The big thing today was that the first snow came. It snowed all day but didn’t amount to much at all. When it started snowing this morning, I got out in the garden to finish a couple of projects in case the weather got bad.
I did some digging.
Planted the last of the garlic.
Finished covering the stone work (temporarily).
Then went in and made some sourdough bread (baked this evening).
Plus four and a half liters of two year rice miso.
The weather is getting more and more conducive to staying indoors and doing kitchen activities.
I haven’t made sourdough bread since spring, so the starter looks pretty bad.
A few spoonsful of old starter from the bottom in a new jar with some rye flour, wheat flour, honey, and some warm water, mixed and left in a warm place, should get the yeast and lactic acid bacteria growing again. Make sure the honey, a source of active yeast, has not been heated or pasteurised.
If this doesn’t work, we can always get some from someone else or start from scratch again.
I’m waiting for the sun to dry out and warm up the soil after two weeks of cold and rain. Then it will be tilling, sowing and planting like crazy.
In the meantime I’ll make some kimchi, sourdough bread and mow the lawn which is growing fast.
Following my wifes instructions this time (almost completely) the bread turned out much better.
Quite a bit more moist and airy and delicious.
But still the crust is too hard. Looks like I’ll need a lot more practice to get it just right.
I haven’t made any sourdough bread for many years. The kids have taken it up, so I wanted get back into it again. I couldn’t quite remember the routine, so I figured I’d better go by the book. The book was wrong (or did I misinterpret something). The bread turned out hard and compact like a brick. It tasted great, but this is not the way I want it. Out it goes – to the birds.
I’ve started another dough – this time I’ll listen to the rest of the family. So far it looks very promising.
timogarden 