Baking Bread to Make Bread.

50/50 White/Wholegrain Sourdough Mini loaves

50/50 White/Wholegrain Sourdough Mini loaves

Bread. 3 simple ingredients, combined in different ways, in different environments, and in different styles to create a plethora of choices. Flour, water, salt. That’s it. Combined in such a way, baked in such a way, presented in such a way that really, no one loaf is like any other. The water you use, the oven you have fired, the pot you bake in, the kneading, the folding, the time you set aside for rising, the slicing, the dusting, the cooling. All of these things come together to make your bread truly unique.

Sourdough

I have been baking bread for essentially no time at all. Honestly, I don’t know the first thing about it. However, I have developed a timing pattern that works, an oven temperature that works, my clay pot that works and I have found a recipe that I stick to, to the gram, that works.

I play about with the mix sometimes though, add more wholegrains or rye flours, experiment with stronger flour, with pure wheat gluten, and I have experimented baking with olives, cranberries, chia or other seeds stuffed into the dough.

But for me, a plain white sourdough bread hits the spot, it’s the one I have focussed more time and energy into perfecting, and it seems to be working. Sourdough is one of the simplest forms of bread, the 3 ingredients, combined with time and patience can yield amazing results. My bread has a long way to go, but I feel at a stage where I could sell this bread, it’s handmade, with water from the farms well and nothing else added. It’s as simple as it gets, and it makes great fucking sandwiches.

Sandwiches. Who needs anything else.

I don’t really know where my journey started with bread, or why I even started baking, but I took a simple recipe from a book and gave it a shot, I began to read more, about processes and times, I began following some master bakers and individuals on instagram and blogs that I thought had a unique and polarizing style. I looked to their breads with envy and pushed myself to learn more about the process. Somehow, along the way, I started to think about sourdough, it was the bread I always went for in the delis in New York if the choice was there, I loved the chewy texture, the slight sour undertone and the crisp, thick crust. This was the bread I wanted to bake.

Sourdough is basically bread baked using natural fermentation, creating your own local yeast, maintaining it, and getting it active enough to raise dough, and bake beautiful bread. Essentially, it’s flour + water x time.

Here at the farm, we’re lucky enough to have a well, it gives clean, fresh water, free from a lot of the chemicals associated with water from the tap in the average city, and my starter began to behave wonderfully with it. Some chemicals in treated water can have detrimental affects to your culture. The man is always trying to fuck up our culture, man.

The Starter

Once my starter was bubbling away, I attempted my first sourdough loaf. Although it tasted all right, it wasn’t much of a looker, but this was the real beginning to baking.

Early Sourdough

Over the next months I began using different flours, developing my yeast and giving it some “double feeds” to get him leaping over buildings, I bought a large clay pot to bake the loaves in, and finally, even bought a few proofing baskets, brought all the way from the UK, (thanks Mum).

Once the new kitchen has been roofed, our first purchase will be a large bread oven, capable of baking 5-6 loaves at a time, I’ll probably go back to square one at this point, as learning the behaviour and timing of your oven is a quintessential step in the process. But I know I’ll figure it out, and soon I’ll be proving fresh, handmade, sourdough bread to the local area surrounding the farm. Soon, we’ll be baking bread to make a little bread.

Sourdough, 70% Hydration, 15% rye mix.

Building the Dream

The farm has become a construction site. It breaks my heart a little bit to see it like this, but deep down, I know this is what needs to happen now to create the space we have dreamed of in the future.

Sketch Flex

We are in Phase 1 of the developments, destroying and rebuilding the old poolside house, an old building comprising of concrete blocks and an old asbestos roof with no windows, into a fully functioning kitchen with a wood oven, bread oven, pizza oven, BBQ and blenders and stand mixer. They’ll be a coffee bar offering chemex, aeropress, french press and hario drip style drinks, espresso drinks, cakes, breads and juices, a large unisex toilet with disabled access, a wood beam and tile roof, large windows for natural light and creating a space that flows and will invite people to come, stay and enjoy our farm.

Destroy, rebuild

It’ll not come easy, though!

