Now that I've actually given a few jars of hot sauce to several family members who actually use hot sauce I finally have some feedback. Chris Kang commented that it had some kick to hit. Considering Chris' gift for understatement I would translate to mean it was pretty darn hot. Chet and Rachel Arnett also thought it was pretty good. No one complained that it was too mild.
I guess with all of that positive feedback I will do it again next year, assuming Terry Johnson has a good hot pepper crop and feels inclined to drop another bucket of hot peppers in my lap. I doubt I will go to the trouble of raising hot peppers in my own garden since I am personally not a hot sauce user. A few days ago I spoke with Terry at the bee store and he told me that the long skinny red peppers were cayenne peppers. He was unsure of the variety of the fourth type of pepper he had given me, but was pretty sure it was something relatively hot.
I have been making bread with the wild yeast or levain for about six weeks now. It has been fairly consistent as far as the "crumb" or interior texture of the bread is concerned. It has been even textured with no big holes in the middle. However, it has failed to produce a loaf tall enough to make a decent sandwich. I suspect I am just not putting in enough dough so I'm going to try increasing the recipe. I mixed up bread today with a total of 500 grams of flour and 400 grams of water. Due to the increased volume I am going to try adding 5 minutes to the bake time. I also read in another bread book that you can increase oven spring and get a lighter loaf by basting the crust with water immediately before it goes into the oven. I'm going to give that a try as well.
If anyone is interested in trying out my wild yeast starter, just let me know and I'll be happy to grow a little extra to share. I've already given starters to my daughters Sarah and Rachel who both live in Oregon. I'm assuming this blog has a limited readership and I won't be overwhelmed with yeast requests...
Friday, January 13, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Happiness is a Large Stack of Cedar Planks
A marvelous thing happened today. Mark Salser brought his woodmiser portable sawmill to our house and we started to convert our four large cedar logs into 1x6 planks. It was a wonderful thing to watch although it was a lot of work moving the logs onto the mill and removing and stacking the green planks.
 |
| Mark Salser |
 |
| The Woodmiser Portable Sawmill |
 |
| The Logs on Thursday Morning |
 |
| Our First Log Loaded onto the Mill |
 |
| 1 Inch Slabs |
Milling the first two logs went very smoothly. We were able to move the logs into position using two peevee poles and a large metal pry bar. However, we ran into trouble with the two largest logs. I called in the cavalry and had Quentin shut down the bee store for a few hours to help us move the logs. We tried several methods including the use of a hydraulic jack. After several hours of effort we decided to call a halt and try again the next morning. The logs were just too big to move into position using the available equipment. Mark is going to come back tomorrow with a larger hydraulic jack, a large chain, and several comealongs.
I expect we will get the remaining two logs finished tomorrow. Now my big challenge is to clean out space in our garage so the planks can be properly stickered and dry without warping. Stickering consists of stacking the boards neatly with sticks placed every several feet so that more surface area is exposed yet the boards are kept straight by the weight of the stack. Over the next six months the boards will dry gradually until they are sufficiently dry to be used. I then plan to plane the boards and use my router table to make them into tongue and groove planks for our ceiling.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Timber!!!
So we finally got tired of all of the cedar needles on the roof and living in the shade. The week before Christmas we hired someone to take down the big cedar tree in our front yard. We left the one that is a little further from the house (due to the grandkid swing hanging from its branches). I tried to talk Linda into having both big cedars removed but she wouldn't budge on the one with the swing. I hired Bill Martin, a bee class alum, to do the job, and a nasty job it was. The ivy went clear to the top which made the upper half of the tree very difficult. They limbed the first 50 feet using a bucket hoist, but the upper part they had to do with climbing spurs. Using the climbing spurs on an ivy covered tree is no picnic. It took two guys the entire day to take down the one tree.
