The 71st National Folk Festival

And Welcome to Butte, America
Taken 7/11/09 in Butte, Montana


NOTE PLEASE: Clicking on any photograph will open a full-screen version of that photo in a separate window. All links also open in a separate window. Also, should you be so inclined, you can see these photos and more taken at the Festival on my Picasa website.

We are the folk song army
Every one of us cares
We all hate poverty war and injustice
Unlike the rest of you squares.

There are innocuous folksongs, yeah,
But we regard 'em with scorn.
The folks who sing 'em have no social conscience,
Why, They don't even care if Jimmy crack corn.

--Tom Lehrer

To hear Tom Lehrer sing The Folk Song Army, click here!

If you're into folk music, then Butte, Montana was the place you wanted to be for the weekend of July 10-12. For the second year in a row, Butte was hosting the National Folk Festival, the 71st annual National Folk Festival, and close to 100,000 people showed up for the concerts, demonstrations, and just old fashioned fun. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the music was, well, hot. Kevin and I got up early Saturday morning and hit the road, arriving in Butte in plenty of time to park, ride the shuttle uptown, and find ourselves at the Quartz Street Stage in time for the opening act of the day, Wilho Saari, a renowned Kantele player from Naselle, Washington.

Wilho Saari plays the Finnish Kantele
Taken 7/11/09 in Butte, Montana

The Kantele is Finland's national instrument, related to the Zither, and by tradition only the family patriarch is allowed to play the instrument. Mr. Saari waited until his father died to take up the Kantele. One wonders how these traditions come to be--and how a 50-year old man is able to start fresh learning the instrument upon the death of his own father.

That said, in 1985 when the good people of Montana sent me to Finland, one of the experiences I hoped to have was to hear the Kantele played. Alas, that was not to be, but right here, practically in my own backyard, I was able to see and hear an expert performance. Mr. Saari started his 45-minute set with a couple of hymns. He explained that his father had played every night after work. The hymns were lovely, and the sound sweet and clear. Yet I overheard a man across the aisle from me exclaim with more than a touch of sarcasm in his voice, "Well, this is certainly rousing." Indeed, the music I heard would make wonderful lullabies.

Now the biggest problem with attending one day of a three-day event is that you just can't see everything you'd like. There were seven stages set up around town, and there were events in every venue almost back to back. Another of the groups I wanted to hear was Otrov, a group of six young men from the upper mid-west. They play tamburitza music--a traditional Balkan style. Otrov was the opening act in "The Original" stage--a stage set up inside the headframe of The Original mine uptown. In fact, The Original was the mine directly across the street from our home when as I child I lived in Butte.

Yes, there's a stage set up in the headframe
The Original
Taken 7/11/09 in Butte, Montana

After taking in roughly half of Mr. Saari's set, Kevin and I left Quartz Street and headed uphill to The Original. Unlike Quartz Street, there was no tent covering the audience, and no chairs unless you brought your own. Otrov's audience sat on the grass of the hillside rising above the stage which had been built inside the headframe of the mine. Now this music was rousing, and frankly, I'm not sure why people weren't dancing where they sat. Maybe the hot sun, the lack of shade, and the mile-high altitude all played a part in calming people.

Kevin and I wandered back down the hill--most of the streets in uptown Butte had been blocked off for pedestrian traffic--in search of Indian Tacos. We'd seen a booth down between the Granite Street Stage and the folk arts Marketplace, and frankly, I was ready for lunch. The line was long (I've noticed that the line for Indian Tacos is always long), and when we finally reached the front, we were told that they were out and it would take another 20 minutes before the next batch was ready. Well I love Indian Tacos, and rarely see them for sale in Missoula, so we decided to wait. That was just one of the mistakes we made while in Butte. Suffice it to say that the tacos were expensive and not nearly as good as I've come to expect.

The audience for Otrov at "The Original"
Note that this is just one of seven simultaneous performances
Taken 7/11/09 in Butte, Montana

The Marketplace next drew our attention. Divided into two sections, one area featured Native American arts and crafts while the other showcased the work of Montana craftsmen. Kevin and I were both drawn to a display of handcrafted wooden canoes built by Scott Enloe of Great Falls, Montana. I didn't get any pictures of Scott's work, but you'll see what we were lusting after by visiting Scott's website. As neither of had a spare $4,000, we were left to drool on the beautiful boat (which, truth to tell, I'd be almost afraid to put in the water).

