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The previous owners of this piece of land had a logging business that had gone bankrupt, and they had an estate auction to pay the bills. For the most part, this farm, which was homesteaded in 1904, is surprisingly bereft of old artifacts. That was until recently, when we cleaned out a loft area on an old building that had somehow gotten missed in the purge. Here are a few of our cool finds.
We found a variety of old newspapers lining boxes, from 1925 to the early 1950’s.
Fresh from the oven sourdough baguette.
Well, I wrote too soon. Turns out the morning after my sourdough post, my starter “woke up”.
I had decided to stop feeding it twice a day, as that had become a bit of a pain with little reward. Having not fed it the night before, I fed it that morning for the first time in about 24 hours. As I puttered around the kitchen, I looked over at the starter jar and… drum roll… it was growing. “Well hello there” I said. Read the rest of this entry »
The dough (a 50-50 mix of white and rye flour) at the beginning of the adventure.
I don’t know why, but I want to make bread that is ONLY risen by a sourdough starter. I’ve messed around with sourdough starters for years. Years ago I used a recipe with baker’s yeast (not a good idea. The acidic environment in a good sourdough will kill bakers yeast). I also tried one that used yogurt to get things going (not a bad idea, as the wild bacteria in good sourdough is a lactobacillus bacteria, and so are some of the bacteria in an active yogurt culture. This would also explain why some starters feed with flour and milk, rather than flour and water, but…yuck…warm milk sitting on top of my fridge…can’t go there). I’ve made some tasty starters, but I have never been able to create a starter that could rise a loaf of bread on its own. Turns out, I still can’t. Here’s my adventure. Read the rest of this entry »
Beautiful bountiful blackberries!
I have occasion to travel to Walla Walla Washington, and while there a few weeks ago, I could not help notice the HUGE banks of wild blackberry bushes along the creek at Rooks Park. It was going to be a banner year for blackberries.
I returned last week and on a still cool Tuesday morning at 7:30, armed with long sleeves, long thick pants and a five gallon bucket, I got to work. I was serenaded by bull frogs, startled by a great blue heron lifting off, and generally given a variety of weird looks by the local walkers, joggers and bikers. The berries were JUST getting ripe. Ungloved fingers were necessary in order to judge ripeness (unripe berries, even when black, don’t release easily; overripe berries squish in your fingers). Read the rest of this entry »
Christmas in August
Last week, I went up to Green Bluff in search of Apricots. I am one of those rare people who LOVES apricots. I love them out of hand, and I love them in jam and whatever else I can think of. So every year, I make some version of apricot jam, often mixed with some other seasonal fruit (Apricot-Raspberry and Apricot-Orange were past successes). Read the rest of this entry »
Stuffed Zucchini. Yum!
I love recipes that use up what I already have on hand. So when a friend sent me her mother’s stuffed zucchini recipe, how could I resist?
Zucchini, as everyone knows who either has a garden or knows a gardener, is in season right now. (Ever heard that old Garrison Keillor joke about not leaving your windows down in your car this time of year, or you will come back and find a bag of zucchini in the back seat?) I had purchased three good-sized zucchini from a local farmers market last week with this recipe in mind. They were a great price because of the size. Read the rest of this entry »
Nothing says “farm” like big hay bales!
Just like that, in less than 15 minutes, I’ve created the Miles Away Farm Limited Liability Corporation. (Of course, my bank account is a little lighter because of it). Read the rest of this entry »
My new favorite thing!
Wild Sweet Mountain Fruit
Cold Huckleberry Soft Serve
Summer Perfected
Miles Away Farm Blog © 2010
One of the things I like about having dogs is that they make me feel guilty if I don’t take them out for walks. And no just going down the driveway to get the mail. That does NOT count. I can almost hear them whining “Not this again. We’ve seen this and smelled this already, like, a thousand times”. Read the rest of this entry »
The final product
OK, I admit this is not an original tag line. I saw it on a t-shirt being worn by Rick Bayless on a PBS cooking show (Rick Bayless is my favorite Mexican cook book author). But I do love bacon, and so the phrase has stuck with me. Read the rest of this entry »
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