Tag: sourdough

Oficina74 Loja Experimental

This week, we opened our pop up shop, Oficina74, in the heart of Jundiaí, São Paulo. An experimental space where we’ll serve pour over coffee, Moka, french press and aeropress. Along with our bread, our pastries, cakes, juices and salads.

Essa semana abrimos nossa pop up shop, Oficina74, bem no “coração” de Jundiaí. Um espaço experimental onde servimos coados, Moka, prensa francesa e aeropress. Sem deixar de lado nossos pães, pastries, bolos, sucos e saladas.

It’s something that took shape incredible quickly and came straight out of left field. We didn’t see it coming. Our incredibly gracious and generous friends, Leo and Daniela had built an annex to their Italian restaurant, Cortile Siciliano. There, they hold private parties and often do pasta making classes, but during the days, it remains closed.

Um projeto que tomou forma rapidamente e que veio sem esperarmos. Nossos incríveis e generosos amigos, Leo e Daniela tinham esse espaço anexo ao restaurante italiano deles, Cortile Siciliano. Um espaço que eles usam para eventos particulares e cursos de massa, mas durante o dia o local permanecia fechado.

They asked us if we’d want to do bread making courses there, to which, we said, absolutely! But over a course of a few beers and good food, the conversation flowed more to why not open oficina74 there? Our arms were twisted quite quickly!

Eles nos ofereceram o espaço para oficinas de pão, e claro que respondemos, com certeza! Mas depois de algumas cervejas e boa comida, a conversa fluiu mais para “porquê não abrir Oficina74 lá?” Abrimos nossos abraços na hora!

The space is beautiful, furnished wonderfully and you couldn’t ask for a better location. There are limits though, our kitchen remains here, on the farm, and all the baking and food prep will remain here in our ovens. Then we open up shop there for later in the morning with our produce and coffee. The days will be long, but the opportunity unmissable.

O lugar é lindo, maravilhosamente mobiliado e não poderíamos pedir por uma melhor localização. Temos limitações, claro. Nossa cozinha continuará no sítio e todas as fornadas e preparações serão feitas em casa. Por esse motivos abriremos a loja um pouco mais tarde servindo nossos produtos e café. Jornada longa, mas uma oportunidade imperdível.

It’s a 3 month pop up shop trial, if things go well, there’s a chance of renting the space and making it a more permanent base of oficina74. I guess we’ll know more in 3 months!

Serão 3 meses testando o processo, e se tudo der certo (esperamos que sim), a chance de nos fixarmos no local e fazer do lugar casa permanente da Oficina74. Saberemos mais com o passar do tempo!

For now, we’re going to enjoy the challenge, the meeting of new people, and having the stage to tell our story and deliver the message of slow food, sustainable practices and buying local.

Por ora, estamos curtindo o desafio, conhecendo novas pessoas e aproveitando a oportunidade para contar nossa história e espalhar a mensagem slow food, práticas sustentáveis e valorização do comércio local.

We are incredibly grateful.

Nos sentimos extremamente gratos.

One love from us and if you’re in or nearby Jundiaí, drop in and share a moment with us!

Muito amor para todos e se você estiver pelas redondezas de Jundiaí, passe por lá para compartilharmos café e ideias!

Nosso Caminho Para o Vegetarianismo // Our Path to Vegetarianism

Estamos completando 18 meses sem carne.
A ideia nunca foi ser uma escolha restritiva, mas ao contrário ser um processo de descoberta de novos sabores e mil e uma combinações. Desde que tiramos a carne da nossa alimentação, abriu-se um extenso leque de possibilidades na cozinha que não tinhamos ideia que existia.
Tivemos alguns deslizes nesse período. Aconteceu quando ficamos na casa de amigos que prepararam jantar com todo amor para nos receber e jamais recusariamos, mas quem sabe não conseguiremos inspirar mais pessoas cozinhar vegetais e ter carne como acompanhamento, e não o inverso.

We are just completing 18 months without meat. The idea was never to restrict our diet, in fact, the opposite. There exist around us 1000’s of fruits, grains, pulses, vegetables and funghi. Combined, these create unlimited combinations. Since we removed meat from our daily diet, we’ve began to discover food from all around the World, that we can prepare in our kitchen, that we never knew existed. We had some slip ups along the way, staying with friends whom prepare food in their kitchens, for us to share and enjoy together, and we’d never dream of refusing, but moving forward, hopefully we can inspire those close to us to begin to prepare vegetarian food, with a meat side, rather than the other way around.


