bread phase six...loaf

in september of 2018 i planted a bed of hard red winter wheat...it was an act of optimism since the crop from the year before had failed to survive the almost snowless winter ( winter wheat needs four inches or so of snow to insulate it from the cold...odd but true )...

in july 2019 i harvested it...

and threshed and winnowed it...

and four days ago i milled it into whole wheat flour...

today i mixed some of flour with salt, sugar, yeast, oil, an egg, and a cup of warmed milk...

mixed it ( by hand )...

kneaded it ( by hand again )

shaped it into a loaf...

let it rise...

and baked it into an actual loaf of "bread from scratch"...true i did not collect the yeast culture or raise the chicken that laid the egg...or produce the vegetable oil...so it isn't entirely from "scratch"...but it did serve the purpose of educating me to, at least a relative amount of knowledge about, how much work actually goes into a loaf...a bit more edifying than running to the supermarket...it leaves unanswered the "why" anyone would take up agriculture...there are lots of ideas about that...no one has a definitive answer ( betting some think they do...not buying it )...i know more than i did in september of 2018...which was what it has been about for me...let you know how it tastes.

home stretch

i was at the iu northwest community garden this morning and there doesn't seem to be much of anything anomalous there at all...the eggplants are still producing and there are nascent ones as well as some that are well on the road to maturity...the green peppers are no slouches either...there are multiple peppers on a number of plants and one that has produced quadruplets...i didn't include any photos of the tomato bed but that will be churning out fruit well into october if the weather holds ( and, frankly, i think november could still see tomatoes...why not? think back to march )...the potato plants have begun to die back...just within the 90-120 day parameter and can be harvested pretty much any time now ( they'll keep in the ground perfectly well like the tubers jerusalem artichokes produce...no rush )tubers are always a surprise...like growing peanuts...you never know what's going to be turned up...the bottom photo is a wider shot of the community garden around ten this morning...dead on schedule and verdant at the end of august.