BAKERY UPDATES:
It is just beginning to warm up and already our breads are fermenting so quickly! It is time to start adjusting our recipes, but even with that, the flavours of our fermented goods will invariably change into the summer - last year I noticed they were more acidic. I have a few ideas to try to maintain consistency this year, mostly with our inoculation rates, and hopefully it works!
PASTRY BOX v.9
Rye Donker Brownie
Coffee Walnut Cardamom Cake
Orange Chocolate Croissant
Coconut Bear Claw
Baker's Whim - SUNSHINE - Aka delicious golden grains/seeds - millet, sunflower, golden flax & sesame.
FARM UPDATES:
Kelsey from Heirloomista has given us a farm update! Chives & Oregano are just about ready for picking! We are very excited to start bringing in the good haul.
Mark from Askegaard Organic Farm in Moorhead has said there is going to be a late planting of wheat this year. The farmers' fields are still pretty dang full of snow, and are hoping that they have a slow thaw - less pooling in the fields. There is better drainage when the ground has time to absorb the water. But if they are getting the heat next week like us, it seems like that thaw sure won't be slow. Mark has had years where he planted wheat at the end of May/ start of June, and some years it's the beginning of April.
|
|
F L O U R
When I started baking twelve years ago, flour existed in only its current form. I didn't understand from where it came. Grain was not part of my vocabulary. It wasn't long to understand flours origins, but it took me many years to truly see the whole picture, and the energy involved to make something that is so ubiquitous.
When you see it, feel it, smell it, do you see the fields it was grown on, or the tractor that planted, harvested, and threshed it? Or the facility that cleaned it, the trucks that moved it, the mill that milled it and the people that packaged it? What about the university that bred this new variety, or the generational farmers who saved their seed when they recognized its importance? Slow food doesn’t start in the kitchen, it starts in the fields, or sometimes the universities, or sometimes with a farmers forefather. It takes eight years for a university grain agronomy lab to develop a new wheat variety, and two years beforehand to determine the parameters for their development. It takes six to nine months to grow grain. It takes days to thresh, dry, & harvest. To clean and transport. It takes hours to mill. Eight to thirty-six hours to turn into a loaf of bread. That is ten plus years. Without including the knowledge the farmer learned and gleaned to successfully grow his grain, the miller the mill it fine or coarse enough, and the baker to turn it into something edible, flavorful, and maintaining the integrity of the grain.
What we eat always feels so far removed from its original form. Years ago I helped slaughter chickens, and two hours later, after we packed them for the freezer, the form in front of me was what I know at the grocery store, and almost immediately it was lost on me that only hours ago this was a living creature.
It is not necessary to see the whole picture every time you eat a slice, a croissant, or anything really. But every now and again, make sure to treasure the hands, minds, relationships, & soil which feed us. It is easy for me to treasure this, because our bakery is quite literally covered in Mark and Lukes grains. It we are fortunate that we live in a region where this is possible, at a time when this is again possible.
|
|
|
stop by the shop!
Thursdays 8-1
Fridays 8-2
Saturdays 8-1
peace, love, and pretzel dough, everybody!
chris the baker
|
|
|
|
|