Para família sempre deixamos claro, e minha mãe achou a solução. Ela começou esconder carne na nossa comida. Sério. Ela fatiava de forma quase microscópica (ás vezes acho que ela passava no processador) e misturava nos legumes com muito molho pra não vermos. Ela ainda tem muita dificuldade em aceitar nossa decisão. Tem sempre aquela conversa que vai faltar proteína e vitaminas, etc.
Ledo engano, pois nunca nos sentimos tão saudáveis. Nem resfriado pegamos. Acho que ela parou de esconder carne. Parou mãe???

With the family, we always told them straight, that we no longer ate meat, and at events. we’d bring a principal dish and sides for us, and for others to sample. But Tati’s Mum wouldn’t have it, she’d try and hide meat in dishes, ground up to a microscopic speck, and drowned in sauce and spice. Like we couldn’t tell. She still has some difficulty in accepting the fact that we’re on this chosen path, and she always needs to talk about how we are missing out on proteins, vitamins and nutrition. But our Mothers aren’t always right.. We’ve never felt healthier, nor caught a cold in this period. Thankfully now, she has stopped hiding meat!

Em casa é mais fácil escolher o que vai no prato.Essa é a segunda etapa de alimentação sem carne na minha vida.
Na primeira vez foram 3 meses. Foi logo que voltei de uma viagem à India e como tinha mantido alimentação vegetariana por lá resolvi extender por mais um período.
Não foi nada fácil. Naquele tempo eu mal fazia miojo em casa e durante a semana fazia todas as refeições no escritório. Apesar de ter um buffet bem servido de saladas não tinha nenhuma opção que enchesse os olhos. Nesse período a minha dieta foi bem pobre e acabei mesmo ficando um pouco fraca.
Ok. Isso explica a preocupação da minha mãe. Porém as coisas estão diferente agora. Nossa lista de receitas maravilhosas com vegetais cresceu quase na mesma proporção que a indústria da carne (brincadeirinha).

This is my second attempt at going Veggie. The first time was just for 3 months. I recently returned home from a trip to India, since I had eaten a vegetarian diet there, I decided to keep it going a while longer. But it wasn’t easy. At that time, I had never learned to cook for myself at home, and would just eat lunch at the office, they had a large salad buffet, but with very limited Veggie options, so I wasn’t eating right at all. I got weak.. Perhaps this explains my Mum’s concerns now?! But things are different now. Our list of plates is growing by the day, almost at the same rate of the deforestation of the Amazon, so the World can enjoy a steak…. Joking, sort of.

Não nos declaramos vegetarianos, nem veganos, nem nada. Não precisamos de uma etiqueta. Dan e eu estamos mesmo é buscando uma alimentação mais natural, limpa e justa com o planeta (Quase o slogan do #slowfood). Esse é nosso jeito de cuidar melhor do nosso corpo e do planeta. Sabemos onde comprar boas hortaliças orgânicos que são produzidos por pessoas que confiamos, mas desconhecemos completamente onde comprar carne que não tenha sido entuchada de antibiótico ou que o animal tenha sido tratado com o mínimo de respeito.
Acho que já mencionei aqui que minha mãe nasceu e foi criada no interior de Minas Gerais. Meus avós tinham uma fazenda e tenho maravilhosas memórias de brincadeiras e travessuras pela casa. Eles sempre tiveram criação de galinhas, porcos, patos e vacas. E sim no “final do dia” se alimentavam das criações e também comercializavam. Trazia o sustento da casa.
Quando chegava o momento deles servirem de alimento para família todos sabiam de onde vinha e como tinham sido criados. Todo o animal era aproveitado, não somente o filé ou o peito do frango e ter carne no prato não era regra.
Sabemos onde encontrar boas hortaliças aqui na região, ás vezes vem até da nossa hortinha, mas carne desconhecemos completamente e por isso seguimos desbravando os vegetais.

We are not declaring that we are vegetarians, nor vegans, or anything, in fact. There doesn’t need to be an etiquette for things like this. Dan and I are just searching for a more natural food, a cleaner and just diet, for us and for the planet. (Almost the slogan for the #slowfood movement). This is our attempt to look after ourselves and our environment better. We know where to buy fresh, organic produce, produced by people whom we trust, and we grow our own food here, at Oficina, too. But we have zero idea of where to buy meat that has been reared with at least the minimum or respect, that lead a decent, free life, or that is not pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics.

I think I’ve already mentioned my Mum is from the interior of Minas Gerias. My grandparents had a farm there, and they bred cattle, chickens, pigs and grew a huge percentage of the food they consumed. I have fond memories of playing around the farm, and yes, at the end of the day, sitting around the table and eating something they’d slaughtered. But the difference was we knew where it came from, who cared for it, what it ate, who slaughtered it and who prepared it, and the whole animal was used, not just a fillet, or a chicken breast.