We are quite happy with the results. Linda loves the improved view and additional light in the living room. We no longer have to worry about the very large tree falling on our house. I'm delighted with my big pile of mulched up branches and leaves, more than a cord of firewood, and four big cedar logs laying in our front yard. I expect this to make an amazing difference in our front yard and means we now have room for some reasonable sized trees in the front yard. Linda wants to put in some ornamental trees while I'm thinking nothing is more ornamental to me than a few more pie cherry trees.
I have another bee store friend, Mark Salser, who is going to bring his wood miser portable sawmill to our house to cut up the logs into 1x6 boards. That is scheduled for tomorrow. After about six months of drying I intend to plane the cedar boards and turn them into 3/4 inch tongue and groove planks for our ceiling. I know there will be some waste, but I'm very curious as to how much lumber we'll get out of those big logs. We counted rings close to the bottom and the tree was over 80 years old. I'll be able to do a better count when I've cleared out the ivy and count the stump itself.
 |
| And the mulch pile grows |
 |
| This was very difficult, removing ivy as he climbed |
 |
| The tree split into three tops |
 |
| The bucket hoist only reached the lower 50 feet of the 100 foot cedar |
 |
| One more section left to cut |
We are quite happy with the results. Linda loves the improved view and additional light in the living room. We no longer have to worry about the very large tree falling on our house. I'm delighted with my big pile of mulched up branches and leaves, more than a cord of firewood, and four big cedar logs laying in our front yard. I expect this to make an amazing difference in our front yard and means we now have room for some reasonable sized trees in the front yard. Linda wants to put in some ornamental trees while I'm thinking nothing is more ornamental to me than a few more pie cherry trees.
I have another bee store friend, Mark Salser, who is going to bring his wood miser portable sawmill to our house to cut up the logs into 1x6 boards. That is scheduled for tomorrow. After about six months of drying I intend to plane the cedar boards and turn them into 3/4 inch tongue and groove planks for our ceiling. I know there will be some waste, but I'm very curious as to how much lumber we'll get out of those big logs. We counted rings close to the bottom and the tree was over 80 years old. I'll be able to do a better count when I've cleared out the ivy and count the stump itself.
Wild Yeast Bread
I visited family in the Portland area the week following Christmas but was unable to get this blog posted before losing my computer access for a week. Tuesday's highlights included a trip with Rachel and family to Powell's bookstore in downtown Portland and 45 minutes waiting in line at Voodoo Doughnuts. The wait at Voodoo was well worth it as I got to experience true doughnut nirvana. The particular item of doughnut perfection was a maple bar with several strips of bacon on top. While I admit that it sounds a bit strange, when you take a bite it becomes instantly obvious that these flavors belong together and you ask yourself "Why didn't someone think of this sooner?"
My big find at Powell's was a used book on raising ducks and geese with detailed instructions on incubation to include plans to build your own incubator. I was seriously tempted by a number of their bread books and other cookbooks but decided to read a few more from the library before I make a commitment to a particular author. Speaking about bread, Rachel and I used my wild yeast to make a pretty decent loaf of 50% whole wheat bread. We had it for dinner along with a yummy homemade Turkey and noodle soup. It really hit the spot.
The particular bread I've been making is a variation on Cibatta bread. I use a wet dough and no kneading. I begin with 400 g of my sourdough starter. The starter is a 50/50 combination of whole wheat and white flour and half the weight of the starter comes from flour and half comes from water. That means I am starting with 200 g of water, 100g of whole wheat flour, and 100 g of white flour. When you make bread by weight every ingredient is measured as a percentage of the weight of the flour. My starter is 100% as the weight of the water is the same as the weight of the flour. I want to end up with a ratio of 80% with the amount of water in the dough being 80% compared to the weight of the flour. This sounds complex but it is really pretty easy to do with a simple kitchen scale. In order to get my 80% ratio I simply add 100 g of whole wheat flour, 100g of white flour, 120 g of water, and 4 g of salt. I mix the dough together, cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it sit out on the counter for a few hours.
