Sourdough starter

I have kept a sourdough starter alive and kicking for more than a year.  I am proud of myself!

I was sort of intimidated at the prospect of a starter in the beginning, but it's really not that hard to keep up if you remember to feed and care for it.

So what is a sourdough starter, exactly?

Basically, it's a mixture of yeast, flour and water used to rise bread. Sometimes it's used in the place of regular yeast, and sometimes in addition to it.

Why would someone use this instead of regular yeast, which is readily available?

Well,  the starter develops a special "sour" flavor over time that can't be replicated with regular old yeast! Plus, it's just kinda cool.

When you use a portion for bread, you add more flour and water to it ("feeding it"), so it will take on the old flavor. Apparently some bakers have starters that are hundreds of years old! Pretty cool.

I started mine in early December 2010, and the flavor and smell definitely have developed nicely.

Here's what it looks like now. (Sorry about the awful instagram picture- my husband took the camera to his woodshop!)

There are a few ways to "start" a stater.

One is to use bacteria and yeast that is just floating around in the air and mix up some flour and water. It totally seems like it wouldn't work, but apparently it does. I haven't tried this method. You can read all about that here.

The second way is to just use a packet of yeast from the store, which is what I did. I got the recipe from this book, Back to Basics:

When Travis and I started dating, we had so much fun looking through this book! I highly recommend if you're interested in handmaking stuff and other "traditional American skills."  

So here's the recipe:

3.5 cups flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 package active dry yeast

2 cups warm water (105-110F)

Combine dry ingredients and gradually add water, beating until smooth. Cover and let stand in a warm place for three days. It will be bubbly.

Store loosely covered in refrigerator and replenish at least once every two weeks (I have gone longer though and it's been fine).

When you remove an amount for a recipe, replenish with 1.5 cups flour and 1 cup warm water. Let stand in a warm place until mixture bubbles well, at least 8 hours.

Tons of sourdough bread  recipes are available on the web. My favorite is King Arthur Flour's Extra Tangy Sourdough bread.  It is a BIG commitment to make, but totally worth it. I'll be making it this weekend!

-Jenny

First Harvest of 2012

Hey, everybody!  Sorry it has been a few days since the last post, but we have been busy, busy, busy around here! 

We harvested our first veggies from the garden today, a few radishes.  I think that I let them get a little too big, but you live and you learn, right?  I am not a huge fan of radishes, but the seed packet came for free with an order I placed...and I had space in the garden, so in they went.  Really easy to grow.  Did nothing, and 45 days later, they are ready to harvest.  If you think that you have a brown thumb, try radishes!

We also have blueberry bushes...just planted them a few weeks ago, and didn't really expect any berries this year, but it looks like we may get a handful.  The two year old garden assistant is pretty happy about that!

We also have baby tomatoes growing.  These are Burpee's "Cherry Punch".  Haven't tried them before, but haven't met many tomatoes that I didn't like.  I cannot wait until these are ready to harvest!

The other tomatoes (beefsteaks, some heirlooms) are blooming this week.  I didn't expect them to bloom this early, and hope they are able to set fruit early also.  They make me proud, since they were a first time experiment started from seed :)

We also have some zucchini making an appearance...

And, last, but not least, our "pet" ducks that have moved into the yard.  We fed them some corn and bread for a few days...apparently that was a bad idea.  They now live (and poop) on our deck, climb on our patio furniture, and knock on the window to get fed.  They will definitely be getting an eviction notice soon. 

Hope you all have had a wonderful week so far!

-Samantha

Welcome to my garden!

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…”

Ok, just kidding.  But this weekend is pretty high up on my list of favorites…because we are setting out tomatoes and other warm weather veggies in our garden!  Woot!  Maybe I am a little over excited, but I am a tomato-holic…as the Pioneer Woman would say…”They make my skirt fly up!”

So…let me give you a short run through of our garden.  Last year was a complete fail.  Between planting happening 4 weeks late due to heavy rain, and even more heavy rain after that, and our crappy clay soil…it just wasn’t very pretty. 

This year, we put in 4 raised beds made with 2’ x 12’ x 12’ boards and these awesome raised bed corners from Plow & Hearth.  We ordered the soil from a local nursery.  It was supposed to be a nice topsoil/compost mix, but ended up being light on the compost and full of pieces of gravel…I am a little disappointed, but I will amend it with more compost and manure, and it is still much nicer than our clay yard. 

We covered the beds with black plastic right after we filled them, to help raise the soil temperature faster and prevent weeds. 

Fast forward a couple weeks, and we put in some cabbage, sugar snap and snow peas, lettuces, onions, and radishes.  The cabbage is growing like crazy, the peas are so/so, the onions are growing…most of the lettuce was a fail except for a few ‘Green Ice’ stragglers that seems to be thriving. 

Now, we are ready to transplant my babies.  They would be tomatoes started from seed in my basement.  I used a seedling heat mat, found here, and a shop light fixture with both warm and cool spectrum T12 bulbs mounted on a PVC frame that my awesome hubby built.  Had nearly 100% germination and the plants are thriving!

I also ordered a few different varieties from Burpee…notice the size difference…but will be starting all from seed next year, based on the success we had this year.

I will be using Epsoma Garden-tone fertilizer, and Sea MagicGrowth Activator, based on the amazing amount of positive reviews for both.  The garden is not completely organic, but I will not be using chemical fertilizers or herbicides/pesticides.  I don’t want to put no so healthy things in my little munchkin’s body!

Hope you have enjoyed my little garden tour, and look forward to hearing about your garden adventures as well!

Now…I am off to drool and daydream about a fat BLT sandwich made with a nice juicy tomato straight from the backyard…yum!

I think I need to add a little disclaimer, too…I am, by no means, a garden expert…and you can feel free to laugh along with me at some of my failures!  I am definitely learning as I go.  I would love to hear your comments and advice!

-Samantha