We know where to get our Veggies from, but until we find a reliable source for meat, we’ll continue this path.

Informação, conhecimento e consciência. Isso vale não só para decidir se vai comer carne ou não, mas com tudo o que consumimos de uma maneira geral.

Information, knowledge and awareness. This is valid way to not only to decide whether to eat meat or not, but with everything we consume in a general way.

Ter uma alimentação a base de plantas foi difícil no início. Não porque tivemos vontade de comer carne, mas porque era sempre um martírio decidir o que fazer para o jantar. Na maioria das casas brasileiras a carne é o astro do prato e o restante só acompanha.
Foram uns bons meses até conseguirmos reverter esse jogo.
Criamos um esquema de planejar semanalmente quais pratos vamos fazer. Isso ajuda muito a economizar nas compras, reduzir o desperdício e o tempo que perdíamos discutindo o que fazer para o jantar.
Vamos começar compartilhar por aqui nossas receitas favoritas. Começando com um prato que amamos e que aprendemos através do livro Jerusalém, do OttoLenghi. <3
Normalmente servido em brunch, mas não nos limitamos e comemos do cafe da manhã ao jantar. Quando dá vontade.

Having a plant based diet was difficult at first. Not because we wanted to eat meat, but because it was always a martyrdom to decide what to do for dinner. In most Brazilian houses meat is the star of the dish and the rest is simply a compliment. It was a good few months until we got our heads around rearranging the plate around plants, rather than a hunk of meat.

We have created a scheme to plan weekly what dishes we will make. This helps a lot to save money on shopping, reduce waste and waste time discussing what to do for dinner.

Let’s start sharing our favorite recipes here. Starting with a dish we love and learned through OttoLenghi’s Jerusalem book.

O que tem pra comer hoje?

What’s for dinner today?

Shakshuka

(Adaptado de muitas receitas. Divirtam-se e adaptem também)
(Adapted from several recipes, you can enjoy adapting for yourself too, of course).

2 colheres de sopa de azeite ou óleo de coco
1 cebola picadinhas
2 dentes de alho picadinhos
1 pimentão vermelho ou amarelo cortado em tiras
1 porção de tomatinhos cereja (opcional)
1 colher de chá de páprica em pó (usamos a picante)
1 colher de chá de coentro em pó (se vc gostar)
1 colher de chá de cominho em pó
1 mão cheia de ervas como salsinha, cebolinha, menta, coentro e manjericão, picadinhas (as suas favoritas. Ouse)
400 g de tomates pelados em cubos ou um molho de tomate maravilhoso que vc tenha feito em casa
1 colher de sopa de mel
1 colher de sopa de chilli em pasta (opcional)
água
4 ovos (caipiras se possível)
sal e pimenta do reino à gosto

Para servir:
pão <3
zaatar
Molho de iogurte + ervas

2 tablespoons of olive oil/coconut oil
1 onion diced
2 garlic segments, finely chopped
1 pepper cubed.
A good handful of cherry tomatoes halved (optional)
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon of coriander spice
1 teaspoon of cumin
A handful of fresh herbs, basil, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, scallions
400g of peeled tomatoes, cubed, or make your own homemade tomato sauce
1 tablespoon of honey
1 tablespoon chilli
Water
4 fresh eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

To serve

Fresh bread
Zaatar
Yoghurt and herbs

Preparo:
1. Coloque azeite ou óleo de coco na panela e frite a cebola em fogo médio por mais ou menos 5 minutos.

1a. Add oil to a hot pan and add onion for 5 or so minutes until clear and browning slightly.

2.

2. Adicione pimentão, cominho, coentro e os tomatinhos (se usando) por mais 10 minutos em fogo baixo, continue mexendo.
2a. Add pepper, cumin, coriander and cherry tomatoes (if using) for an extra 10 minutes, on a low heat, continually stirring.

3. Adicione os tomates pelados ou seu molho de tomate, alho, sal, mel, páprica, ervas e chilli (se usando) e deixa cozinhar por 10 minutos em fogo baixo.
3a. Add tomatoes, or your sauce, garlic, honey, paprika, herbs, chili and salt and pepper and leave to simmer for 10 minutes on a low heat.

4. Mexa ocasionalmente e adicione um pouco de água se começar grudar no fundo.
4a. Stir occasionally so it doesn’t stick to the pan, add in some water if it begins to thicken too much.

