Heritage Bread

Today is a good day to be thankful for our farmers. Those that care enough to be organic, stewards of the land that provide us with food and them with a fulfilling living. We are very excited to have our first 55lb bag of organic Acadia wheat that was grown only a 15 minute drive from our little homestead.

We had errands to run (farmer’s market, feed store, basic Saturday stuff) and we were itching to see our grains. This is the glory we have been waiting for:It was now time to figure out how to grind it to flour, without a grinder. We are not daunted by such trivial things as not having the correct tools, those will come in time.

First we ran a cup at a time through our old reliable blender until it was as sufficiently ground as could be done without burning out the motor. It was about the consistency of corn meal or a little better.

Then through the coffee grinder we keep for the sole purpose of herb grinding.  It was sifted and re-ground until the 3 cups of grain became 3 1/2 cups of sifted flour and 1/3 cup of coarse bran that would not go finer with the equipment at hand.

The true test was to make bread, wholegrain organic bread. Was a wee bit scary as the flour made was rougher than anything I had used prior. My recipe for white bread would have to do for now. It was harder on the hands to knead, but the gluten worked its magic and the stretchy shiny surface of a happy dough came to be.

After being left to rise in a sunny spot for an hour it was off to the oven. I am legitimately way too excited about this, it’s bread, but to see wheat grains that grind into flour then becomes bread is awe inspiring. I truly enjoy seeing how what we eat is made.

I have dubbed our time the Grocery Store Era as the vast majority of  folks have no idea where or how their food is grown. If you want something you go to the grocery store and buy it out of season, chemically treated, pre-cut, processed, and all with pretty pictures of how healthy it is for you (until the recalls occur)…while wiping your hands with sanitizer provided by the store…run! Food comes from the dirt, from the killing of well raised animals and it does not come wrapped in magazine ads with prizes under the labels. A mere two generations ago people grew and raised their own food. I do not want to birth children until I die or wear full skirts and corsets but I do want to take the best of our ancestors and build on that.

And that is the rant of the day, done.

The bread is ready for the oven. It has raised well.

The smell of the house is beyond belief. This bread is the best smelling bread, bar none.

We have eaten half the loaf in under 10 minutes. There will be so much more to come now that we know it works.

This little world we have created started with wanting to know our food; how it was grown, who grew it, how it was handled. This is how we did it: bought local, bought base food products (not processed), grew our own(vegetables, chicken, honey, herbs). Grinding local organic wheat was just the next logical step.

Now that the bread is done it’s on to our next adventure: homegrown herb and local grown pork sausages. The casing just came in today…

A life full of flavor. There is nothing better.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.