By now we had missed most of the vocal traditions session, but were able to catch some of the North Bear drummers and singers from the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Lame Deer, Montana. As an aside, I feel obliged to point out that the tribal college for the Northern Cheyenne is named Dull Knife, or Chief Dull Knife College, and one has to wonder why the Deer was Lame.

The Fiddle Masters followed Vocal Tradition, and much to my amazement, Kevin really wanted to hear this session. Well let's see, we had Michael Doucet of Beausoleil representing Cajun fiddle music. We had Brian Conway of Pride of New York representing the Irish fiddle music of Galway. Gary Harrison played traditional Mid-West style fiddle music, and Texas Shorty played the music of, you guessed it, Texas. The microphone passed from musician to musician and the hour passed quickly, almost as quickly as the tune Soldier's Joy, which the whole stage united to play in closing their set.

We stayed put in the Quartz Street Stage's tent, and watched in amazement as the area filled with spectators eager to watch the Massive Monkees. Who would have thought that there would be so many middle-aged white folk in Butte, Montana, eager to experience urban break dancing. I didn't get any pictures of the Seattle-based group because we were packed in so tightly that it was near impossible to move, let alone get in a good position for photos.

Following the Monkees, we were able to stay at Quartz Street for Chuck and Albert, two guys from Prince Edward Island, Canada, who played fiddle, percussion, sang, danced, joked, in French and English. Some of their antics were downright ludicrous, but such great fun that I was sorry to miss the end of their set.

The Ethel Caffie-Austin Singers on the Granite Street Stage
Taken 7/11/09 in Butte, Montana

Again, in order to move between stages, we needed to leave a little time, and Ethel Caffie-Austin and her singers were due to perform in the Granite Street Stage. Known as "West Virginia's First Lady of Gospel Music," Ms. Caffie-Austin was quick to tell the audience that the Mountain State (West Virginia) didn't have any mountains as grand as Montana's. I had really wanted to hear this performance, but at five in the afternoon, the sun was beating down on my head in the open seating area, and that, combined with the sound problems that had the music completely unbalanced, had me suggest to Kevin that it was time for us to hit the road home.

What all did we miss? A lot. We didn't hear Beausoleil, nor the Pride of New York. We missed the Mariachis and the Melody of China. We didn't hear Sierra Hull--a protegé of Allison Krause, nor did we experience any of the Steel String Guitar Masters. Actually there's way too much stuff that we missed, and I couldn't begin to tell you about all of it anyway.

The National Folk Festival got its start in St. Louis in 1934. It visits a town for three consecutive years, then moves on. As I understand it, this was the first time the Festival has been held in the West. Last year the Festival drew 70,000 people to Butte, once the largest city in Montana with fully 1/4 of the state's population back in 1910. Today the story is different. Butte has a population around 35,000, and for the city to throw a party that doubles, or even triples the number of people on the street is nothing short of miraculous. Next year will be Butte's third and last year for hosting the festival, and it's not too late to get your lodging reserved. This year there wasn't a room available in a 60 mile radius. All the events are free and open to the public, but bring your card for the food, drink and CD sales. You won't regret visiting the Mining City, Butte America in July, 2010--July 9th, 10th, and 11th to be specific.

Adventures in HDR

But I see your true colors
shining through
I see your true colors
and that's why I love you
so don't be afraid to let them show
your true colors
true colors are beautiful
like a rainbow

--Cyndi Lauper

To hear Cyndi Lauper sing True Colors, click here.

Indian Paintbrush--finally an image I like!
HDR Image taken 7/18/09
Glacier National Park, Montana

I'm not a Ham Radio operator, nor do I claim to understand the passion that so many Ham operators seem to have for their activity. I can appreciate the service they give to the community, especially in times of peril, and I can see how it can be fun to talk with anyone or everyone while you're driving down the road. I do go into on-line chat rooms, after all, and I see little difference other than Ham Radio is much older as an activity.

That said, as many of you know from reading my blogs over the past year, I'm all but married (Thanks DOMA, for nothing) to a Ham operator, and some of our closest friends are also Hams. (Is that what they're called? I'm afraid to ask.) Yesterday our friend Mike drove us up to the Waterton Glacier Hamfest for 2009. We attended the 2008 get together as well, and we couldn't help but notice that a lot more people were driving to northern Montana this year than last. Could it be that gas is no longer over $4.00 a gallon?