5. Com uma espátula ou colher de pau abra 4 cavidades no molho, quebre os ovos (um de cada vez) em uma tigelinha e adicione os ovos em cada cavidade com cuidado. Tampe a panela e deixe cozinhar de 8-10 minutos. Dependendo da consistência que vc gosta do ovo.
5a. With a wooden spoon open up 4 holes in the sauce, open up an egg and pop it into the hole, one for each hole, use a small bowl to help drop it in carefully. Close up the lid and allow the egg to poach. Anywhere between 8 to 10 minutes, depending on how you like your egg.

6. Retire do fogo e delicie-se com muiiiito pão, ervas frescas, zaatar, molho de iogurte e o que mais vc quiser.
6a. Remove the pan from the heat and serve on a warmed plate, with a healthy portion of fresh bread, zaatar, yoghurt or whatever else takes your fancy!

Shashuka

 

A beleza nas coisas mais imperfeitas // The beauty in the Imperfections

Quando contamos nossa história e falamos sobre nosso estilo de vida ouvimos 2 tipos de comentários:

When we told our story to family and friends about our proposed lifestyle change here on the farm, we were met with 2 types of responses:

  1. Os românticos- que coisa mais maravilhosa largar tudo e morar no campo. Um dia vou ter coragem de fazer isso também.
  2. Os realistas- vocês são loucos e irresponsáveis. Como vão viver assim? Jamais faria isso.
  1. The romantics, what a wonderful thing, leave all the nonsense behind to live on a farm. One day I’d love to so the same.
  2. The realists – You’re mad and irresponsible, how will you survive like this? Mostly, we’ve heard from the realists more.

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A verdade é que nenhuma das duas visões se aplicam no nosso cotidiano.

The truth is, neither of these opinions apply to our daily life here.

Passamos perrengues, temos um zilhão de dúvidas e questionamentos.

We pass through difficult times in life, it’s normal, and we’re left with a zillion doubts and questions.

Tem semana que o telefone não toca. Não vendemos um pão. Chove muito a estrada fica enterditada, a varanda cheia de lama, o bolo não cresce, e nossas reservas se esgotando.

There are weeks when the phone doesn’t ring, we don’t sell one bread. It rains, and rains and rains and the road ruts and becomes impassable, the veranda is full of mud, the cakes don’t rise and our savings are dwindling.

Ás vezes é um caos que só. Dan fica super irritado e eu choro.

Sometimes, it’s pure chaos. Dan gets stressed, I cry, it’s horrible.

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Então nos lembramos que viver essa experiência foi escolha nossa.  E toda escolha tem renúncia. Quão fortunado somos nós que temos direito de escolha? Muiiiito.

Then we remember that this life experience was our choice and every choice has sacrifices. But we can’t forget that we were lucky enough to be able to have this choice in the first place. Very lucky.

Como faz pra se recompor, centrar e fazer com que as coisas fiquem bem?

How do we do to make sure we stay composed, centered and make sure we focus on keeping things going?

O Dan pedala, faz jardinagem, faz pão… Eu faço um bolo, medito (tento), ajudo no jardim e costuro. E juntos cozinhamos.

Dan rides, he works in the garden, he makes bread… I make a cake, meditate, help in the garden and work on my machine, making home wares and dresses, and we cook together.

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Aos poucos vamos achando o nosso jeitinho de conectar-se com nós mesmos e com o mundo. O alimento tem um poder incrível de conexão. Talvez porque cozinhar faz com que você esteja presente. Vivendo o momento.

Slowly, we’ll find a way to connect better with ourselves and our public. Food is an incredible tool to bring people together, and when you cook, or prepare food, you’re present and in the moment.

E tudo passa. O dia nasce ensolarado, o telefone toca, desbloqueiam a estrada, os amigos nos visitam, tem flor, fruta e comida. É uma alegria que só.

The bad moments pass, they always do. The next day the sun rises, it’s sunny, the phone rings and the road becomes passable, friends visit, the garden is full of flowers, there are fruits on the trees, we have a roof over our head and there is food on the table. 

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img_0677Morando na roça temos aprendido muito sobre horta, orgânicos, alimentação, café, fermentação e tantos outros assuntos que nem imaginávamos um dia saber, mas temos mesmo é aprendido muito sobre nós mesmos.

Living on the farm we have learned so much about the garden, the land, organics, food, coffee, fermentation and so many day to day things its hard to list, but what we have learned more is about ourselves, learning from our mistakes and coming out the other side. 

Aprendendo a ver beleza nos dias cinzas e nas nossas próprias imperfeições.

We are learning to see the beauty on our grey days and in our imperfections.

