MODIFICATIONS IN BAKING SCHEDULE!

Thanks to all the customers that have been keeping me busy. It seems like local bread is catching on. I have made some improvements to the bakery in the last week. The dirt floor now has river pebbles making it a lot less dusty and muddy. The last two storms rained down gum tree branches that crushed the glass ceiling, so now we have new corrugated clear roofing and a new flue system, although temporary, it works well and keeps the baker from smelling like smoked salmon all the time.

I have been working my way through the new Peter Reinhart book, experimenting with fermentation and the results are interesting at worst and delicious at best.

This week I have ciabatta, sourdough and a couple versions of baguettes. The school deliveries are on Thursday and there will be baking on Friday afternoon, with some sweets, lemon tiles and triple threat brownies (Peppermint brownies: Deep fudgey brownies with an authoritative mint butter cream topped with the darkest chocolate I could find (85%). Its a balance that wins over the mouth- Fudgey/chewy+ creamy cool sweet and then bitter chocolate to keep the whole thing afloat for the next bite.
They usually cause the room to get quiet when you serve them. Call or leave an order at box 138 Farm road. 812 8719. Thanks for your patience with the recent reduced production, last week.

Congratulations Customer of the week Dean Buchanan! !

It seems that winter has swooped down. The bakery had a broken pane (overhead) so I'm doing several weatherization improvements this week. I should have both sprouted wheat sourdough and classic baguettes tomorrow (Tuesday 25 May)Wow, how did we get through May already. This week I am concentrating on my barter study by reading articles and textbooks. The glaze that comes over me is strong enough for industrial cinnamon rolls. I find that if I read it out loud into a voice recorder and then reread it while listening, it really gets in my brain a lot better.

This week the customer of the week is Dean Buchanan. He practically embodies the spirit of the project. He is an artist, himself maybe that is part of the appreciation for artisan breads. His paintings are large and bright and are often depicting New Zealand landscapes with a flamboyant jumpy energy.
I had the pleasure of touring his studio recently, which one has to meander down a earthy path with wide steps marked by railroad ties and sculptures and artifacts here and there. Dean has been inspired by a recent climbing expedition in the Southern Alps and he has a crisp new painting hanging. I loved the smell of the paint and the intriguing stuff all around.

I first started trading with Dean after I found a painting in my house after I had been away on a a two month trip. What a delight it was to find the canvas rolled up with a note saying he wanted to trade! Now I have two of his works and he is a regular weekly customer. I especially appreciate his enthusiasm for the tarts and other sweets I have been starting to make. Thanks to all the Buchanan family for the business. You will get a free loaf of bread and a family dessert this week!

The project...

These days, I am reflecting on this baking barter education project. It is over half way done and it seems that there has been a lot of progress, yet it is only just getting it's momentum going!
The learning contract that I wrote proposes four different learning objectives one of which is to learn to teach breadmaking by conducting two bread making classes. I still need to have my second baking class, which is winding into reality with three interested students in the neighborhood and more in Piha and Auckland. I held the first class at the beginning of the quarter and it was well attended by eight Slow Foods members and a couple of local trade customers. I have two more classes in mind and am eager to refine the process and get more recipe hand out materials organized. Bread is everywhere! If I get the teaching down, I can take it as a business, should I wander to another locale.

Other parts of the project involve an interview with a woman named Tracy Marc who has traded in both informal and formal bartering networks here in New Zelanad for for decades,to use an existing barter web site to conduct a trade, to read 10 academic articles on cashless systems and barter with plenty of documentation of the whole works.
The bakery took more shape yesterday with a new prep table, made from a three inch slice of a giant macrocarpa tree. This involved a trade for sanding and now sits in it's glory in the Greenhouse Daylight Bakery. I call it Greenhouse Daylight Bakery, by the way, because we happen to live in a green house and, the bakery is in a greenhouse space and green has the obvious eco-affirmative connotations that a wood fired-electricity free operation can capitalize on. The daylight part is because without electricity, one must operate it in the daylight hours(sometimes I cheat and use a kerosene lamp, so I can finish up)
The oven is performing well as I work to devise the best techniques. Since I modified the oven, myself, with stream injection- no one can tell me exactly what will work (or wont). I have to learn through mistakes and reading. An Italian job, the Fontana oven is very efficient and uses only about 2 kilos (about 5 lbs for you Americans) of wood to bake breads at 350 degrees Celsius for an hour or so.

