Infestation!

 Last fall I got some bulk wheat.  It can be pretty cheap when bought in 25- or 50-pound bags.  I got a 25-pound bag of red and white (each).  I have been using the red, but hadn't gotten into the white yet.  Sigh.

I put the wheat into some used PETE pretzel barrels, then just put them on the shelf, where they sat untouched for about eight months.

Then today I noticed this:

At first glance, I thought it might be mold, meaning the wheat hadn't been dry when it went into the containers.  But no, as you can see, it's not mold at all.

My apologies for the small, dark, grainy ultra closeup.  My wheat is infested with weevils, who are having a great time in the pretzel barrels.  I had heard about this being a possibility, and various sites warn about it, but I hadn't had it happen with me before.  I have been buying whole berries for years, and they often sit on the shelf for several months before being used up.

I'll obviously have to deal with this.  Oxygen absorbers are recommended for long-term food storage; the removal of oxygen slows the deterioration of the food.  However, dropping O2 levels below one percent for several days also kills eggs and bugs.  I didn't use oxygen absorbers for this wheat, obviously.  Another solution (mentioned by the site linked above) is freezing. The red is fine.  But all three containers of white wheat are... alive.  But not for long.

White Bread

 I don't make it very often, but every once in a while, I bake a loaf using all white flour.  It rises much more than all whole wheat or 50/50.

The process is pretty much the same as for my standard loaves, which are usually 50/50 (or occasionally 100% whole wheat).  The only thing that varies is the amount of water needed to get a workable sponge.  My grain mill grinds the flour somewhat more coarsely than normal, so it does not take as much water.  Ironically, using all white flour means more water is needed, even though it's usually the opposite.  The flour is also somewhat stickier when wet (though not as bad as dough made with rye).

With no fiber, the dough rises aggressively, and the loaf balloons in the oven.

Large gas pockets are visible, but as long as the rise is even, there aren't huge holes in the slices.

This is too decadent and non-nutritive to eat on a routine basis, but every once in a while, it can be nice for a change of pace.

Sauerkraut, 2021

 Last year's kraut turned out okay.  The temps ended up being near-perfect for the whole fermenting time.  There was one three-day period when the temps were 73-75, but otherwise everything stayed 68-72.  After 28 days, I opened the crock and all was well.

This year I'm getting off to a later start.  I didn't have enough storage space in the refrigerator to do a crock last fall, and this year I procrastinated.  So in early May, way too late for Georgia, I'm making kraut.

The basic process is unchanged.  I spent about an hour chopping cabbage, mixing it with salt, and loading it in the crock.

 

This year I decided to try Himalayan pink salt, following Holly's recommendation at makesauerkraut.com.

Often people recommend against table/iodized salt; the anti-caking agents make the brine murky.  As you can see, the pink salt is also pretty cloudy (you can also see that the camera adjusted the white balance quite differently in the two pictures).  We'll see what the final product looks like.  I have always had to add at least some brine; I might generate enough from the cabbage and salt alone but I don't let them sit long enough for that to happen.  Or maybe I just don't stomp and massage it enough.

The loaded crock is now closed up and I'll base the fermentation time on the temps. So far, on day 5, the temperature has held in the 69-72 range, although the first day was a bit warmer. It reached as high as 74.

As I mentioned last year, I can only get 7-8 pounds into my 5-liter crock.  There might be room for a little more, but not if I want to put the weights in (the crock and weights came from Stone Creek Trading--they sell the glass weights separately, as well). 

More on Solid Surface Countertops

 As I noted the first time I discussed solid surface countertops, they scratch relatively easily.  Although the dark countertop I showed in that post was in reasonably good shape, the general guidance to stick to lighter colors seemed reasonably sound.

Fast forward a couple of years and I am accumulating scratches.  It's unavoidable, although one can obviously be careful and minimize the damage.  Even though I have a collection of scratches now--even cleaning the surfaces could cause minor scratching--the countertops still look pretty good unless one is on a scratch hunt.

Casual inspection doesn't really turn up anything.  A careful angled view is needed.  I have friends with a light-colored Corian surface, similar to this, and I asked them if they had any scratches.  They said no.  I looked and they were there, but similar to my picture above, they weren't that easy to spot.  Their counters are about a decade older than mine.

If there ever is substantial damage, it can be buffed out.  There are YouTube videos showing how.  I don't expect that level of wear.