Quote of the Day

"A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."


- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Faust & W.H. Murray, The Scottish Himalaya Expedition

Winter Wool

Farm Dreaming

I read somewhere recently that when you’re searching for a new path you should go back to what you wanted to do when you were 6. Ask any kid that age what they want to do when they grow up and they’ll probably have an answer. From what I remember, mine was ved-erin-arian (veterinarian), small zoo keeper and ranch owner. At 10 I BEGGED my parents for a pony; at 12 I made a list of 100 horse names with my best friend Stephanie; at 14 I was learning to jump horses in a ring. And then all that stuff just sort of stopped. And here I am in my 30s wondering if I what I should really be doing is farming.  

What if I just tried it? On a small scale. What's the worst thing that could happen?

Really, really easy bread

Impress your friends, feel like a homesteader, eat real bread!

I’m a big fan of Michael Pollen’s approach to eating in Food Rules:

“Eat real food

Mostly plants

Not too much.”

I think this bread recipe fits the bill (adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day). It has four “real” ingredients:

3 cups warm water

1.5 tbsp yeast

1.5 tbsp salt

6 cups flour

In a large bowl, combine water, yeast and salt. Don’t worry about making sure all the yeast dissolves. Then add your flour – all at once! I usually do 5 cups white flour and 1 cup whole wheat. Play around with it to get the mix you want. You can get fancy and add some extra grains like oats, or flax seed.

Mix. When you can’t mix anymore with a spoon, use wet hands to pack the rest of the flour into the dough. DO NOT KNEAD. Just press it together. Then cover your bowl (I use a plate) and let it rise until it has doubled, about 2 hours.

Now you are ready to use your dough to make bread, or you can put it in the fridge (with a lid on it, but not an airtight seal) and use it at some point over the next 2 weeks. It makes three small loaves, or two larger ones. Need more? You can easily double this recipe.

Baking Day

OK, you’re ready to bake. Take the dough out of the fridge and tear off a chunk of dough. Grapefruit-sized will make a small loaf that you and I other person could probably devour at dinner. Dust the chunk liberally with flour so you can manipulate the dough without it sticking to your hands. At this point you will shape it, but again DO NOT KNEAD. What you are about to do is create a gluten cloak. Check out this video to see how.

After shaping, leave the bread to rest for 20 minutes on a cutting board that has been dusted with cornmeal. This will help it slide off the board and into the oven if you are using a pizza stone. Otherwise you can let it rest on your baking sheet (no cornmeal required).  After 20 minutes, start pre-heating your oven to 450°. If you have a pizza stone, place it in the oven for pre-heating. Also, place an old baking dish in the oven – something you don’t mind getting a bit rusty if it’s metal. 

After another 20 minutes, slide your loaf into the oven and quickly pour 1 cup of hot water into the baking dish. The water creates a bit of steam in the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes and voila – artisan bread! Best enjoyed with butter and eaten all at once on the spot! OK, that’s not really part of Michael Pollen’s approach, but it is really hard to stop.

- Thanks Verena for passing on the recipe.