March 17, 2008
I don’t have an Irish bone in my body, but Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you that do!
While it may be almost spring according to the calendar, we continue to get snow. Promises of the gardening season to come, arrived via mail today, however. I got my order from Seed Savers as well as a little love from Laurie over at slowly she turned in the form of Hungarian hot wax pepper seeds! Thanks so much, Laurie!! I can’t wait to start some seeds in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, I’m taking advantage of some creative juices and working on a few projects, I’ve had in mind for some time. I started working on this quilt yesterday, the top is about halfway pieced at this point.

For those of you asking about my sourdough recipe, I more or less used this recipe from Mother Earth News. My starter is made from 100% freshly ground Montana wheat and our well water. I’ve only fed the starter with whole wheat - the bread after 1 cup of starter was removed for future use - was a mixture of whole wheat and white flours. I’ll continue working on using 100% wheat, a little at a time. Honestly it just felt right - I used that recipe from Mother Earth News as a guideline and it really helped. I spray the oven with water before adding the loaves (I spray the water and shut the door, then slash the loaves, then insert the loaves into the oven). I spray the oven with water again immediately after adding the loaves and that seems to help me get those super crusty loaves, we enjoy so much around here. I hope that helps, everyone a little.
March 18, 2008 at 8:07 am
Kathie,
Thank you for mentioning us on your Web site! We’re glad you enjoy Mother Earth News.
Loved your St. Patty’s Day post. Happy our sourdough recipe was helpful!
Laura Evers
Mother Earth News
For another great bread recipe, check out our brand new Web site!
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-12-01/Easy-No-Knead-Dutch-Oven-Crusty-Bread.aspx
March 18, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Wow, you got some love from Mother Earth News! I’m impressed!
The last time I got into the serious bread baking phase, I grabbed my vinegar/water cleaning spray bottle instead of my water spray bottle. I was horrified because I had spent five days developing the chef and sponge. It was okay, though. Turned out that it was cat hair that ruined it!
As you might guess, I gave up long-term bread making.