat grains, Organic Valley Grassmilk Yogurt has a hint of seasonal flavoring. Available nationwide.