At a recent get-together, I do not remember how the subject came up, but people wanted to know how I made soymilk, and I told them. I have been drinking soymilk so long, I cannot even tell you how much a gallon of milk costs at the grocery store, but I know it is nowhere near the twenty-five cents a gallon I pay to make a gallon of soymilk. If you are accustomed to a low-fat diet, you drink skim milk or soymilk already, or you think your kids might go for it, you should consider the savings of making your own soymilk.

The initial outlay of cash stops most people, but it should not. Even though good soymilk makers cost between $100 and $150, they easily pay for themselves in a couple of months, and start making money right away. I bought my SoyaJoy soymilk machine at least six years ago, never had any problems with it and have enjoyed fresh soymilk ever since. The machine itself has only three parts, and, once you turn it on, it does all the work.

Making soymilk starts the night before with soaking the beans. The organic, dried soybeans cost around eighty-five cents a pound at Vitamin Cottage and a couple of pounds will go a long, long way. Using the small, plastic scoop that comes with the machine, (a shot glass will work just as well), scoop a full scoop of the dry beans into a cup or other small container of the same size. Cover the beans with filtered water, (filtered water not only to take out chemicals, but because it makes the soymilk taste better), just enough to allow for absorption and wait nine hours.

After the beans have soaked for a while, pour them into the basket of the soymilk maker and attach it to the bottom of the grinder. Again using filtered water, fill the pitcher of the machine up to the line inside the container and place the grinder with the basket in place on top. Next, plug the electrical cord into a 120-volt outlet, attach the other end of the cord to the motor of the grinder and press the button on top of the machine.

In a process that takes about 15 minutes, the machine will heat the water to boiling, grind the beans several times, and produce hot, soymilk. Some people drink the soymilk this way, but we like to add a few things to it in a mixture we call "octane". Our octane consists of "Cal-Mag-Zinc", brown rice syrup, vanilla, sea salt and flax oil. We add the "Cal-Mag-Zinc" since we are vegetarians, the vanilla and syrup add flavor, and the flax oil provides Omega three fatty acids. You may want to plan your soymilk making to occur the night before so that you can have cold soymilk with breakfast. It is great on oatmeal and bran flakes.

Since each batch is only around ½ gallon, you might want to consider making several batches on the same day to provide enough soymilk for a week or so. Since it is a pure product with no preservatives, it generally does not last longer than two weeks, and you can tell it is going bad when it starts to "separate". Yet, even if you have to throw a half gallon out in the garden, it only cost about twelve cents to replace it. To store our soymilk, we saved glass, half-gallon bottles from apple juice. Glass recycles beautifully, is easy to sterilize and can be used over and over again, although I do advise against allowing small children to handle glass bottles of any size.

The only problems to consider with making your own soymilk are: 1) Will your kids drink it? 2) The initial cost, 3) It takes a little bit of time in preparation, and 4) Storage space. After making such a reliable machine that has worked perfectly for over six years, I do not know if the company is still in business or can manage to stay in business, but you can try to contact them at www.soymilkmaker.com for more information, pictures and recipes. Also, I will happily send along the exact recipe for our "octane" to any reader requesting it, and I am interested in hearing your soymilk stories of success.