Troy Night Market

So, we plan on attending a winter market after all! As posted above they will have this market 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month.
We are planning to be there every 3rd Tuesday of the month - until March.

It would probably be a good idea if you were interested in purchasing more than 3 pizza crusts to contact me - that way I'll be bringing enough. At this point I am thinking that I may be scaling down on the baking. I'll see how things go that first evening.

I'm looking forward to this market! Small table already provided, no tent to set up, no horse trailer to back in, its something I can manage by myself if need be...but I'm sure everyone of the kids are going to want to come at least once!

I'd like to get adventurous and have a few new seasonal breads on the table. At least have a few sample out!

If you have any questions about the Night Market: get in touch with Karen or find us on Facebook!
We'll plan on seeing you there October 19th!

Market Week lll

Well, we didn't drown last weekend! The turnout was still great. Looks like rain again, but we still plan on being at the market this weekend (June 27th from 9-12). Look at the bottom of this page for the recipe for the dipping oil you find on the table with our bread samples.

• Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
• Onion Potato Sourdough
• Baguettes
• Oatmeal &Walnut Sourdough
• Artisan Sourdough*
• Cinnamon Raisin Bread*
• Whole Wheat Pizza Crusts*
•  Regular White Crust*
• Sourdough Pizza Crust*
• Aunt Sarah's Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies*
• Oatmeal Cookies

*everyweek 

Recipe With:

McGuffey Herb and Spice Co.

~Dipping Oil~
Follow instructions on the package of Taste Of Italy  spice packet.
Optional additions:
Pink salt
Garlic scapes
....and 1 loaf of Mosquito Creek Farm Sourdough bread! Easy Peasy!

 Contact Karen Purke for other wonderful spice blends to enjoy or find her at the Down Town Troy Farmer's Market!

Week II Baking

  What a great turn out on opening day! Way to go Kelly!! The rain held off and everyone was so excited to see everybody, and sad, too, that the "Maple Syrup Guy" (as my kids so eloquently call him) is no longer with us. Thank you all for coming by! And a big thanks to Karen Purke from the McGuffy Spice Company for supplying the seasonings for our dipping oil!

  So, this week my baking plan is as follows: don't sear the first load of Sourdough for one!
  To err is human, so evident in this business as well as other adages of the sort:
If-you-can-mess-up-you-will kind of thing. I'd rather not think about those. It's all part of the adventure!
Better yet are lovely thoughts like this:

 “The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight..." M.F.K. Fisher

Or...

“Bread – like real love – took time, cultivation, strong loving hands and patience. It lived, rising and growing to fruition only under the most perfect circumstances.”
― Melissa Hill, Something From Tiffany’s

 sigh....

On the Table Saturday Morning:

• County Wheat Sourdough 
• Garlic Potato
• Cinnamon Raisin Butter Loaf
•  Artisan Sourdough
• Spelt Loaf ~ All whole spelt sourdough loaf  
• Pizza crusts 
• ~NEW~ Cream Cheese Coconut Cookies
• Chewy Oatmeal Cookies  ooops forgot to coordinate with the Cookie Girl
• Aunt Sarah's Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

 

Ready To Bake

Whew that was a quick spring! We finished our school for the year and have a bit left to do on the kid's 4-H projects. The garden is in and thriving well, too. We've been very busy finish old projects and keeping to tradition: starting new projects!

 Market starts this weekend! Our Fourth Year at the DownTown Troy Farmer's Market. This year I plan alternating our bread selection each week. That way we can have a nice variety of breads to choose from all summer. Of course I'll have the every week favorites, but this is the plan anyhow. Next week I'll post a different selection. You can talk to me about this too, nothing is written in stone - we can change things up a bit to keep it interesting!

Expect to find this weekend on the table for June 13, 2015:

• Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
• Onion Potato Sourdough
• Baguettes
• Oatmeal &Walnut Sourdough
• Artisan Sourdough*
• Cinnamon Raisin Bread*
• Whole Wheat Pizza Crusts*
•  Regular White Crust*
• Sourdough Pizza Crust*

Hey, we'll see you there! I bet you won't recognize the children! Growing was the thing to do this year!

