05 November 2005

Bread Alone


Bread Alone















‘Bread and water - these are the things nature requires. For such things no man is too poor, and whosoever can limit his desire to them alone can rival Jupiter for happiness
~Seneca

Well Sam I have to hand it to you, that is a mighty fine recipe for bread! I made an managerial resolution for the household today, call it a “patriarchal pondering” and could not shake the thought of Sam’s Bread Recipe or the idea of some fresh baked bread in the home. For those of you who may not know of what I am speaking about see this post from Ksmilkmaid at her previous blogger site, you can read more of her writings at her new site here.

My original plan was to wait for an order of white wheat from Montana and mill it up before Thanksgiving for my wife to bake and bring to my brother’s house. All day I kept thinking of Sam’s first letter mentioned using hard red wheat, being “somewhat heavier and darker in colour along with slightly more flavour”. Well Sam you were right ~ tasty! I picked up a sack of stone ground hard red wheat, gave the wife the night off, and went to work. Now we don’t own a bread machine (don’t want one either) and our economy doesn’t provide for a mixer with a dough hook so I employed my ‘meat hooks’ and a 'wee bit' of Irish elbow grease which I assure you worked out just fine. Ten minutes to mix, an hour to rest (the dough too ~ grin!) and down to the oven I went. Our oven is in the basement, we have a cook top upstairs, but that’s another story……

Well, 45 minutes later the upstairs is filled with the aroma of baking bread! Now a cautionary note, hot fresh bread with a generous serving of butter in moderation is a wonderful thing. I heeded Christina’s admonishment of potential ‘agony’ and stopped at one generous slice. This is not you store bought bread for “lightweights” this is rewarding substance that will get the heavy lifting done in the late afternoons!

My first batch produced four loaves so there will be some happy people at assembly Sunday, and the largest of loaves will go to my good neighbor here in Catskill who helps me with my Homework. It’s rewarding to have a neighbor and a few friends who you can share life with; it makes for what we call “living the good life”….. Matthew 4:4 (to be continued)



Note:
A recommendation for ‘modern’ folk who employ all sorts of “air fresheners” an their like, nothing makes a home smell like home then fresh baked bread. You can then “freecycle” contraptions such as this, and your family will be the better for it.

3 Comments:

At 6:56 PM, Blogger Hexdek16 said...

I gang, just puting up a test post to see if I am experiencing any technical difficulties………please stand by………..

 
At 7:10 PM, Blogger Hexdek16 said...

This Comment posted on behalf of KSmilkmaid via electronic mail

I am so excited for you and glad Sam was able to share. This bread is awesome! I have almost polished off 50lbs of wheat. I bought 100lbs. 50 white and 50 red. Sam will continue milling for me. I gave away a loaf to another customer tonight. It was so puffy and robust. It is so much better than the first loaves of concrete I produced.
I baked eight loaves the night before last and I have one loaf to show for it. My six year old was just in begging to slice into it. I am getting ready to whip up a double batch for this week hoping it will last through Tuesday. Sam is in Dallas visiting his grandbaby. He plans to come back and head over to our farmstead on Tuesday. He will be helping me tweak the technique a bit more. I can't thank God enough for this answered prayer.
If you can package up some of that self-discipline you had in dealing with bread, send it to Kansas. My whole family is devouring this bread. At this rate, we will never be able to have my daughter add it to the product list. Blessings to you and your family. Thanks also for the many links!!

 
At 5:29 AM, Blogger TnFullQuiver said...

Scott,
My wife bakes various breads daily, usually 3 loaves. It varies from several types of fresh ground wheat bread to sour dough bread. In the summer when the windows are open, you can smell it in the yard, ahhhhh, nothing like it. When I go to work, my friends there sometimes smell it on me, makes me pretty popular. Great post.
Mike

 

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