Today I made my first wood fired ciabatta, which I found all kinds of fault with, but Jordan swept them off to school and sold them all anyway. It was the first use of the lovely macrocarpa counter/bench. Here are some photos of bread production today. I am writing a piece about one of my neighborhood customers, A fellow named Dean Buchanan who trades me paintings and money and even wood splitting. He seems to be my most exuberant trader and I am grateful for that. It's great to have the baking business since New Zealanders can, generally, be a little insular. A girl needs a mission, way out here in Karekare, anyway.

Tweeking away

I got the camera back, yes!

This weeks flavors...

Greetings neighbors!

As the weather gets colder, home and hearth become more central in our homes. I find the bakery a nice place to hang out when the chill sets in, its very serene and cozy.
This week I have sprouted wheat multi-grain sourdough and classic ciabatta breads available on Tuesday and Thursday. The biscuit of the week is Grandma Cora's Scottish oat cookies, to satisfy a request. These cookies are a mingling of butter, toasted oats with a salty accent. They are wafer shaped and delicate and disappear from the cookie jar very rapidly. They are 1.00 each or 10.00 a dozen. Grandma called them salty oatmeals and they were often in her cookie jar when we visited her at her amazing canal home- half over the water and half on the land.

The trading system continues to grow and change as situations arise to point to the need for structure. Some trades are large scale and weekly bread trades need to accumulate, others are better traded on the short term. It's a bit of a dance to find out what works and I almost think it would be easier to just use the existing monetary system. This is, however an experiment and all learning is valuable. There are new cash customers each week which is also nice. Starting this week, I am going to feature trade customers on this site, since some of them are quite interesting characters.

Mysterious Earthy flavor...

I just had some of yesterdays bread, I think it had buckwheat in it inadvertently. It has a smoky earthy hit. It has sprouted golden and Konini wheat berries as well as millet, oat bran and white and wholemeal wheat and brown rice flour. It would be a good loaf to carry with you on your scientific journey to Iceland. We used a nice sharp bread knife and had some delicious sandwiches on thin slices. Smoked salmon, avo, greenhouse tomatoes and spinich. mmmm mmmm.

I have a small group of rye bread customers who will be getting bread about once a week. Last time it was deep dense hearth loaves with sprouted wheat mash and berries. I stayed away from sweeteneing it much, but the next one may be dark and sweet.

I'm getting into using my new Reinhart book and paging through some new breads. Today I started ciabatta poolish (thick sticky yeasted starter)and I have a half a batch of white french (Katrina's) going, should yield about seven loaves. My baking days have gotten jostled around a bit. There is a lot of work in pulling off the bread dough, collecting the wood, getting temps right for both doughs and breads and then finding homes for the little dickens' after they are done. Perhaps four days is too many, or perhaps I should just make bread every day, and have the routine as a daily rhythm. It's time to bake, now! Kate

Brioche, sprouting wheat and Mother's day treats

I'm bubbling over today with enthusiasm for bakery progress.
I will only pause for a moment here to say that there will be a big bread distribution on Saturday as Fridays have an alternative agenda this week. I'm working on my first recipe of croissants in decades and I have a supply of Whittaker deep chocolate to make a few pain au chocolate for mother's day. My neighbor, Margo, had a swoon long ago about a Sunday morning delivery of chocolate croissants. I have let the ideas ruminate. I am ready for the apron.

I'm not going to boast the availability, just yet- as that could jinx the process.

I'm off to get a slab of wood to turn the doughs on and to take the camera to the canon place, it got dropped (sniffle) I think it's just the lens, but it hinders my documentation on this site, so it must get my attention today.

I am sprouting some Konini wheat- a New Zealand purple variety. I have a hunch that sprouting the wheat liberates more nutrients. If you know anything about the hows and whys, I'm all ears...

Sprouting the wheat and grinding it in the mortar and pestle unleashes some enzymes that make the wild yeast of the sourdough have a lot more vim and vigor, that, I do know. I'll leave this bread geek talk for now. Bon Appetit!

Tuesday/ Wednesday Menu

This week I am trying out some new loaf pans. I have cinnamon swirl apple bread (amazing toast) and cracked wheat baguettes. Call at 812 8719 to order. We are also featuring a mother's day breakfast in bed special with ALL the proceeds going to the Lone Kauri community school building fund. For 35 dollars we will bring breakfast to your mother along with an inspiring verse or a song. Call today, as breakfast time permits only 6 visits.

The menu will be either local gourmet sausages and eggs with fresh sourdough toast or our famous multi-grain waffles with Mascarpone cream and berries.

New traders include a yoga wear company in Auckland. That should be good, nifty cotton and merino clothing for movie screening food. I just never know where the next trade will take me!

By the way, THANKS to Julia for the very useful stacking proving boards.