After the dough has started to rise, I put it in the fridge until a few hours prior to the time I want to bake it. I can do this the evening before if I want to make bread the next morning or I can do it in the morning if I want to make bread that evening. This time in the fridge is important as it stops the yeast growth while the gluten continues to develop. When I take it out of the fridge, I transfer the dough to a greased bread pan. Since the dough is pretty sticky I simply use a fork to pull it away from the sides of the bowl and let it drop into the bread pan and even it out a bit. When the dough has risen sufficiently to fill the bread pan I heat the oven to 450 degrees and bake it for about 25 minutes.
A few important notes:
1. It is a virtual impossibility to measure a sourdough starter accurately by volume as there is a lot of variation in the amount of air in the starter. The only way I can know exactly how much of the starter I've used is to weigh it. Flour is also difficult to measure accurately by volume as there is a varying amount of air in the flour depending how it has been handled.
2. It is much easier to make good bread with actual bread flour rather than all purpose flour. "All purpose" actually means all purposes except making bread. Bread flour is made from higher protein wheat and has more of the gluten necessary for the structure in bread.
3. This may seem complicated, but it really isn't. This whole process only takes about 15 minutes of my time and who wouldn't give a mere 15 minutes for yummy homemade bread. It does require a minimum of planning ahead as in "I want to have bread for dinner tomorrow night so I had better mix it up tonight or tomorrow morning. Since I'm currently using my bee store scale I also have to remember to bring the scale home from work.
My big find at Powell's was a used book on raising ducks and geese with detailed instructions on incubation to include plans to build your own incubator. I was seriously tempted by a number of their bread books and other cookbooks but decided to read a few more from the library before I make a commitment to a particular author. Speaking about bread, Rachel and I used my wild yeast to make a pretty decent loaf of 50% whole wheat bread. We had it for dinner along with a yummy homemade Turkey and noodle soup. It really hit the spot.
The particular bread I've been making is a variation on Cibatta bread. I use a wet dough and no kneading. I begin with 400 g of my sourdough starter. The starter is a 50/50 combination of whole wheat and white flour and half the weight of the starter comes from flour and half comes from water. That means I am starting with 200 g of water, 100g of whole wheat flour, and 100 g of white flour. When you make bread by weight every ingredient is measured as a percentage of the weight of the flour. My starter is 100% as the weight of the water is the same as the weight of the flour. I want to end up with a ratio of 80% with the amount of water in the dough being 80% compared to the weight of the flour. This sounds complex but it is really pretty easy to do with a simple kitchen scale. In order to get my 80% ratio I simply add 100 g of whole wheat flour, 100g of white flour, 120 g of water, and 4 g of salt. I mix the dough together, cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it sit out on the counter for a few hours.
After the dough has started to rise, I put it in the fridge until a few hours prior to the time I want to bake it. I can do this the evening before if I want to make bread the next morning or I can do it in the morning if I want to make bread that evening. This time in the fridge is important as it stops the yeast growth while the gluten continues to develop. When I take it out of the fridge, I transfer the dough to a greased bread pan. Since the dough is pretty sticky I simply use a fork to pull it away from the sides of the bowl and let it drop into the bread pan and even it out a bit. When the dough has risen sufficiently to fill the bread pan I heat the oven to 450 degrees and bake it for about 25 minutes.
A few important notes:
1. It is a virtual impossibility to measure a sourdough starter accurately by volume as there is a lot of variation in the amount of air in the starter. The only way I can know exactly how much of the starter I've used is to weigh it. Flour is also difficult to measure accurately by volume as there is a varying amount of air in the flour depending how it has been handled.
2. It is much easier to make good bread with actual bread flour rather than all purpose flour. "All purpose" actually means all purposes except making bread. Bread flour is made from higher protein wheat and has more of the gluten necessary for the structure in bread.
