Monday, June 7, 2010

I'm making...

...the biggest batch of bread I've ever made in my life!!! :)
Recently, some dear friends of mine sent me a little jar of starter for "Natural Leaven Bread" in exchange for some Kombucha mushrooms. I started my first batch of N.L. bread last Tuesday, and have kept adding rye flour and water to it each day since. This morning, it reached this quantity: (Yes, that's a 5 gallon pail!)

As I don't have the full instructions with what to do with it at this point, (and don't know exactly WHAT I'm doing) and as I had work in town, I just added some more rye flour and water this morning, stirred it well, and put the lid on.

HOWEVER, shortly before I had to leave for Napoleon, I noticed that the lid on the pail was bulging! I thought the fermentation process had just expanded the air inside and that that's what needed to be let out. When I pulled up on one of the tabs of the lid and dough came squirting out at me, I decided that it was more than just air that had expanded!!! I quickly pushed the lid back down and Andrew came to my aid then. We put a large bowl in the sink and he set the pail on its side on the counter so as to be able to dump the mixture into the bowl slowly by lifting up on one side of the lid.

HOWEVER, when he pulled on one of the sides, the whole lid came off and our bowl was filled in no time--as was part of the sink! I poured some of the dough in another pail at this point and proceeded to quickly clean up the mess and then put the lids back on the pails. They were still in tact tonight when I got home. :)

This is all a learning process for me, and I'm sure once I know what I'm doing, things will go smoother!

I thought I'd let you know that I wasn't able to post on my blog last night or this morning because something was wrong with "Blogger". It's working now though, except for the fact that it won't post some of the comments that I received on my last few posts. It says they've already been published, but they don't appear in the comments area. Hmmmm......

Yesterday, we spent all day in Eureka again, packing more boxes full of stuff for Grandpa's sale. We made a lot of progress, but there is still so much to do before July 11th!

My parents went to Bismarck today, for many different reasons, but one of the things they did was they delivered 2 quarters of my beef to customers of ours. It took a while to get it all weighed out this morning, but it's worth the hassles to get grass-fed beef into the hands of people who are aware of the things they are eating and who are wanting good food!

My brothers mowed the lawn again and also worked on getting the hay-header fixed up and ready for the busy haying season that's just around the corner. (I don't think I ever answered your question, Cora, about haying... The other day, my dad was getting hay home that we made last year--that was still out in the field, but we will soon be starting to hay here. We often begin cutting down our alfalfa the middle of June here in ND.)

Well, that's a quick overview of our last couple of days. Once again, it's late and is quite time for bed...

Have a good nights rest (unless you happen to work at night, then perhaps you should stay awake for awhile!)

7 comments:

Nathanael F. said...

Don't worry, you WILL get used to making bread this way :) When I started my first leaven and made my first loaves of bread I had complications too!

hannah says:
the word verification is Pewship haha sort of like fellowship except it is pew-ship!

Anonymous said...

Hello Cora,
How exciting! Natural Leaven Bread! Wow! You know, I have worked with natural leaven for a long time... thats the largest amount of natural leaven I have ever seen...it sure will make a lot of bread dough!!

Miss Grace Elizabeth said...

Oh Cora! I feel so sorry that your leaven has gotten this big! I wish I would have told you to feed it for four days instead of a week. The reason why I told you to do it for a week is because I thought that the little lump that I gave you would take awhile to get active!
Oh well I guess I am learning something along right with you!
We have a waffle recipe that I'll send you, that uses up leaven. If you don't mind eating waffles for awhile!

Now I must get to bed, If it does not rain tomorrow then we will pick more strawbs. (It's raining right now)
I am very sore from picking, But it feels good to be doing this work! I like it! We picked 38 flats today. I picked 5 &1/2 flats.
Have a good rest
~Grace
Thanks Andrew for helping! :)

Cora Beth said...

Nathaneal~
Thank you for your encouraging words! You've now made me curious what kinds of complications you've had? :)

Mrs. Flaugher~
Want to come help me whip up some bread/pancakes/waffles/bread-sticks/flat-bread/.....? I can hardly wait to taste it!

Grace dear~
Please don't feel bad! You could not have known it would have taken off so well. I guess I should have let you know sooner it was real spongy/bubbly, but I thought it just had to go for a week. I'm very glad to hear that such is not the case, as dealing with big quantities is not always easy. :)

I would love your recipe for waffles. I did get a pancake recipe on-line this morning, but then it was just mother and I here for the noon meal and we were both in a hurry, so I didn't make them yet. They're on the menu for tomorrow though!

All right, I'd really best get to bed now. Thanks again for all your help and advice! I know you're very busy too--and sore, from the sounds of it...

Morse Family said...

Wow Cora!

That is alot of bread dough!! I've made large batches of bread but never in a five gallon bucket!!

Have a blessed day!

~Lily

Nathanael F. said...

Hi
Complications I've had?
One time my leaven was 12 grams and I had to feed it.
I forgot to click the button on the scale twice to switch it from ounces to grams. I accidentally feed it 12 OUNCES instead of 12 GRAMS! My leaven turned out very bad and I had to feed it to the pigs :(
I can't really remember any more but I am always leaning more and more about the bread.

~Nathanael

Hannah said...

We all have to learn somethings by trial and error- eh?

I'll have to email you my 'famous' waffle recipe as soon as things slow down a but here. Maybe friday.
now I need to hustle me tired old self to the couch where I am spending the night before getting up for another layer of sunburn and a pocket of cash :P

hahahaha!

Goodnight,
I'm silly