Yes, I love to go - and take along my knitting - and I so love to come back home, where I can knit, weave, walk and do so many other familiar things. Being away makes me appreciate being home.
Doesn't it just! It's like the knitting keeps us connected to ourselves while we're away though. At least for me, it makes it easier to appreciate wherever I am.
This is not strictly on point, but I want to recommend Robin Sloan's interesting and slightly psychedelic book, Sourdough. It's set in San Francisco and is slightly speculative fiction.
In the early months of the Covid lockdown my husband and I did a bit of sourdough experimentation, but we never got good results and ended up giving up on it.
There's something about a sourdough batch that, taken together, seems like a person or an animal or a multicellular organism. It feels like all the cells should have names, but those should all be riffs on a name, like Shirley, Shelley, Shellie, Sheila, Shelagh, etc., if it were possible to come up with billions of variations.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I put it on my list (who could resist such a title?)
And Oh my goodness, I love your name list for the multi-celled organism.Kind of like a forest full of trees. It reminds me of the Dr. Seuss poem about Mrs. McCave who had "twenty-three sons and she named them all Dave."
My sourdough starter has an amazing history. I was given the starter when I visited my best friend from grade & high school living then in Winnamucca NV, 1962. The starter was a gift from her neighbor: at that time the starter was 50 years old. Add 62 years that I have had it and shared it. Surely, it should be known as Granny!
Two of four granddaughters now bake bread, bagels, English muffins, and such; One GD from each of my sons’ families, ages 35 and 24. My starter had been fed on evaporated milk, and I have continued in the same vein.
My favs are pancakes and waffles, although I have used it in a variety of baking favs.
That's fantastic. What a great and generous organism to connect all these people. And though each one is likely its own new self by now, what with all the local yeasts, there must be a few cells that are still the same. At least that's how I feel about mine, whose ancestors originally (at least as far as I know--it may go back further) came from Montana and have spent a lot of time on fire lookouts (two different caretakers), and moving through the wilderness on horseback. My generation has it pretty tame, alas, but the hotcakes are always scrumptious. And the bread (which is still new for me), amazing.
My sourdough (for sweet and sour rye bread) was named mash. Sour mash. I have not made any for years and one regret I have is that dad really wanted some of my rye bread before he passed. He was a big fan of my cooking. My husband and my sister… not so much. He had difficulty knowing how to deal with a daughter who was not in the slightest, sporty. We finally found common ground when I started raiding his garden to cook vegetable meals and he loved getting in the garage to help design my spinning wheels. He asked me to knit just one garment. Blue fine socks. I did so and still can’t find them at his house. I wonder what he did.
Sour Mash! That's perfect--especially because of hte rye connection. So magical to hear about the ways we find to connect with family members with varied interests and points of view. My mother used to say of some of my life/creative decisions:"How ORIGINAL!" In other words: "you're the weirdest creature imaginable and I can't imagine where you came from but I'll support you forever nonetheless..."
When I moved to my current home six years ago, I started a new sourdough batch. I mixed it in a jar that at one time had held emmer grains, and so it said "EMMER." The sourdough was named, a little more gently, Emma, and so she has been every since. (She is very patient with my inconsistent, intuition-based baking ways.)
Oh, Emma! How delightful that the jar was ready with her name on it. I actually had to go look up "Emmer Grains" as I'd not heard of them before, only to find that it is another name for the Farro that I have in my cabinet! Thanks for that.
And yes, it is remarkable (and restful) that these wee yeasty beings are so generous and patient with us.
Many years ago, my newly obtained sourdough starter was introduced as”Herman”. Herman entertained my two kids, mostly by the fact that the smelly concoction on our kitchen counter had a name, though they really weren’t great sourdough bakery fans. Herman contracted some sort of fatal (not for any of us, thankfully) contamination after several years and met his demise. I still sort of miss him.
Alas, poor Herman... A friend of mine had one named "Carl Junior" who apparently met a similar fate. Her husband was also happy as he preferred bread made with commercial yeast... My sourdough lives in the ice box when not in use, so the smells stay contained. Unlike the sauerkraut my husband used to ferment in the pantry. SO delicious and soooooooo stinky.
My sourdough was born here in my home, recruiting yeasts from the wilds of central Maryland, about 3 years ago. They don't have a name, and recently spawned their first offspring - a gift to my neighbor. I'm knee-deep in newborn madness with a 5 week old baby, a 2 yr old, and a 5 yr old, but I'm perpetually optimistic I'll get a loaf made...tomorrow?