A Hamfest like this is a chance for people to get together, swap stories and equipment, and even take in a few activities of mutual interest. Personally, once I've gone around the ring of motor homes and seen all the old equipment I care to see, I'd just as soon leave the chatting to those who share a passion. My passion is photography, so while Kevin and Mike chatted with fellow Hams, I headed out around the campground, camera, bag and tripod in hand.

Very Showy Aster
HDR Image Taken 7/18/09
Glacier National Park, Montana

You may remember my previous posts on High Density Range photographic imagery. If not, you can read about it here and here. One of the main things I have learned is that a tripod is more than a luxury, actually more of a necessity if you want your pictures to come out at all well. I've also learned that I never seem to have the right lens fitted to the camera, so this time I had both the tripod and the camera bag with all my lenses with me.

As in previous HDR work, I started out with flowers--the wildflowers growing around the campground. These were mainly Queen Anne's Lace, Daisies, Showy Asters, and Indian Paintbrush. I love paintbrush, but have never been able to get a decent photo of the plant. My shots have always looked as if they would make better impressionist paintings than crisp, bright photographs. This trip I worked a lot on shooting paintbrush. I like the image at the top of the page. Hope you do too.

Fence
HDR Image Taken 7/18/09
Glacier National Park, Montana

But where I had questioned HDR imagery before was in landscape photography. Since my earlier attempts, which frankly made me wonder what was the big deal with HDR, I've read that some photographers use HDR in landscape work because they feel it renders the image more life-like. The colors come out closer to what the eye sees. I therefore resolved to move away from macro shots of flowers, and try again with the landscape work. I'm pretty pleased with the way things turned out. As you can see here, I not only tried landscapes, but also some middle ground shots like the fence above, and even a stolen red pickup. (In case you're wondering, I'm putting together a photo book of red pickups I've seen around the country. They are "stolen" only in that I don't tell the owner what I'm doing nor do I ask permission.)

I did partake in one of the Hamfest activities. I suppose because people who are into one kind of gadget are also into others, there was a special workshop on GPS units and geocaching. As a novice geocacher with 150+ finds to my credit, I attended the workshop. Turns out it was very basic, intended for people who had little to no experience with geocaching, and I can't say I learned anything new. I did have several people ask me about my camera and photography, though, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Shortly after the geocaching workshop, we heard the chop-chop-chop of a helicopter overhead. Yes, it was one of those confounded black helicopters the conspiracy theorists love to complain about. After circling the area about three times, it landed in the field where I'd been taking photos earlier in the day. Ah--it was Homeland Security come to check up on us. We were, after all, practically on an international border and there were lots of non-US flags flying (Canada, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan were the ones I saw). Lots of US flags were flying as well, as befits an international gathering. I have no idea what the Customs and Border Protection folk were doing there, but in no time they had drawn a large crowd, many of whom climbed into the chopper.

Birch Grove

HDR Image Taken 7/18/09
Glacier National Park, Montana
If you choose to look at only one image full screen,
choose this one!

By this time, we were ready for lunch, and since the burger line was so long at the gathering, Mike, Kevin and I headed back toward West Glacier. I was happy to introduce Mike to the Isaac Walton Inn at Essex, Montana--a former Great Northern Railroad Hotel on the south edge of Glacier Park. We stopped there for lunch (and more photos). I had a great buffalo French dip. Kevin and Mike were more conventional in their choices, but we were all happy with our meal. I would give the Isaac Walton Inn my highest recommendation. The food is always good, the location is beautiful, and the rooms are reasonable. Give it a try next time you're in the area.

After lunch, we headed on to West Glacier, and then into the park itself. Stopping first at Apgar Village, I got some very nice pictures of the old Gearjammer Ford motorcoaches that still carry tourists up and over Logan Pass on the Going to the Sun Highway. I also got some nice views of Lake McDonald both from Apgar Village and from the Lake McDonald Lodge.

We all had such a great time, that we decided that next weekend we'd head back to Glacier and this time drive all the way across the park on Going to the Sun. As I took no more images for HDR processing after leaving the hamfest, you won't see any of my Glacier Park pictures in this post. You can see them, however, on my Picasa on-line galleries. The HDR photos are all in the album Adventures in HDR and the images I've processed normally are in the 20090718 album.

