So, I'm sitting around the house picking my nose and not getting out because it is snowing like December. It would appear that bravery is no longer part of my charming personality and "Candy Ass" is becoming the word of the day. I wanted to go to the town bakery to fetch up a couple loaves of deluxe bread, but instead I shuffled around the house with my head down trying to muster the fortitude to make the half mile trudge---even though it would be delightful. My knee does hurt, right.
That is when a thought entered my mind. Why should I fight my way through a blizzard so mighty that the average Norwegian would cower by the stove when, in fact, I could make the bread myself. If I am so set on being sustainable, why would I want to lay down good folding money to the tune of $10 when for no more than one buck I could do it.
I recalled that on Ann's family farm, grandma would get up early (too early for me) , mix up the dough in about fifteen minutes, dump it in a big bowl, set it by the fire to raise and then do other things. A couple hours later she'd slap it around, split it and pack it in a couple of tins to rise again.
Once up and running, or blowed up, or what ever one calls it when it rises, off it went to the oven for a hour or so. Bingo, by 11:00 there were two fresh loves, probably 25 cents then, total time worked, one half hour.
I figured, what the hell why not learn. What do I have to lose and I do have something to gain---just one more little piece of knowledge to make me sustainable. To top it off, I just bought a flower mill to grind my own grain---even though it is not here yet. Plus, there is a dude in town that grows hard red wheat and sells it for $8/bushel. We have eggs and the milk is produced locally. The only thing that I really don't know where it comes from is the stinking yeast--and it is not cheap. Reckon I will have to go to a sour dough mix that we can keep for generations at no cost. A number of quarts of our own maple syrup still hides in the cabinet, so we have it all. The truly local, sustainable loaf will be next.
Anyway, here is my bread. More like 2 hours work and $1.50 total but I am learning. I love being sustainable.
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