What a magical thing, to have the local yeasts choose you--and then to get to work with them. A bit like saving seed from your own garden. But OH MY WORD-- can't believe you even had the time to write this lovely comment! What a wild and wonderful (and exhausting and maybe sometimes overwhelming?) whirlwind your days must be.
Do you ever make sourdough hotcakes? Here is the recipe I use, which came from the woman I once worked for on her ranch in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. She'd made them every day for 30 + years:
1 c sourdough, 1 egg, 1 T sugar, 1/8 t salt, 1/8 soda. Beat the egg, add the rest, let fluff up (about five minutes), then cook on a hot griddle. Terrific plain (kids seem to love them). Also great toasted later.
I think they are especially good when I add leftover grains (brown rice/ bulgur/leftover oatmeal), grated zucchini, or a good blob of winter squash to the egg part.
Or do without the egg and they become crumpets!
All probably more than you want to tackle just now but they are quick and easy and are great with peanut butter or cheese or whatever.
Sorry. This isn't a cooking Substack, but just couldn't resist sharing.
I just made sourdough pancakes 2 nights ago! My 5 year old declared them "not his favorite" but my husband was quite keen. I will have to try your recipe next. It sounds delicious.
I get to read your writing and wrote my comment during naptime, while the baby snuggled on my chest.
I love reading your Substack. I went to veterinary school in Pullman. The Palouse will always hold a special place in my heart. I was there when the Yarn Underground opened. In one of those funny things where we are all connected by threads of varying thickness, I bought my first spinning wheel from Shelley, an Ashford Traditional with the name "Sarah Swett" inscribed on some of the bobbins.
I will have to let you know how the hotcakes go. We have grated zucchini from the garden in the freezer...
Thank you for sharing the pretty fall and landscapes out your way. Love how the swatches and loose ends are coming together with your knowing hand! Pretty soon you and Beryl will be a matched set. Quite magical how you are doing that! Perhaps I need to think of a good sourdough starter name to call one to come live at my house. My attempts in the past were not worth talking about. Perhaps it is because I am a gluten free girl. sigh I do make a lot of flat bread variations. Tierra del Fuego comes to mind as a good GF sourdough flat bread starter name. :-)
I love the idea of the name calling in the starter. And I have heard that there are gluten free ways of approaching it. A friend of mine who has Celiac has been making sourdough stuff. I should ask her how she does it. .
Oh yes, GF starters can be done. I am the stumbling block, my loyalty falters. I forget to feed it or to give it a good home. Mostly I forget to use it and just get busy trying other new things. But I see it in my future again. I do love sourdough pancakes and waffles! Naming it may keep it more top of mind! :-) BTW - I so relate to the way you create your meals!! :-)
That's wonderful to hear -- both the name and that she is happy to be shared--indeed, that she apparently thrives on it. Like a kid, both of whose parents are the favorite.
Thank you for the "prompts" link, I missed it before. Maybe because I was away from home and dogs, at a place with plenty to do, delicious food I didn't prepare - but I missed feeling creative after a few days. Now I'm home I'm having to make a to-do list to get back into daily habitual creative things. Seems counterintuitive!😜😜
I feel the same way ---there is simply no time to be "properly" creative on a vacation, but since it is already built into life at home, stuff actually happens. Though sometimes missing it makes a gal realize how utterly important that dedicated time is.
When I tried to keep a sourdough (twice) I started it myself and never used any yeast, just rye flour and warm water. Add, wait, add, wait, etc. I did like baking bread, but we can get such good bread here in Germany at still rather resonable prices, although they have gone up with inflation, too, that I figured it was so much more expensive making own bread ,with the added kernels and electricity and work time (I know, one doesn't count that, because of the fun element) than just buying the good stuff, and so I went back to supporting our local bakers. Never thought about giving it a name!
Nothing better than supporting local bakers-- especially when Truly delicious bread is there for the slicing. It actually took me longer than it might have to start baking bread (vs just hotcakes and such) with mine because some local bakers did such a beautiful job and I didn't want to do without their seed bread. But then they took a break (having a baby and bread wasn't their main gig), so I decided to try. My first few loaves were terrible, but I learned enough to be willing to try other things. And of course since I've no one to please but myself, I still ate the early, very flat loaves..... I wonder what I"ll do when they return to baking?
Yes, I love to go - and take along my knitting - and I so love to come back home, where I can knit, weave, walk and do so many other familiar things. Being away makes me appreciate being home.
Doesn't it just! It's like the knitting keeps us connected to ourselves while we're away though. At least for me, it makes it easier to appreciate wherever I am.
Have you read "A wizard's guide to defensive baking"? It has an amazing sourdough named Bob.