As always, all links and photos can be viewed in a new window. I really recommend looking at the images I've shared on this post in a full screen mode--just double click on the image and it will open full screen in a new window. And while we're at it, what do you think of this landscape HDR shot?

Looking into Glacier National Park
HDR Image Taken 7/18/09

Squash--a Photoshop Odyssey

Amapola, my pretty little poppy
You're like that lovely flower so sweet and heavenly,
Since I found you, my heart is wrapped around you
And loving you, it seems to beat a rhapsody.

--English language lyrics by Albert Gamse

To hear Andrea Bocelli sing Amapola in Spanish, click here.

Why do I bother I don't know
I'll turn off my radio
Day after day
The airways are awash
With songs of ones in love
And those who are out of
There's just not enough songs about squash

To hear Darren Hanlon sing this, click here.

But at night i'd had these wonderful dreams
Some kind of sensuous treat
Not zucchini, fettuccine or Bulgar wheat
But a big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat

To hear Jimmy Buffett sing Cheeseburger in Paradise, click here.

ISO 125 50mm f /13 1/90 second

Okay, okay, enough with the songs already. Geez, we normally only get one song and here there are three. Well, yeah. But there are also five pictures that are almost identical unless you look really closely. What's going on here?

Well first off, let's talk about the songs. When I began thinking about this post, I had a set of shots of a yellow squash blossom...12 shots, to be exact. The first song that came to my mind was Amapola, which I remember hearing as "Amapola, pretty little flower...." And certainly, this squash blossom is a pretty little flower, or a pretty not-so-little flower. But when I went to look up the lyrics for Amapola, I learned that 1) Amapola refers to a poppy, not just any old yellow flower, and 2) the lyrics as written on the web actually say "poppy," not "flower." Hmm.

OK, so let's do a search for "songs about squash." That brought up the Darren Hanlon song, "There's not enough songs about squash." Well, I could certainly agree with that statement, and the song is fun, even if the squash it's talking about is the racket-ball game, not the vegetable.

Finally, what pops into my mind but Cheeseburger in Paradise. The only problem here is that the squash in question (or in the pictures) is not a zucchini, but rather a hard winter squash. So, you get three songs, none of which actually fit the bill. But they're fun songs so enjoy anyway.

That brings us to the pictures themselves. This started out to be an exercise in HDR processing. The sun was shining brightly, a bit too brightly perhaps, on one particular squash blossom, so I got my camera, fitted it with the Sigma 50 mm macro lens, put the whole thing on my tripod and knelt down to snap away setting the bracketing to 2 stops plus and minus. If you remember my previous post about HDR, the process involves taking three (or more) shots at different exposures and then letting Photoshop merge the shots together to form one. For this to work, it is crucial that there be no camera movement between the various exposures. Unfortunately, my tripod, even with the legs splayed as far apart as possible, kept my camera at too great a distance to take a macro shot at 50 mm. I'm back to holding the camera by hand and hoping for the best. My best wasn't good enough. Even with a camera capable of taking 3 shots per second, my ability to shake the camera during that second was even greater. So much for HDR with this image.

ISO 125 50 mm f/11 1/125 second

These days I shoot entirely in "raw" format. If you don't understand what that means, you can think of "raw" as being the rough equivalent of a film negative. An image shot in "raw" cannot be used directly, but has to be processed and changed into a different format, usually TIFF or JPEG. I'm not going to go into those formats here. Suffice it to say that the purpose of a "raw" image is, and here I quote Wikipedia, "to faithfully record both 100% of exactly what the sensor "saw" or "sensed" (the data), and the conditions surrounding the recording of the image (the metadata).

