sourdough, I’ll get it eventually

Making bread has been my favorite homestead skill to learn because there are so many ones to try. I love being able to whip up a simple sandwich bread, an aromatic rosemary ~artisan~ loaf or a wicked dense, whole grain bread party. There has been one type of bread that has given me trouble since I started baking: sourdough~

I bought the dang Bread Bible, flipped to the sourdough section and started mixing. Directions seem simple enough: measure water and flour, mix, no touchy, repeat in 2 days or whatever. It’s when the feeding of the yeast starts that my eyes cross and I give up.

Convinced it’s the book and not me  I’m going to try another book, The Zero Waste Chef. I have followed ZWC on Instagram for years now and while her zero waste life is pretty extreme and no frills, she shows that big changes can be possible. And she’s a big sourdough head so hopefully I’ll have more success with the sought-after sourdough. 

ocean state to vacationland

Instead of sticking around in Rhode Island for another year we abandoned our yurt plan and  moved into a tiny town in western Maine. 

Now that things have mostly settled and we’ve emptied two out of three storage units, we couldn’t be happier with our decision. Our new town is quite small and we’re sort of becoming regulars at a delicious diner and general store, which is quaint for the suburbanites we once were. I think we’re over most of the culture shocks we had when we first moved in (how far an hour gets you in a state almost 30 times the size of Rhode Island, just how many varieties of maple syrup you can buy at Hannafords, that you can buy hard liquor and beer at any Hannafords and that there’s nearly a 1-to-1 ratio of antique stores and weed shops.) and with our new licenses and temp plates for the car, we’re Mainers~

Potato and Chip have really been enjoying their new homestead. Only having a 1/8th of an acre back in Rhode Island, 19 acres in a town even other Maine residents haven’t heard of feels infinite. Several berry bushes and apple trees have been bought in preparation for our first spring on the homestead so excitement levels are high. We have also been talking about future outbuildings we’d like to build. Between compost piles, saunas, tiny houses, bee houses, terraced garden beds, arbors, 2 decks— you get the idea, 19 acres doesn’t seem big enough. I don’t want to wish the winter away but there’s so much we can’t wait to get started on. 

Until the Great Cold is over, there are plenty of things I will be working on in the meantime. 

homestead basics: bread

It’s been ~4 years since I began baking my own bread and it’s become one of the easiest skills to learn. Granted, I usually make the same two bread recipes at any given time, but I’ve tried my hand at naan-esque flatbreads a couple of times. Those haven’t come out as good as proper Indian restaurants but it’s still fun to try. Assuming you’re not following some hellish low-carb lifestyle or need to avoid gluten, baking your own bread is relatively easy and a fun way to make the kitchen smell amazing. 

My go-to recipe is a no-knead ~artisinal~ bread I found on Pinterest. With four ingredients: salt, yeast, warm water, and the flour of your choice, you’ll be chowing down on bread in no time. This one is probably the easiest to adjust due to how simple the ingredients are. Making a golden-crusted, chewy rosemary bread just calls for as much rosemary as I can stand, and swapping out all-purpose flour for bread flour. Instead, if I’m feeling very earthy-crunchy, I’ll use whole wheat flour instead and include add-ins like whole flax seeds, millet, and chia seeds. Be warned though, whole wheat flour doesn’t screw around and it will create a pretty dense loaf. A possible downside to this recipe is that it calls for a minimum of 8 hours to rise at room temp. I usually leave it for the full 24 hours for sake of convenience and laziness but I’ve had successful loaves at both times.

My next project will be trying a sourdough starter. I’ve attempted it a couple of times and promptly forgot to feed it which eventually killed it. Once our housing situation has been figured out and settled, I’ll be trying it again because sourdough is delicious.