3. This may seem complicated, but it really isn't. This whole process only takes about 15 minutes of my time and who wouldn't give a mere 15 minutes for yummy homemade bread. It does require a minimum of planning ahead as in "I want to have bread for dinner tomorrow night so I had better mix it up tonight or tomorrow morning. Since I'm currently using my bee store scale I also have to remember to bring the scale home from work.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
They Call Me By a Number Not a Name...
This title come from an old Flatt and Scruggs bluegrass tune. I once considered this tune to be my unofficial theme song as I was anxiously waiting to finish my seven year term of indentured servitude in the Air Force. "On this old rock pile...with a ball and chain..they call me by a number not a name. When I've done my time.. when I've done my time...with an aching heart and a worried mind."
My ducks are probably quietly quacking this song now as a new indignity has entered their lives. I bought some numbered leg rings to put on the ducks and chickens to make it easier to tell them apart. Popeye (the drake) is pretty easy to recognize due to his distinctive curly tail feathers (hen ducks don't get them) and the fact that he is significantly larger than the two hen ducks. However, Olive Oyle and Sweetpea look very much alike. Olive Oyle is only slightly larger than Sweetpea. Just in case Sweetpea catches up in her growth someday I thought the numbers would be helpful. I also put them on my new chickens although there are only two which look a lot alike. I have three Cuckoo Marans, two of which have very similar plumage. I also have two Americaunas but one is reddish brown while the other one is mainly white. However, I expect to add more chickens at some point so it will be nice to easily tell the older ones from the younger ones.
My ducks are probably quietly quacking this song now as a new indignity has entered their lives. I bought some numbered leg rings to put on the ducks and chickens to make it easier to tell them apart. Popeye (the drake) is pretty easy to recognize due to his distinctive curly tail feathers (hen ducks don't get them) and the fact that he is significantly larger than the two hen ducks. However, Olive Oyle and Sweetpea look very much alike. Olive Oyle is only slightly larger than Sweetpea. Just in case Sweetpea catches up in her growth someday I thought the numbers would be helpful. I also put them on my new chickens although there are only two which look a lot alike. I have three Cuckoo Marans, two of which have very similar plumage. I also have two Americaunas but one is reddish brown while the other one is mainly white. However, I expect to add more chickens at some point so it will be nice to easily tell the older ones from the younger ones.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The Great Duck Pen Mystery
I've been very perplexed with a recent development in my duck pen. I have three fawn and white India runner ducks. They don't fly. They run around a lot but I've never seen them fly and they're not supposed to be able to fly. Yet somehow poultry poop has been magically appearing on the roof of the little duck shelter within the duck pen. I had briefly kept a chicken in with the ducks some months ago and the chicken would occasionally roost on top of the duck shelter resulting in an accumulation of chicken poop on the top of the shelter. I built a new chicken pen several months back, moved the chicken to her new digs and the rain had quickly erased any evidence that the chicken had ever lived in the duck pen. But now the poop has mysteriously returned.
About a week ago I took custody of an additional 5 laying hens that my daughter-in-law Beth had been raising. They've been living in the new chicken pen with my old Rhode Island Red hen. The old hen has been a bit territorial and has the new hens effectively cowed. I've gone out there several time after dark and found the red hen roosting in the chicken coop by herself while the young hens were sleeping on the roof of the goose shelter (as of yet unoccupied) in the rain. Each time I have moved them one by one into the chicken coop and hoped that the old biddy would soon figure out that she no longer had a private room. A few days ago I went out to check on the chickens to see if they were finally roosting in the coop where they belonged. I didn't see any chickens asleep on the roof of the goose shelter so I was hopeful that they had finally worked out their pecking order. When I looked in the chicken coop to my surprise I only saw the old red hen. I looked in the nest boxes and still found no young hens. Yet I could hear them making the kinds of quiet little chicken noises that they make when they are roosting. I looked everywhere in the chicken pen and couldn't find the chickens but yet I could hear them. Finally I listened carefully and looked up to discover five young hens roosting on the wire roof of the duck pen right above the duck shelter. Obviously I am going to have to do a bit of a rework job on the chicken pen to preclude any of my chickens flying the coop.
