Saturday Stuff

Same old thing going on here at Monk Manor. The garden and the continuous maintenance required. I mentioned that I had harvested garlic so the area where it was growing is now planted with Mountain Half Runner beans and Christmas Limas. Both of those require support so I spent the day building same. The bamboo I saved from the dumpster a few months back is coming in real handy.

I've got pictures to post but I am too sleepy to do it tonight.

Son in law went fishing this morning in the North Georgia mountains and as a result I was gifted with two twelve inch rainbow trout. Salt, pepper and a good dose of EVOO and a visit to a hot grill produced a wonderful dinner. Snow peas from the garden and a little whole wheat couscous rounded out the meal. It was very nice. Yes, I know the couscous wasn't local but I didn't have the time to make my own though I have and will again.

I think my experience with the baguettes and the technique with a very wet dough and long, long fermentation has given me the clues necessary to make a pure whole wheat sourdough bread. Years ago I tried and failed to produce a very memorable bread...edible but not memorable. I started the first phase tonight and we shall see. My goal is to produce a loaf of bread as light and flavorful as the whole wheat bread the monks at Tassajara did. That bread and the loaf from Poilane in Paris are my two ideals when it comes to bread. I can get in the ballpark on the Poilane loaf but I will never come close. No hard wood fired oven burning French oak and no basement bakery with seveal hundred years of yeast spore floating in the air. We won't even mention the French flours. I do have the recipe from Tassajara for the daily loaf but I am missing something. Maybe a few hundred more loaves will be the answer. Then again it could be the question. The object is to make a bread with all whole wheat flour and not cheating by adding gluten or regular all purpose or bread flour. My results have always been tasty but a little dense and not great structure. I don't expect a bread like the regular bread I make each week but I want it to rise and keep its shape. I'll settle for a loaf just half the crumb of my regular bread.