YES! I actually have. Bob is amazing. I mean, talk about a helpful sidekick.
T. Kingfisher has a wondrous imagination.
This is not strictly on point, but I want to recommend Robin Sloan's interesting and slightly psychedelic book, Sourdough. It's set in San Francisco and is slightly speculative fiction.
In the early months of the Covid lockdown my husband and I did a bit of sourdough experimentation, but we never got good results and ended up giving up on it.
There's something about a sourdough batch that, taken together, seems like a person or an animal or a multicellular organism. It feels like all the cells should have names, but those should all be riffs on a name, like Shirley, Shelley, Shellie, Sheila, Shelagh, etc., if it were possible to come up with billions of variations.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I put it on my list (who could resist such a title?)
And Oh my goodness, I love your name list for the multi-celled organism.Kind of like a forest full of trees. It reminds me of the Dr. Seuss poem about Mrs. McCave who had "twenty-three sons and she named them all Dave."
My sourdough starter has an amazing history. I was given the starter when I visited my best friend from grade & high school living then in Winnamucca NV, 1962. The starter was a gift from her neighbor: at that time the starter was 50 years old. Add 62 years that I have had it and shared it. Surely, it should be known as Granny!
Two of four granddaughters now bake bread, bagels, English muffins, and such; One GD from each of my sons’ families, ages 35 and 24. My starter had been fed on evaporated milk, and I have continued in the same vein.
My favs are pancakes and waffles, although I have used it in a variety of baking favs.
That's fantastic. What a great and generous organism to connect all these people. And though each one is likely its own new self by now, what with all the local yeasts, there must be a few cells that are still the same. At least that's how I feel about mine, whose ancestors originally (at least as far as I know--it may go back further) came from Montana and have spent a lot of time on fire lookouts (two different caretakers), and moving through the wilderness on horseback. My generation has it pretty tame, alas, but the hotcakes are always scrumptious. And the bread (which is still new for me), amazing.
Fred.
awwwwww. Give him our best.
My sourdough (for sweet and sour rye bread) was named mash. Sour mash. I have not made any for years and one regret I have is that dad really wanted some of my rye bread before he passed. He was a big fan of my cooking. My husband and my sister… not so much. He had difficulty knowing how to deal with a daughter who was not in the slightest, sporty. We finally found common ground when I started raiding his garden to cook vegetable meals and he loved getting in the garage to help design my spinning wheels. He asked me to knit just one garment. Blue fine socks. I did so and still can’t find them at his house. I wonder what he did.
Sour Mash! That's perfect--especially because of hte rye connection. So magical to hear about the ways we find to connect with family members with varied interests and points of view. My mother used to say of some of my life/creative decisions:"How ORIGINAL!" In other words: "you're the weirdest creature imaginable and I can't imagine where you came from but I'll support you forever nonetheless..."
When I moved to my current home six years ago, I started a new sourdough batch. I mixed it in a jar that at one time had held emmer grains, and so it said "EMMER." The sourdough was named, a little more gently, Emma, and so she has been every since. (She is very patient with my inconsistent, intuition-based baking ways.)
Oh, Emma! How delightful that the jar was ready with her name on it. I actually had to go look up "Emmer Grains" as I'd not heard of them before, only to find that it is another name for the Farro that I have in my cabinet! Thanks for that.
And yes, it is remarkable (and restful) that these wee yeasty beings are so generous and patient with us.
Many years ago, my newly obtained sourdough starter was introduced as”Herman”. Herman entertained my two kids, mostly by the fact that the smelly concoction on our kitchen counter had a name, though they really weren’t great sourdough bakery fans. Herman contracted some sort of fatal (not for any of us, thankfully) contamination after several years and met his demise. I still sort of miss him.
Alas, poor Herman... A friend of mine had one named "Carl Junior" who apparently met a similar fate. Her husband was also happy as he preferred bread made with commercial yeast... My sourdough lives in the ice box when not in use, so the smells stay contained. Unlike the sauerkraut my husband used to ferment in the pantry. SO delicious and soooooooo stinky.
My starter’s pedigree is through my local bread shop, Hungry Ghost. They generously give out starter for the asking. My starter’s name is Jane Dough 😏
Brilliant name! And what a generous bread shop.
My sourdough was born here in my home, recruiting yeasts from the wilds of central Maryland, about 3 years ago. They don't have a name, and recently spawned their first offspring - a gift to my neighbor. I'm knee-deep in newborn madness with a 5 week old baby, a 2 yr old, and a 5 yr old, but I'm perpetually optimistic I'll get a loaf made...tomorrow?
