Adventures in Food Preservation Part 2

In our next class we made cheese and yogurt, as well as dehydrated mushrooms & kale chips.

For yogurt, we heated pasteurized milk up to 160 degrees with a couple vanilla beans (split & scraped), let it cool to 110 degrees, added "starter" (store-bought Strauss whole plain yogurt) and divided it up between us to take home and incubate. I tried to warm my little jar of yogurt is setting in the oven on the "warm" setting, which was too hot, killed the microbes, and my yogurt did not set.  But others in the class said their yogurt set just fine and was lovely, so I need to find a different warming method.  I'd like to get a hold of a dehydrator cuz that would be perfect.  I could also try a hot water bottle wrapped together in a blanket, or use my soup maker to hold warm water and the yogurt. They make special yogurt makers but I'm not into unitaskers. 

With a new focus on preservation, I'm looking for more ideas.  I traded some backyard chicken eggs for lavender and lemons and made preserved lemons, which was super fast and easy.  Now I need to wait a month and see how they turn out. They sure smell good!