More Bread Developments

Back in July I wrote about the worst loaf of bread I had ever baked.  It might not have been the very worst.  I have had some rye loaves turn out pretty badly, too.  But July's loaf was definitely a D- (at best).

I noted in July that "I might need to adjust the stones in my mill."  That was indeed the case.  My emmer grain is all gone for the moment, but ordinary white hard wheat was on the table for last week's bake.

I finally checked my Mockmill and found that it was indeed grinding coarse.  It had drifted to about setting 3 (1 is finest and should be calibrated to where the stones just barely touch when the mill is running empty).  I moved it back to 1 and was pretty pleased at the fineness of the grind.  It wasn't as powdery as some commercial whole wheat flours, but it was comparable to some (e.g., King Arthur red).  This was probably the finest whole wheat flour I have worked with in several months. 

It's still summer here, so the house was very warm.  In the overnight rise, the dough almost filled the bowl. That's usually not a good omen for the loftiness of the final loaf, so I was prepared to be disappointed.  I think I got the dough form a little misshapen when folding it over and getting it ready for the proofing basket.  During the second rise in the proofing basket, once the oven was warming, the loaf got a little more distorted. Normally there isn't much rise because I have cut the second time short to just the preheating time: about 25 minutes.  However, this time it did noticeably bulk up.

The final product was pretty good, if asymmetric.

As you can see, the rise is very decent and the crumb is okay (or at least as okay as it ever is with my efforts).  There will be substantial slice size variation, but I have long ago learned to be satisfied with asymmetry and sandwiches of all sizes.

I'll have to wait until the next baking session to see if this was just a serendipitous confluence of factors that can't be replicated or if it is something I can do going forward.

Update: the next baking session has come and gone, and the results were similar--a pretty good loaf.

This I can definitely work with.  The first rise was about 9 hours and the second, as normal, about 25 minutes.

"Bigger than a Bread Box..."

The title used to be a common way to describe the size of something.  My parents might have had a bread box at some point when I was growing up, but I didn't really know how big one actually was.  I visualized something about the size of a loaf of bread.

When I moved into the new house, I realized I might have a need for one.  When I bake a loaf of bread, I usually leave it out for about a day to harden the crust.  I realized that with the possibility of mice--I have caught them in the house before--I needed a better plan than letting it sit on the counter unprotected.  I have never had anything go after my loaves while they have been sitting out--here or at my other house--but finding a loaf with bite marks and rodent droppings on it would not be welcome.

So I hopped online and started looking.  I was surprised that they were somewhat large-ish, certainly bigger than a single loaf.  Shown above is the box I got with one of my standard two-pound loaves.

Somewhat visible on the lid are a bunch of ventilation holes.  A tiny bug could get through them, but nothing larger.  What I have found is that the box does a good job of keeping bread fresh--maybe a little too fresh.  When I stick a loaf in there, it softens the crust a bit.  I don't store bread in it long-term; I just put it there (sometimes) on the day I bake it. Then the loaf goes into the refrigerator; that's a solution that works for me and keeps bread usable longer than just a few days.

The box is also big enough to hold a bag of potato chips, bananas that aren't fully ripe, or other items that are vulnerable to predation (not necessarily all at once).

Garden Carts

I have a nice wheelbarrow.  I got it at Lowe's 20 years ago and it still serves me well.  For some tasks, like hauling dirt or other dense, heavy items, wheelbarrows are optimal (though for truly heavy loads, one with dual tires would probably be better than my model).

However, for other things they leave much to be desired, such as hauling brush.  I have a long driveway and keeping the privet, wisteria, and other plants hacked back during the growing season is a chore.   Recently, I did some trimming along the driveway.  I used a garden cart instead of the wheelbarrow--I got mine at Carts Vermont.  Its capacity is nominally only about double the wheelbarrow, but because of the box shape and the handle, it can hold far more plant cuttings.  I was able to pile brush high on the cart and balance it for the walk back up the driveway, towing the cart behind me.  I don't know if it was effective or not, but I cut some lower-stem pieces and stuck them into the stack vertically to try to hold it together.  One way or another, it worked, and nothing fell off on the walk.  Most of the cart is privet, although there was some wisteria and a few oak or pine saplings (very fortunately, there's no poison ivy in the area I was cutting).  Before loading, I trimmed everything to be about 4-6 feet long so that I could still get a decent grip on the handle.  Here's a side view:

When dumped into the truck bed, before stomping the load down, the one load from the cart looked like this:

I'm impressed with its hauling ability.

Volunteer Pines

In the south, pines are weeds.  There are some varieties that are nice, and all are useful for lumber or pulp, but for a homeowner with land, they're just a pain.  When I bought my house a few years ago, it was pretty clear of volunteer pines.  The house had been vacant for a while, and the upkeep was limited in some respects, but the approach to the house and the back yard were in relatively good shape.  A few years later a number of pines had grown up, and I cut a lot down with my clearing saw.

Fast foward two years, and the ones I didn't get last time have grown up (in some cases they were too small to cut with the saw (the stems just bent away from the saw blade)].  Then others have grown up as well, and some of the ones I cut two years ago coppiced (small shoots grew out from the trunk below where I cut, in turn growing taller themselves).