ISO 125 50mm f/8 1/25o second

Once you have downloaded your shots from camera to computer, you can load them into Photoshop's Camera Raw processing dialog. In my attempt to play with HDR, I chose to shoot each set of photos using a different aperture and shutter speed. Usually for daytime shots, I shoot in aperture priority mode, which means that I set the aperture and let the camera choose the shutter speed automatically. Under similar lighting conditions, every time you change the aperture, the shutter speed will adjust accordingly. The smaller the aperture, the more time will be required to let in the appropriate amount of light. If you look at these pictures, you'll see that as I opened the aperture step by step, the shutter speed increased. The top photo here was taken with the aperture set at f /13, which required 1/90th of a second to get what the camera considered the "proper" exposure. The second set of shots was taken at f /11 which required a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second. For the third, I opened the aperture even further to f /8 and finally to f /5.6, which caused the camera to use shutter speeds of 1/250th and 1/500th of a second respectively. The idea here was to find what difference there would be in the amount of detail obtained. As a rule of thumb, the larger the aperture, the shallower the depth of field. Since I was working with a macro lens, trying to get as close as possible to my subject, there isn't a great difference in the depth of field required.

ISO 125 50 mm f /5.6 1/500 second

In the end, I used HDR processing for one group of images, the second group. I then went back and took the "standard" exposure from each group, and brought them one at a time into the Camera Raw dialogue. In an effort to reduce variability, I used exactly the same settings for each image. In Photoshop CS4, Camera Raw allows you a great deal of latitude and many ways of processing your images. As I'm just learning, I stuck with the "Basic" tab which gives options for adjusting the "white balance," the "temperature," the "tint," the "exposure," "recovery," "fill light," "blacks," "brightness," "contrast," "clarity," "vibrance," and "saturation." You also have the choice of clicking on "Auto" to let Photoshop set these ranges, or "Default" which will take you back to the way your camera set the image in the first place. At some point in the future, I'll go into greater depth on each of these various adjustments. For now, I'll leave you with the task of trying to determine if there is, indeed, any visible difference in the five images. I look forward to your feedback.

Photo #2 above processed as an HDR image

Five small glass jars

You’re the cream in my coffee,
You’re the salt in my stew;
You will always be my necessity--
I’d be lost without you.

B.G. DeSylva / Lew Brown / Ray Henderson

To hear Nat King Cole sing "You're the Cream in My Coffee," click here.

OK, so this is really about yogurt, but I couldn't think of any songs about yogurt off hand. I'm sure someone, maybe even Stephen Sondheim, has written about the sour thick dairy product I put in my morning smoothie, but frankly, if I can't think of a song to fit my topic easily, it probably doesn't exist.

My morning ritual these days, aside from the 3s routine and shooting the dog at 7 am, revolves around two liquids. When I first get up, I head to the kitchen and make myself a bowl of café au lait. Yes, I said bowl, and that's this morning's bowl at the top of the page. When I'm not drinking coffee out of it, the bowl serves well to hold a full can's worth of Campbell's Tomato Soup.

I grind my beans, pour the grounds into the small metal container and then tamp them down. Fill the espresso machine with enough water to make 4 cups of espresso and fill the milk pitcher with a combination of hazelnut creamer and whole milk. Once the milk has been steamed and frothed, and the coffee brewed, I sprinkle some Saigon cinnamon on the top and sit back to slowly sip the broth, covering my mustache with white foam, as I contemplate the day ahead.

Once I've finished my coffee, it's time to shoot the dog. Rocky, our 12 year old male MinPin, is diabetic and has to have insulin shots twice a day. Over time I have learned that if Rocky has a doggie biscuit in his mouth, I can stick a needle in his neck and he doesn't bite me. We've been giving Rocky shots for about eight years now. I don't know why it took me so long to learn this trick.

Ingredients: Culture, Dry Milk, Whole Milk That's ALL!
Taken 6/30/09 in Missoula, Montana

Like many children of the 60s, I have many strange and wonderful kitchen gadgets gathering dust around the house. Fondue pots, salad spinners, and we won't talk about all the different gadgets designed to pop corn. I even have not one, but two yogurt makers. And this week, I finally got tired of seeing one of them sit neglected on top of the kitchen cabinets.

The next part of my morning ritual involves making a berry smoothie. The smoothie is a combination of açai juice, vanilla yogurt, protein whey powder, a banana and a handful or two of frozen raspberries, blueberries and marionberries,which I blend together in my smoothie maker. It seems I'm always running out of one or another of these ingredients, and the mix just isn't the same if you change or omit anything. (I know, consistency IS the bugaboo of small minds.)

Strangely enough, the item that is absolutely essential--and most likely to be missing from my pantry--is yogurt. I'm very particular about the yogurt I buy, and sometimes none of my brands are on the shelf in the supermarket. What's a mother to do? Well, I have these yogurt makers, don'cha know.

