Hello,
I’m a long-time, occasional lurker on this site. I’ve been baking bread and other things for more than 45 years now -- that’s longer ago than I first learned English. I am humbled to see the absolutely beautiful loaves everybody here is turning out. I owned a bakery in a big city for a while, but left all the baking to two wonderful bakers. When I inherited the business, one of the bakers let me know that the money maker in the shop was donuts and coffee, not artisanal loaves, or even the sandwich loaves (so much for that dream).
Fast forward to the present, I’m retired, my bakery is out of business -- a casualty of the pandemic and an acute housing shortage. My SO and I moved out to the sticks of the Pacific Northwest to a small(ish) hobby farm with a couple hundred laying chickens and a new flock of sheep arriving end of next month. I continue to make bread for home consumption, and to hand out to neighbors when we go or they come visiting.
I’m interested in improving my sourdough, and whole grain repertoires. And I have resolved to become consistent in scoring baguettes -- my SO has told me to not be so critical. I make all my dough by hand mixing in Cambro containers. I’ll probably acquire some kind of dough mixer somewhat soon, as my Kitchen Aid suffered a catastrophic demise 15 or so years ago, and my arms are getting more tired and weaker as I approach my 70th birthday.
- adgie
Welcome, happy to have you!
There’s definitely some great info on working with whole grains here, as I’m sure you’ve seen.
I just upgraded to a proper mixer myself, maybe last month? Highly recommend, it’s such a huge help. And with a farm to keep up with, you’ve probably got more than enough work to save your hands for!
Yes, indeed much information to be had. I'm somewhat overwhelmed with the amount. I haven't figured out to effectively search -- seems more productive to search with Google than the search box here.
As you note, the farmstead keeps this woman and her SO more than busy, so I'll likely be an infrequent poster until we get some seasonal workers going in the next few months.
-adgie
Yeah, it is so much information to go through! No harm in making a post if you have a particular question, though; some folks will share links to relevant posts that they're aware of, and generally everyone seems happy to help.
I also prefer Google to the site's search feature. If you aren't aware, you can type in, for example:
and it will search for whole wheat sourdough exclusively on this site.