So I went to work.  One area was dense enough that I was able to make pretty short work of them with a pair of loppers.  The stems were so soft that I could cut even fairly large ones easily.

Based on size, these were probably up to about four years old.  Most were probably a couple of years old, which sounds about right given the last time I cleared the area.

A few were as large as 2" in diameter near the base, but most were  1.5" or less.  Probably a third of them were slender stems with plants that were 18" to 2' in height, just 1-2 years old.  And there were some sprouts, which I just pulled.

After about an hour of work, the area above looked like this:

Most of them are on the ground and stacked in the foreground of the photo. You can still see additional standing pines to the left and more up near the house.  After another hours' work, the lower ones are all gone and about half of the ones up near the house have been felled, as well.  They're all loaded on the truck now for a trip to a mulching place.

Before hauling them, I'll strap them down to hold them in place.  This is probably 300-400 trees.

After this, I have plenty of other pines.  There are some in an overgrown pasture that are now over 10 years old, so they're pretty large.  And I have others that are 5-10 years of age, plenty tall in their own right.  The older ones have some value as firewood, but the stems in the truck above are too small to make that worthwhile.  Stripping the side branches and cutting the stems to length wouldn't be worth the effort.

Still More on Thistles

Here's a case study on thistles gone rogue.  This is a picture of a field, not someone's yard:  But they haven't mowed during thistle blooming season for the last few years and now have a problem.   It's hard to see how this field will produce much but thistles in a few years.

At one time it was a field of purple blooms, but there's nothing attractive about this.

Update on my own thistles: I mowed them down as noted previously, and they haven't sent up any more vertical stems.  However, they haven't died, either.  I expect them to be back next year.

I'm fortunate that I don't have any thistle growing in inaccessible or far-flung areas.  I could use my scythe or weed eater to take care of them almost anywhere, but it's better not to have to worry about it.

Bread Fail-2

Previously, I've written about failed loaves of rye and wheat bread.  Last week I had probably the worst ever loaf come out of the oven.

It was pretty sad.  It's a 100% whole wheat loaf (actually, it's 100% Emmer).  Breadtopia has an Emmer sourdough recipe that looks like it turned out somewhat well, but it's also fairly compact and doesn't show much rise.  My bread looked like this when sliced:

This made for a week of disappointing sandiwches.  The flavor was pretty typical of 100% whole wheat bread, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on your preferences.  Aside from the all-whole-wheat factor, there were a couple of additional things that might have played a role:  1) I over-hydrated the dough.  I knew I should've restricted the water a little but didn't.  My Mockmill grinds grain somewhat more coarsely than some whole wheat flours I have seen, and the coarser grind doesn't absorb as much water. 2) My flour might have been unduly coarse.  I might need to adjust the stones in my mill.

A third possible contributing factor is the climate.  It's summer now, and my house is warm, which can lead to excessive pre-baking rising of the dough. If the dough rises aggressively before going in the oven, my experience is that further rising once it's baking is curtailed.  That can be addressed through a shorter counter-top rising period, but I usually let it rise overnight, so it's going to be sitting on the counter at least 7-8 hours in most cases.

The next week (this morning), I decided to go back to a basic 50/50 mix.  The results were much better:

Sediment Filters and Old Plumbing

I have a well update.  When I noted previously that I had sediment that was coming through despite a (nominal) one micron filter, I was wondering if I'd need to get even stronger filtration or a multistage filter system.  I started researching them online.

I think I just wasn't running the water enough after changing the filter.  I swapped out a couple of filters and finally let it run for a while as Benjamin Sahlstrom suggests.  The water may be a bit fouled at first after changing the filter, but it soon clears.  It seems that all is well, although there is definitely sediment getting through:

The red in the picture above is fine silt, which settles to the bottom of the toilet tank (several months' worth).  I have tested my filtered water and found that I have about 13 ppm of silica.  That's definitely higher than most public water systems would have, but not all--see, for example, the water quality report for Lenexa, KS: 10 ppm silica, range 2-17 ppm; recommended federal level 50 ppm or lower.  The main problem is that the silica will probably cause components in the dishwasher and washing machine to wear faster, and to some degree it may accumulate in the water heater--though the latter can be flushed.

Over time, the sediment does add up.  Below is what an Aquaboon one-micron wound string filter looked like after about 4 months (with a new one for comparison).

It looks worse than it actually is.  I was wondering if I had lost water pressure and so changed it; the new filter showed that it hadn't significantly impeded flow yet, even though it looked completely silted up when it was in the housing.  There was a fair amount of sediment in the bottom of the housing, but that doesn't really matter.

Even after the well was refurbished, water coming out of one of the outdoor taps--i.e., unfiltered--was dirty-looking. Much of that may have been attributable to some of the supply fixtures--galvanized steel and, for two outdoor hydrants, cast iron:

All of that is now replaced (with new galvanized in the case of the hydrants), and the water is looking much better.  There's still some cloudiness, but it is unfiltered, after all...