I haven't actually made yogurt in a good many years. The one "maker" just sits up on top the kitchen cabinet attracting grease and dust. The other is in storage at my mountain cabin. But it can't be all that difficult, right? I have done it before. So Tuesday evening, June 30th, I searched on line for a way to make yogurt in a Salton yogurt maker--and I found several versions of the same basic recipe. Now the machine they all described didn't seem to match mine at all. For one thing, there is no light on my gadget to tell me that it's actually working. For another, instead of having one large container, mine has five small (6 oz approximately) glass jars. But what the hey.

Five small glass jars with freshly made yogurt
Taken 7/1/09 in Missoula Montana

Now I'm getting ahead of my story by showing the picture above here, because at this point I hadn't even begun the process. The recipe called for one quart milk, one-half cup powdered dry milk, a package of yogurt starter culture (or as an alternative 2 Tbs of plain yogurt) and that's it. If you've never made yogurt (but have baked bread), think of the starter culture as the yeast or the 2 Tbs of yogurt as the sourdough starter. In the past I had used the starter culture, but had none in my fridge. First things first, I jumped in the Saab and drove to our newly built neighborhood Safeway. Hmm, nothing in the "natural foods" section, nothing in the baking supplies. When I asked a sweet young thing in a Safeway apron, she tried to direct me to the yogurt section of the dairy case. When I finally made her understand what I really wanted, she let me know that Safeway no longer carried the culture. OK, that's why we have a Good Foods Store here in Missoula (think of it as a locally owned version of Whole Foods).

Sure enough, the Good Foods Store had the culture, and while I was there I decided to treat myself to Lifeline Dairy's real, organic, non-homogenized (cream rises to the top) whole milk. I love drinking it--it just seems so rich and, well, creamy. It would really make my yogurt special. Of course a half gallon costs almost as much as two gallons of whole milk at Costco, but, hey, I'm worth it.

Back home, the next step was to assemble (and clean) the necessary tools. OK one large Revere Ware saucepan, one candy thermometer, one large spoon, the yogurt maker and the five small glass jars and their lids. The recipe I was using said to sterilize the saucepan, candy thermometer and spoon by boiling water, so while I was waiting for the water to boil, I washed the five small glass jars and their lids. That done, I was ready to proceed.

The recipe is exceedingly simple. Mix the whole milk and the dry milk in the saucepan, heat it to between 185 and 195 degrees, let it cool to between 108 and 110 degrees, add the starter culture, place in yogurt maker and wait 4 - 8 hours. What could be simpler. And indeed it was simply done. I found it took ten minutes for the milk to heat to 190 degrees. It took 50 minutes for it to cool back down to 110, and it took almost no time to mix in the starter culture and pour the liquid into the five small glass jars. Since this was the first time in ages I had actually made my own yogurt, I watched the thermometer very closely--checking on it every ten minutes as the mixture cooled. But that was the only difficult part--and really, how difficult is it to get up off the couch and go look at the thermometer.

Watching the thermometer--a crucial part of the process
Taken 6/30/09 in Missoula Montana

Once I had the mixture in the five small glass jars, there was nothing to do but go to bed and wait. Notice I didn't say "go to bed and sleep." My insomnia kicked in as I lay there contemplating whether I would "wake" to actual yogurt or just some weird mixture of milk and active cultures. Finally around 6 am I went downstairs to check on my babies. And yes, as you can see in the picture above, my five small glass jars were filled with yummy looking, real, home-made yogurt. But the proof of any cooking venture, is, as they say, in the pudding--or in this case in the smoothie. How would it taste?

Devine. Very firm texture, yet smooth and creamy, very tart--remember, just milk and culture, no sweetener, no flavoring agent. I drooled as I emptied the small glass jar's contents in my smoothie maker, adding the açai juice, protein whey powder, banana and berries. And indeed, the smoothie was terrific. Come by some time and I'll make you one.

The finished product--a mixed berry smoothie with home-made yogurt
Taken 7/1/09 in Missoula, Montana

The next step--of course there's a next step--is to experiment with flavoring the yogurt. I have my Mexican vanilla, but I'm open to suggestions. Let me know what you put in your home-made yogurt--and at what point you add it. Let's share. It'll be fun!