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Hello from home! See where I am so far with my journey into sourdough and sourdough starter.
I imagine most of you are at home right now- we are here anyway. Only the essential workers are around but I sure am glad that they are ! There are some local stores that are providing curbside pick up where I can get milk, eggs, flour, handmade bagels (yum) and some more things that have proven to be necessary items in our home. Toilet paper? well, that is another story isn’t it?
Bob and Rita sourdough starter
I finally took the dive into Sourdough- and what a dive it’s been! It’s like having another pet ( or in my case 2) since I wasn’t really sure my first starter was working. I started another one using whole grain flour instead of all purpose. There are so many articles, hints and tutorials on the web it can be quite daunting but I found one that worked for me from The Clever Carrot.
They are both thriving now- and were born on April 2 and April 4. Their names are Rita and Bob.The photo above shows them just starting out again after taking away the “discard” portion.
Rising dough for focaccia
Sourdough discard
There are lots of recipes for sourdough discard on the web. So far we have made waffles a few times, pancakes, again a few times, crumpets, focaccia, biscuits and pizza dough .
Garlic and Rosemary Focaccia
The current experiment is whole wheat sourdough burger buns. My burger will be veggie but I see them as great substitutes for sandwich bread. They are rising right now and will be baked later today. I’m really looking forward to how they taste. Who knew there were all of these things to do with sourdough?? and I thought it was just about baking bread- the things I am learning through this quarantine time- amazingly useful stuff!
ETSY shop is busy!
Along with tending the sourdough every day the orders have been coming in steadily from the ETSY shop. That has been great . Between feeding the starter and responding to customers there have been rugs made and wool dyed. In fact, there is wool soaking right now and some ready for listing.
Gone are all of the things that were on the list to do- clearing cupboards and sorting through boxes. Oh, that hasn’t happened, but other things have taken up all of the time- essential things.Those will go back on the list, but for now- other things seem much more important.
A few new wools with more to follow
Some of the wool will be sold in bundles since it seems to look better as a collection rather than a single piece. Others are listed as singles- like the spot dyes. Those spot dyes- so beautiful and fun to create! There may have to be a spot dye day in the near future.
Blue spot dye
Antique Blue Green bundle
Blue Cupboard Bundle
New linen “Keeper Sacks”
Trying to be creative with some linen sacks that were made long ago. Boy, those percolated in my head for a long long time, but they came out pretty sweet and have been put together as a collection with bundles of like colored wool. The red bundle sold almost immediately . There is a blue collection listed with more wool than the red. Probably a neutral collection will be next up.
Linen “Keeper Sack”
Making Masks for Maine
Oh, the mask making- how could I forget that?? For a while it felt like a part time job, but now that there is a system in place, they go much faster. They are being offered for free with a $50 purchase in the shop while there are some made up. The others have all gone to Sewing Masks for Maine. I read a post about how the recipients are having fun choosing which ones they like best and even giving them names. It’s gratifying knowing that it is bringing a wee bit of joy to the health care community in these challenging times.I have some more to make either today or tomorrow.
A new way of connecting
Zoom– who knew this was going to be the way to communicate with one another? We have coffee and lunch dates with our family. That has been interesting and quite fun- it’s like having everyone together at home, only on a screen! The daughter and son in law in Scotland are able to be with us too. He brings loads of creativity to the chats. You would have to witness them, too hard to re-create here. Let’s just say its been fun and adds some laughter when we all need some. I can.not.wait. to give them all real hugs though.
Well the buns are out of the oven and smell great! Hopefully they will taste as good as they smell.
Sourdough burger buns
So as I say hello from home. In Maine, know that things have been happening here in our humble dwellings. We are busy busy! There were some thoughts of gardening, but then it snows again, and again, and again…. Spring is coming- we can feel it!! The birds are trickling in to the feeders. We have to take those in at night because there have been bears at peoples feeders already. Since we have been through that in the past we are trying to avoid that again. They really do a job on things when they show up!
I’d love for you to say hello from your home and tell me what you have been up to. I’m off to the Post Office, with mask on, to ship packages to folks who are crafting. I’ll pick up some flour and bagels at the Cafe, curbside, and head back home. Gracie will come along for the ride- the highlight of her day.
Stay well friends. Hope to hear from you soon!
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