Sour Dough Bread

The starter used in my breads stays refrigerated for 3-7 days before it is either mixed into bread dough, or refreshed.  I like to use it for bread by the 3rd or 4th day.  Any residual starter is refrigerated and used for our special Sunday sour dough pancake breakfast, while watching CBS Sunday morning.  Not much goes to waste around here---just to our waist's!

This past year, while the kitchen was undergoing a major remodel, the decision had to be made to either give up the starter, or deal with it in the camp trailer.  The camp trailer worked beautifully for mixing the dough; baking the bread took place outside.  As luck would have it, we hung onto the pizza ovens which were used in our Blakey Island  pizza business.  The back deck looked a little unusual decorated with a pizza oven, however,  nobody saw it but us and the assorted country critters wandering about.  Oh boy, the smell of freshly baking bread outdoors trumps the smell of the neighbor's cattle yards.

Now, the kitchen is complete with two wonderful ovens that are used non-stop.  For instance, today exactly at noon, hot cinnamon rolls came out of the oven and screamed to be eaten for lunch.  Of course we were happy to oblige.....weight be damned!  Where is everyone when we need to be saved???

Life is good!

Bread Baking--"Farm Style"

So back in February, 2010, I had been experimenting with bread baking--and not just any old bread baking. It had to be artisan type.  I had not been as successful as I had hoped with some of my recipes so, determined to get good at this, I started my research and came upon an excellent article written by a master of artisan bread baking who uses wild yeast as a fermenting agent.  Organic raisins turned out to be the choice in getting my own wild yeast started since I am afterall, growing grapes that could go either way--wine or dried up and used as a raisin.  If I were one of the the grapes talking right now, I am certain that it would choose to wind up in a fine wine, as opposed to drying up and turning into a wrinkled raisin.  Wrinkles aren't near as attractive.


The starter was relitively easy to make, however, keeping it alive and healthy is another story.  Tending it is a labor of love and once it starts it's hard to walk away.  It's just one of the living things on this farm that need to be kept alive.  It has been almost a year since the lively little critter came to life, foaming and bubbling and turning plain old flour, water, and salt into the most glorious loaves of bread to come out of this farm kitchen, yet.  Well, to be honest, there have also been a few questionable loaves......I'll just leave it at that.

I thought it would be fun to post progressive pictures of how the starter looks once it is refreshed and ready to be mixed into bread dough.  So, I will stop now with all the bread blather and post the pictures which show how wild yeast starter should look. 



Refreshed Starter



Six hours later and ready for the fridge

Life is good!

A Beautiful Sunshiny Day--At Last!

When the sun came out today, it seemed to be prodding me to get this blog going.  Hopefully, this communication will enable family and friends to keep in touch and see what life is like on this grape farm.  Besides that--everyone else is blogging, so why not me?  I remember about 6-7 years ago before retiring from my job, the boss told everyone to contribute daily to the company blog.  My thoughts??  Duh, what's a blog?  Now I fully appreciate and understand the value of a blog, but also wonder where some of the diatribe winds up??

I am sitting at my desk with the sun streaming through the window---woof, life couldn't get much better, except maybe to take a walk through the vinyard.  This is the year that some key pruning goes on and if done correctly, the vines should produce a few grapes.  If the weather holds, I will arm myself with a sharp pruning tool and tackle the vines sometime in February or March.  After two years of nurturing, it seems almost cruel to now cut their precious parts, but I am determined to produce a quality grape that will feel proud when it is smashed and made into liquid bliss.

Life is good.