Sunday, September 7, 2008

September 7, 2008

Not really sure why I broke up these two posts, but there's just a lot going on, so make sure you check out yesterday since I just posted it, hehe.

This post will be about my garden and bread.  I'll start with the bread to make sure the gardeners actually read it.

I'm not sure what happened with the bread this time.  The dough did rise high up the sides of that Tupperware bowl.  However, when I turned it out on the well flowered board, it stuck firm and was messy.  As a result, the dough didn't fold as much as it was molded and squished into a square.  Even the dough blade got coated and sticky.  Grrr. 

I had hoped to try DoubleD's method (I've been messaging her countless times over the last two days, THANK YOU!).  She uses a clay baker, but upside down.  Her bell pot is down with the flat bottom as a lid.  I figured that's how she gets her bread so tall.  I've since figured that I was mistaken, it doesn't help much. It's just her vast experience.  I had planned on using a pyrex bowl, covered with my pizza stone, to recreate it.  Unfortunately I only have one bowl of that size, so I couldn't bake with it since I used it for the final proof.  The problem is that I couldn't preheat the dish and use it for the final proof.  Silly me.  So I went back to the old standby. 

And yet again, the bread stuck to the pizza stone.  I wonder if folks oil it or not.  Not sure.  It's just really annoying to have to scrape it off.  I did salvage the bottom crust this time though.  Unfortunately, it was think and a bit over browned. Again, not sure why.  Not particularly logical, but whatever.  It still tastes great!



It's also a bit hollow inside.  More experimentation is in order, and maybe some emails to Eric at Breadtopia.  And what the heck, it's only a little flour, natural gas and time.

So, now on to my garden.  I'll finish up this post with a garden tour.



I'm getting more and more tomatoes ripening, this nice weather really is doing the trick!



And see all the new green bean production!  I just harvested last week or so!



The cukes keep plugging away.  I even saw a ton of new females starting to form.  Soon I'll be able to play matchmaker again.

And for the grand finale, I was almost done with my broccoli that I'd harvested, you know, the one EG was drooling over.  Well, I think he flew over here and harvested it.  And didn't do a good job of doing so.  Look at it!



Sure enough, some coon got past my ancient Shake Away application and found the broccoli too tasty to pass up.  Grrr.  I was looking forward to it.  So I put down another layer of Shake Away.  If I can track back to the last time I put it down, I'll know about how long it lasts.

Enjoy your garden!

4 comments:

  1. It wasn't me...I promise!!!! Man, that would suck big time! The old "fence trick" is a guarantee against critters. Let me know if I can help you.

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  2. Your tomatoes look great! So far I've only had a few cherry tomatoes ripen . . . sad I know.

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  3. Sorry, I'm just now reading this, Sin. I would try to sprinkle some corn meal on your pizza stone. I do this when I make homemade pizza dough and it kind of serves as "rollers" so your bread can slide off. Worth a try! :)

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  4. When I make regular yeast bread, I rub oil on the inside of the bowl I am rising the dough in, then roll the dough to coat it. When I punch down and divide, I have very nicely coated dough. It never has stuck when I bake it. Now, I know nothing about sourdough, so forgive me if the process is too different to compare. FYI.

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