|
|
||||||||
I am a novice baker trying my darnedest to learn how to make good bread. I would rather have bought a book by Michael Pollan called Baked. In his book, Cooked Michael talks about his time with guru bakers, farmers, and millers. He reminds us that to make good bread you only need a few basics: flour, water, salt, yeast, time, and heat. Here’s our take on local and regional grain and flour, and baking bread. 
This recipe is a little overdue considering we’re long past pumpkin season, but I figured it’s OK because I still have canned pumpkin in my cupboard (I bought a bunch while it was cheap). I can get a batch of granola and a small batch of cookies out of one can. Fresh pureed pumpkin is even better, and if you have some of that on hand I envy you. If however you have some canned on hand, you should try making this! It’s almost like eating pumpkin pie for breakfast. 
I opted to use crimson lentils for this dal, and I’m glad I did – the result was this delicious, bright yellow dish that is pleasing to look at and fun to eat. Yes it’s essentially lentil mush, but the prettiest tastiest lentil mush you ever did see. 
Dave Christensen has spent 40 years rescuing this corn from extinction and breeding it to find or create the hardiest, most nutritious varieties. Someday, he hopes, it could feed millions. He grows multicolored heirloom corn on 12 different plots scattered across Montana. Mainly dried and ground, the kernels are highly nutritious and chock-full of antioxidants. 
There are so many creative good food growers and processors putting their hearts into bringing back wholesome and healthy food. We’ve been so lucky to meet a few of them! Last weekend, we spent the day cooking, baking, and eating grain-based foods that connect us to good friends and their hard work. 
Grains – wheat, barley, rye, oats – in western Washington? Who would have thought? Somewhere back in time, the rest of the world became convinced that the only things you could grow in western Washington were mold, mildew, and ducks! Gotcha! It turns out that grains have been cultivated in Cascadia – western Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia – for more than 150 years. 
I’ll admit, I’m not the world’s best cook, I didn’t grow up surrounded by cooks – but I can sure tell you when I’ve managed to cook something wrong! Peas, beans, whole grains, and lentils are supposed to be good for you. So I blundered ahead and made lentil mush. Hmmm… definitely not doing this right! 
Bread went from being a major part of our ancestors’ food intake to being a very small part of the food we eat today. Heavy, rich, and nutritious bread was once a daily staple; today commercial “industrialized” bread is produced in fully automated factories and is full of chemical additives and preservatives, too much salt, and has too little nutritive value. What went wrong? 
When he was a child, George DePasquale’s quintessential (and large!) Italian-American family gathered every weekend to make food for the coming week – for the whole family. Fresh pasta hung drying over the backs of the sofa and chairs and lay curled on the beds, pots of sauces simmered on the stove, and piles of fresh fish were cleaned and frozen. And Mama always baked bread for the family. It was the homemade bread and exposure to the bakery down the street that made those years so important to George. He literally grew up with “flour in his hair;” baking bread all his life. |
 Video: Seed Saving Around the World
Kate Flint, Australian gardener and seed saver, talks about her seed saving passion.
The Growing Revolution is the story of Jubilee Biodynamic Farm in Carnation, Washington.
Pig Mania
Crown S Ranch, Winthrop WA
(Click the image for a larger version.) |
|||||||
|
||||||||
