Earlier this year Burntloafer, my wonderful brother who I look up to and admire, asked if I’d be interested in doing a bread-of-the-month thing. No pressure to make anything, but lots of variety and choices. And we could share and learn and blog and – “Well, how much you want to participate is up to you. It’s Mellow Bakers, after all.“
“Sure,” says I. Shazamm! Hamelman’s Book was on my doorstep. He is a kind and generous brother.
It’s been fun. There is an incredible world of bread and terms and pans who knows what! Best of all, it’s one more way to share life with my brother. He is a great person and quite precious.
But then he set up a blog for me and started goading me with pictures and things -- some good, some really not so good. “Come on,” says he, “blog. It’s fun. You’ll finally have an outlet for all the writing you’ve wanted to do.” Argh.
Months have passed. Making the breads and reading the postings has been a kick. In fact, while picking the garden today I was giggling at the thought that my mom was a hippie. The way the blogger, responding to Burntloafer’s posting, put it was something like, “Your mother was even more far out than mine.” And again this makes me grin. And I wanted to thank Natashya for letting me see my mom in that light. It was a revelation. I can’t express how much comfort and joy that one statement gave me. And that’s what moved me to finally enter something on this page.
This morning the Book opened to Five-Grain Bread. Making a soaker was a new experience. Absolutely couldn’t find guidance for how long it should sit, so I left a message for Burntloafer and continued down my to-do list. About seven hours later we connected and he suggested that 15 minutes to an hour should do it. Perfect! I’ve never been much for completely following directions anyway. Every year of grade school the report cards suggested as much. What those teachers didn’t say is how that characteristic allowed for a little different adventure no matter what the task. And I love adventures.
The bread turned out just fine. It’s on the keeper list.