*We should be bringing these every week - unless of course there's a kitchen/oven mishap!

Spring Update

Well, since they say we have to change our clocks back pretty soon, I am somehow supposed to think that it is spring! Not in Ohio 2015! I have to admit I am in no hurry, just enjoying the slow pace of being snowed in the last two months.

I know that the last time we talked I mentioned getting back into the swing of things sometime in March. After much thought and consideration we decided to focus on the current "One Thing" and that is getting our homeschool wound up before the gardening time hits. And then it will be gardening time (no doubt you can hear the moans and groans in negative favor of that from where you are). We decided to just wait until the market cranks back up again before we have bread for sale.

It has been fun baking in the oven this winter though, we will have a new kind of bread on the table this summer: a 100% whole wheat sandwich bread. The kids like it much better than a round loaf.
Our usual simple ingredients of fresh ground wheat, water, olive oil, honey, yeast and sea salt. This is Abigail's project and she's doing a delicious job!

So, I think that is about it, take care and enjoy your spring (when it comes). We will see you in June!

Baking Day in the Winter

Preparing for a much need bake day. I started the fire late, around 10 am. I figured that since I didn't have a lot of loaves to bake I wouldn't worry about getting the oven too hot.

Hanging out at the oven chatting with my mom as she snapped pictures - she was determined to document every moment of The Bake Day.

The beginning of the Pizza rush.

 There's been a fire in the oven about 6 hours. Bryon pushes the coals back into a corner and mops the floor. Every time I do this I hope that it will get easier or more relaxed but we are still working on smooth sailing. How do you get 15 personal sized pizzas completely assembled down to the oven and tossed in with out a mishap or two. All the kids keep running back and forth delivering baked and grabbing newly assembled pizzas. There is all this confusion and hollering: who's is whose and so-in-so's got burnt, stuck on the peel, or dumped halfway down...BUT we are getting better!

Sometime after the fire got going that morning I started mixing up the bread dough. I am really excited about these wooden scotch block forms Bryon put together for me. They set right inside a cookie sheet and fit 4 nice sized loaves. Artisan Sandwich Bread on the rise.

Once all the pizzas were done and eaten. Bryon rakes all the coals back over the floor to even out the floor heat. After a while, maybe half an hour the coals get scooped out and dumped into a retired wheel barrow awaiting near by. The oven floor then gets a thorough mopping and the door shuts for a good soaking. After an hour we check the temperature with an laser thermo. If it is too hot - still above 600 degrees we can mop again and this cools the oven down to around 450 to 500 and it's ready to bake our nearly overproofed loaves!

I can fit 3 pans comfortably in the oven. But for granola I use a few racks to add another level in order to get 6 pans in to toast.

Bryon shuts the door and sets the timer for 20 minutes.

I like my bread well baked. Ideally anywhere from 190 to 200. These look very brown already on top but not quite done in the center- that is the risk when the oven is so hot initially. This bread was ready in just under 30 min.

All Done!

These turned out so nice. The quick heat maybe over-browns a crust sometimes (especially if the dough is sweetened) but seals in the moisture and guarantees amazing oven spring.

After the bread was done I put in a winter squash and roasting pan in filled with a sieten roast and vegetables for dinner the next day. I wasn't sure how quickly this would bake, but just before I went to bed The squash was tender and soft.

The next morning around 6am the oven read 325 degrees. I popped in a few trays of granola. It was hot and toasted by 9am. I then returned the "roast" and veggies to warm while we went to church.

I want to learn how to get the most out of each firing. And it is going to take alot of practice and planning ahead to really make this oven part of our lifestyle.

This week I have planned to bake several pizza crusts and muffins after the bread and then finishing with the granola. Maybe after the granola I could dry more dates for date sugar and see how a batch of yoghurt sets!

 I really love my oven.