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!