Phase 1 also incudes creating paths through the property, so people can walk amongst the orchards, the vegetables, see the food they’re eating being cultivated and prepared. It also includes the rebuilding of an old stable building into the bicycle workshop and creative space. The building of a deck, a reworking of the pool, irrigation systems, shade spots, a fire pit, additional planting of plants to increase the amount of wildlife we receive, improve cross pollination and also create an environment that sustains itself, healthily without the use of agro-toxins.

There is so much to do, it’s overwhelming and terrifying. My Mum is here with us and she has been a huge help in getting things moving, advising us on plants, crops, rotation, what to plant where and what next to. She also paid for the new artesian well and roof structure, something profoundly generous. Thanks, Mum.

Water is one of the biggest issues here, we have a groundwater well, that has, in the past ran dry. During the last 18 months of drought, this has become a daily worry and concern. We are harvesting rainwater and soon, all grey water, too. But still, when we have people here, we cannot have this issue. We also want to increase how much we’re planting, and for this, we need water. The artesian well will go to around 50m and tap the arteries of many of the surrounding aquifers. This will relinquish us from worry and provide natural, clean and abundant water.

Archaic Bruv

Archaic Bruv

All of this work will hopefully be completed in the next 2 months. Tati and I are aiming to start receiving people here in the beginning of the summer, around December, drop in for some sourdough and a cup o’ joe!

Mãos à obra

IMG_0532Tijolo, pedra, cimento e areia. Destruir e reconstruir.

E assim nosso sonho vai tomando forma.

Nos envolvemos em tudo o que podemos da construção. Acompanhamos cada tijolo sendo colocado. O Dan até se arrisca colocando a mão na massa.

Quando decidimos construir esse espaço no nosso quintal a ideia sempre foi fazer da maneira mais sustentável possível. Como existia um barracão construído tentamos aproveitar o que já tinha e fazer o mínimo de alterações causando o menor impacto possível tanto para a natureza quanto para o nosso bolso. Extender a cozinha, um banheiro que permitisse acesso de cadeira de rodas, trocar o telhado e criar mais luminosidade. Simples e funcional.

Mas como diz o carpinteiro aqui da obra. É mais fácil começar do zero que fazer reformas.

Ja sabíamos que não seria fácil e aqui estamos para encarar as dificuldades de frente todos os dias. Tijolinho por tijolinho. Chegaremos lá.

Dream it. Believe it. <3<3

Estamos chegando <3

Pour Over

Welcome to Oficina74. Here, among the beautiful surroundings of like minded individuals, we will endeavor to share with you our story, transitioning from the corporate world, towards our dream of opening a micro cafe, bakery and bicycle workshop.

We are Daniel, a 33 year old Brit, and Tatiane, a 30 something Brazilian, both with a passion for life, exploring new ideas, organic farming, baking, and playing on and tinkering with bicycles. Not to mention, music, photographs, reading, learning, creating, hosting, spending time with our wonderful dogs Ralph and Ronaldo, and our dog-like cat, Frida.

The idea stemmed from many long talks in the night between Tati and I, talking about where we really saw ourselves and where we both wanted to be in the years ahead. I have worked for the same company for almost 15 years, and my work here in Brazil has begun to feel disjointed from what I believed it was supposed to be. Projects that benefit communities, work that can be seen and felt, and unknowingly making peoples lives better is what I always saw my work as being. Not serving the upper echelons of society, and where that appreciation will only be met by people whom I have never seen, nor would I ever. It is time, absolutely, for me to change course.

Tati works for a large worldwide corporation and has done so for almost a decade, she has began to feel the same way about her work. We live in a World where mono-culture, capitalism, consumerism and chasing money were at the forefront of almost everybody’s agendas, and she wanted to deviate from that environment, into something natural, close to home, and something we could create and watch grow.

So the idea was born, for Oficina74.

We want to create a community space, one that will invite people in, allow people a space to relax, chat, get to know one another, a starting point for a day out, a bike ride, a walk in to the Serra do Japi in Jundiaí. A place people can walk or cycle to, grab a bite to eat and the best espresso in the City. A space that offers those a place to drink a beer, or take a glass of wine after a hard day at work, a space that invites local artists in to display their work, and offer people a platform to exhibit, talk or have a party.

We want to risk everything to create this place and we want to share it with you, through this blog, and hopefully, ultimately, in person.

Abraços

Dan & Tati