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Sourdough / Pain au Levain

I had never experienced Sourdough bread until I moved to New York City in 2009. I remember it clearly, my first few months there, I was on the tourism trail, ticking off as many of the highlights as I could. At that point, I just had been assigned to a project for just one year, so I had to do the things that others tell us we must do.

One of them was, of course, Katz Diner in the Lower East Side. Famously, Sally, from When Harry met Sally, climaxed at the table over a pastrami on rye sandwich. Since then, the Diner has been selling sandwiches by the bucket load, but coming up short on the climaxes.

harrysally

But damn, it was a good sandwich, and the bread struck a chord with me. I would buy sourdough bread from a small Jewish bakery on the Upper West Side, later on from the bakery just off of Bedford Ave in Williamsburg. It was cheap, delicious and it’d see me the week.

When I couldn’t get the bread fresh, I discovered Bread Alone, a small outfit of Artesenal bakers in upstate New York. They’d bake fresh bread and deliver it to some of the Cities stores and Supermarkets daily. I tried all of their style, but always found myself going back to the Sourdough. The tang, the chewy crust, the aerated pockets all the way through the loaf. I never really thought much about the process, however. I was ignorant to the skill and time that goes into baking these breads.

When I left NYC to move to São Paulo, I discovered these amazing bakeries, that sold everything. You could get the normal things you’d expect from a bakery, plus your beers, groceries and even dinner.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Brazilians take their bread very seriously. I found myself just buying the same crappy bread again and again, Pão Frances. It’s a small baguette style roll, made with commercial yeast, cheap flour and baked by the thousand, all over Brazil every day. It’s cheap, it’s sort of tasty but it lacks in everything else. The bread is salty and light, it doesn’t satisfy much of anything at all, but just leaves you wanting more, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Once Tati and I moved to the farm, 18 months ago, we found ourselves without the luxury of a bakery, or market, or anything in fact, close by. Everything required getting in the car and driving some KM’s to stock up. We started growing things and eating what was on the trees here, and we started shopping once a week and planning ahead a lot more.

We also started to bake our own bread. Firstly, basic recipes with commercial yeast, then we moved onto wholegrain breads, but still using commercially manufactured yeast. It wasn’t until I sat down with a small book and read about sourdough, the natural levain, and the processes one needs to go through to make their own. It seemed confusing at first, like catering for a tamagotchi of yesteryear, but I slowly found a rhythm and after a couple of attempts and a couple of weeks, I had a vibrant, tangy smelly, active starter.

The Starter

To begin with, I baked a fail safe sourdough recipe, that also called for a pinch of commercial yeast, to kick start things right away, but as I started to get regularly decent results with that, I took the plunge in using just my yeast, water and flour, to make our own bread.

There were disasters, there were paper weights, solid bricks of baked flour, there were swear words, there were cut fingers and there was confusion. A lot of confusion.

It’s a living thing, this yeast, it gets pissed off if its too hot, too cold, not fed enough, (although, it’s quite happy to be over fed) and the dough will overproof if left too long during bulk ferment or the final proofing. It can seem erratic, but once you start doing it more often, there are patterns and you begin to understand this things behavior, and its beautifully simple really. Unlike a tamagotchi. The fuckers.

Now I have 4 recipes, a plain white sourdough, a rye sourdough, a multigrain sourdough, and a wholewheat sourdough. It doesn’t tick all the boxes, but it gets close. I want to eventually play with dried fruits, nuts, olives and things like that. I want to make a special batch of fig bread, with the figs from our trees here, but that’s one for next fig season though!

There are many journaled reasons as to why Sourdough is a better health choice to make when choosing bread. For me, it is easier on the gut, and it tastes fantastic, plus I enjoy the process. But, there are many reasons why even those with an intolerance to gluten, can enjoy bread. The long fermentation process (totalling 12 hours for my batches, but others ferment up to 36)  breaks down a lot of the slightly less gut-friendly starches in the bread. This gives the bread a lower glycemic index, meaning we see a slower release of the foods contained energy and reduces the risk of blood sugar spikes. The long fermentation process also breaks down the complex gluten structures in the bread, turning them, instead, into amino acids that our bodies are more receptive too, and also, far easier to digest. Additionally, this long fermentation creates an increase in the lactic acid, thus maintaining a pH that is neither too acidic nor alkaline for the body. 

All in all, it’s just something that our bodies can process a lot easier than commercially created bread, explicitly due to the long fermentation process. Not to mention it tastes good, and can last up to a week. The acetic acid which is produced along with lactic acid helps to preserve the bread, inhibiting mold growth.

For us, it’s good for sandwiches for up to 3 days, toast up to 5 days and after that it makes banging french toast, or bread crumbs for other recipes. Nothing is wasted.

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.