Always More To Learn

Today was a tiny bit cooler and less humid than it has been. High of 94 degrees, humidity around 50%. Not so bad, honestly. By Saturday we're supposed to be up in the triple digits but next week looks to have some cooler weather coming, some days not even predicted to get up to 90 degrees. It is amazing how just a slight change in the temperature with a small drop in the humidity can make such a difference. 

So I took a walk this morning and I didn't feel close to death at any point. I also did not pee in front of any trail cams as far as I know. I checked the area carefully before I commenced. It would be so great if I could walk more than a mile and a half before having to pee but I suppose after four babies and being the age I am, I should just be giving thanks for not having to wear Depends.

Well, this is fun, isn't it? 

I have been feeling lately as if I am truly substandard when it comes to making sourdough loaves. I think I just never really learned to do it right and treated my dough too much like I've always treated yeasted dough and that didn't really bother me overmuch until recently. My bread tastes delicious and has a decent rise to it, but as I mentioned a week or so ago, I have a friend who is a master sourdough baker and she sends me photos of her loaves and I do believe that she could put Martha Stewart to shame when it comes to beautiful loaves of bread. 
Does Martha even make sourdough? I have no idea. 

Cry your heart out, Martha. 

My friend's loaves are works of art. I would hate to cut them but I would because I know they taste amazing. 

So today I'm trying to make a loaf that's at least a little more traditionally sourdough-pretty and I think I'm probably rushing the process more than I should but I'm going to see what happens. I can't even begin to tell you how many recipes for sourdough there are online. Recipes and techniques and rules and suggestions and so much of the information is adamant that this is the right way to do it, but then you read another recipe and it's, no THIS is the way to do it, much of it all contradictory. But I know without a doubt that my friend's bread is perfection and so I am trying to adapt at least some of her recipes and techniques in the loaf I'm making today but I don't have a digital scale, which she swears by, and I haven't really exactly followed her instructions but I have followed some of them and have abandoned my own method for the most part which has not been giving me what I want. 

That's a lot about sourdough. But it's interesting to me. Baking bread, especially sourdough, is one of those things like gardening where you can do it your entire life and still never know everything there is to know about it. There is always so much more to learn. Seems so simple to mix flour and water and salt and sourdough starter and wait for the bread gods to make it happen, just as it seems so simple to put seeds in the dirt, and water them and expect to get gorgeous tomatoes, sweet, juicy melons, and fine, fat pods of peas. 
There are literally an infinite number of factors involved. And always, ALWAYS, infinite room for improvement. 

I also weeded another row in the garden this afternoon. I'm getting there. I didn't work for long, but enough to make me feel as if I've accomplished something today. I am getting itchy to start thinking about that fall garden I talked about. If I was a religious woman, I'd say that god put me on earth to grow stuff in the ground and then cook it. The urge to do those things is powerful and I do not know what I'd do if I wasn't able to obey those urges. I wonder who I'd be if I was raised and lived in a city? 
Well, I would not be who I am and that's for sure. 

All right. I've asked my friend who bakes the bread if I could post pictures she's sent me of her loaves and she said that I could and could also identify her AND to please link her Substack which is rebeccaloudon.substack.com.

Because I think of Rebecca Loudon as being a rock star whether in the area of poetry, baking, or playing the violin, I am thrilled to be able to do this. Here is a picture of two more of her loaves. 

The front loaf is plain sourdough and the one behind it is a double chocolate, olive oil sourdough. 

I mean...I mean...well, DAMN. 

She is bona fied, y'all. 

I feel so lucky to be able to call her my friend. She has taught me more than anyone can know. Including me. My sourdough will never compare with hers but she gives me a star to aim for. 

Love...Ms. Moon