What a magical thing, to have the local yeasts choose you--and then to get to work with them. A bit like saving seed from your own garden. But OH MY WORD-- can't believe you even had the time to write this lovely comment! What a wild and wonderful (and exhausting and maybe sometimes overwhelming?) whirlwind your days must be.
Do you ever make sourdough hotcakes? Here is the recipe I use, which came from the woman I once worked for on her ranch in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. She'd made them every day for 30 + years:
1 c sourdough, 1 egg, 1 T sugar, 1/8 t salt, 1/8 soda. Beat the egg, add the rest, let fluff up (about five minutes), then cook on a hot griddle. Terrific plain (kids seem to love them). Also great toasted later.
I think they are especially good when I add leftover grains (brown rice/ bulgur/leftover oatmeal), grated zucchini, or a good blob of winter squash to the egg part.
Or do without the egg and they become crumpets!
All probably more than you want to tackle just now but they are quick and easy and are great with peanut butter or cheese or whatever.
Sorry. This isn't a cooking Substack, but just couldn't resist sharing.
I just made sourdough pancakes 2 nights ago! My 5 year old declared them "not his favorite" but my husband was quite keen. I will have to try your recipe next. It sounds delicious.
I get to read your writing and wrote my comment during naptime, while the baby snuggled on my chest.
I love reading your Substack. I went to veterinary school in Pullman. The Palouse will always hold a special place in my heart. I was there when the Yarn Underground opened. In one of those funny things where we are all connected by threads of varying thickness, I bought my first spinning wheel from Shelley, an Ashford Traditional with the name "Sarah Swett" inscribed on some of the bobbins.
I will have to let you know how the hotcakes go. We have grated zucchini from the garden in the freezer...
My sourdough has no name, like Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars
😂
My daughter’s was called Clint (Yeastwood)
I LOVE it! Y'all (and your daughter), are just brilliant.
My sourdough has a name... Grandma Belcher. She was an actual relative from long ago, her picture is on the jar lid!
LOVE it!
Thank you for sharing the pretty fall and landscapes out your way. Love how the swatches and loose ends are coming together with your knowing hand! Pretty soon you and Beryl will be a matched set. Quite magical how you are doing that! Perhaps I need to think of a good sourdough starter name to call one to come live at my house. My attempts in the past were not worth talking about. Perhaps it is because I am a gluten free girl. sigh I do make a lot of flat bread variations. Tierra del Fuego comes to mind as a good GF sourdough flat bread starter name. :-)
I love the idea of the name calling in the starter. And I have heard that there are gluten free ways of approaching it. A friend of mine who has Celiac has been making sourdough stuff. I should ask her how she does it. .
Oh yes, GF starters can be done. I am the stumbling block, my loyalty falters. I forget to feed it or to give it a good home. Mostly I forget to use it and just get busy trying other new things. But I see it in my future again. I do love sourdough pancakes and waffles! Naming it may keep it more top of mind! :-) BTW - I so relate to the way you create your meals!! :-)
My sourdough is named Bubbles, and she has been with me for about 25 years. My husband and I take strict turns baking with her.
That's wonderful to hear -- both the name and that she is happy to be shared--indeed, that she apparently thrives on it. Like a kid, both of whose parents are the favorite.
Thank you for the "prompts" link, I missed it before. Maybe because I was away from home and dogs, at a place with plenty to do, delicious food I didn't prepare - but I missed feeling creative after a few days. Now I'm home I'm having to make a to-do list to get back into daily habitual creative things. Seems counterintuitive!😜😜
I feel the same way ---there is simply no time to be "properly" creative on a vacation, but since it is already built into life at home, stuff actually happens. Though sometimes missing it makes a gal realize how utterly important that dedicated time is.
When I tried to keep a sourdough (twice) I started it myself and never used any yeast, just rye flour and warm water. Add, wait, add, wait, etc. I did like baking bread, but we can get such good bread here in Germany at still rather resonable prices, although they have gone up with inflation, too, that I figured it was so much more expensive making own bread ,with the added kernels and electricity and work time (I know, one doesn't count that, because of the fun element) than just buying the good stuff, and so I went back to supporting our local bakers. Never thought about giving it a name!
Nothing better than supporting local bakers-- especially when Truly delicious bread is there for the slicing. It actually took me longer than it might have to start baking bread (vs just hotcakes and such) with mine because some local bakers did such a beautiful job and I didn't want to do without their seed bread. But then they took a break (having a baby and bread wasn't their main gig), so I decided to try. My first few loaves were terrible, but I learned enough to be willing to try other things. And of course since I've no one to please but myself, I still ate the early, very flat loaves..... I wonder what I"ll do when they return to baking?