I took some evidentiary photographs but they are unavailable at the moment so I will add them in a few days
About a week ago I took custody of an additional 5 laying hens that my daughter-in-law Beth had been raising. They've been living in the new chicken pen with my old Rhode Island Red hen. The old hen has been a bit territorial and has the new hens effectively cowed. I've gone out there several time after dark and found the red hen roosting in the chicken coop by herself while the young hens were sleeping on the roof of the goose shelter (as of yet unoccupied) in the rain. Each time I have moved them one by one into the chicken coop and hoped that the old biddy would soon figure out that she no longer had a private room. A few days ago I went out to check on the chickens to see if they were finally roosting in the coop where they belonged. I didn't see any chickens asleep on the roof of the goose shelter so I was hopeful that they had finally worked out their pecking order. When I looked in the chicken coop to my surprise I only saw the old red hen. I looked in the nest boxes and still found no young hens. Yet I could hear them making the kinds of quiet little chicken noises that they make when they are roosting. I looked everywhere in the chicken pen and couldn't find the chickens but yet I could hear them. Finally I listened carefully and looked up to discover five young hens roosting on the wire roof of the duck pen right above the duck shelter. Obviously I am going to have to do a bit of a rework job on the chicken pen to preclude any of my chickens flying the coop.
I took some evidentiary photographs but they are unavailable at the moment so I will add them in a few days
Saturday, December 10, 2011
My First Attempt at Sushi
As I was exploring Cash and Carry the other day I noticed they had the seaweed wrappers (sushinori) used in sushi and I was inspired to give it a try. Fortunately, I had watched my daughter (Sarah) make California rolls once so I had somewhat of an idea. There were also concise instructions on the package of sushinori. My first effort turned out very lame, but subsequent rolls were passable. I'm sure its obvious which plate is the first and which plate is the last.
The biggest problem I had was getting the rice the right consistency. The instructions started with rinsing the rice until the water wasn't cloudy. I did that and then cooked it according to the instructions, However, the rice turned out a bit dry and I had to microwave it with a bit of water to soften it up a bit. I'm not sure where I erred in following the instructions but fortunately I was able to fix it. Alls well that ends well.
I've been busy at work filtering beeswax and making candles. I really enjoy making candles but I've about made enough to do me for another year. I think I have enough dipped tapers to last us into April or May. Lately I've been trying to crank out beeswax nativity sets. They look really nice, but a few of the figures are a challenge to get right. I've poured a lot of Wyoming donkeys and cows as Quentin calls them. Those are ones missing part or all of their ears due to frostbite. Its taken a bit of practice to learn how to get them out of the molds without breaking of part of an ear or two.
Tomorrow marks my second full week serving in the bishopric. The biggest lifestyle change has been the need to manage and schedule my time better. The service is rewarding, but I'd rather serve somewhere that doesn't involve being in charge of so much stuff. I really can't complain. They left me alone in Primary and scouts for about eight years. I still get to participate in scouting now, just in a different capacity.
I've been busy at work filtering beeswax and making candles. I really enjoy making candles but I've about made enough to do me for another year. I think I have enough dipped tapers to last us into April or May. Lately I've been trying to crank out beeswax nativity sets. They look really nice, but a few of the figures are a challenge to get right. I've poured a lot of Wyoming donkeys and cows as Quentin calls them. Those are ones missing part or all of their ears due to frostbite. Its taken a bit of practice to learn how to get them out of the molds without breaking of part of an ear or two.
Tomorrow marks my second full week serving in the bishopric. The biggest lifestyle change has been the need to manage and schedule my time better. The service is rewarding, but I'd rather serve somewhere that doesn't involve being in charge of so much stuff. I really can't complain. They left me alone in Primary and scouts for about eight years. I still get to participate in scouting now, just in a different capacity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)