How to make some bread - Festival opportunity

2012-11-08T00:35:25Z

I've been quite bread obsessed this year and I've been trying to work out how to include it in my Festival experience. Here are my thoughts;

I like the idea of a community bakery. A place where people can come and have their baking done. I imagine organising a group of subscribers before Festival, and then use the subscribers to make the oven and fire it each day. I guess people wouldn't only use it for bread - pastry could also happen as the oven cools.

The oven would need to be big enough for the number of subscribers, but not too big. It would be good to work out how many loaves can fit in a larger oven and how long it takes to heat up enough for a baking. Also, how much fuel. Maybe I could use tenbears oven as the basis for testing/ limits of subscribers.

Thinking a bit further, maybe it could be incorporated into the wine bar and get used in the evening too? No, I need it close to where I'm camping so I don't start hating it.

teehee! Perhaps I could make dough forms so people can easily carry their loaves to the oven? Need to check that they're period and in what form. They're called Brotform or Banneton. I think I like the fabric style best - you can use any basket and wash the cloth.

If the fire were started at 8am, assuming a two hour firing time we could all have bread by 10.30. I could put a table and sunshade over/next to the oven and people could drop off their bread dough in the morning and pick it up later. Also, I wouldn't have to change my morning routine too much. If someone got enthusiastic, the oven could be refired for a short time and buns produced at about 12. People would need to make their bread the night before and leave it for the final rise overnight.

If there were enough subscribers, it could also be fired at 3pm, for bread at 5.30pm. Bread for this firing could be made in the morning - first thing for sourdough, or lunchtime for yeast.

I also want to run some sourdough breadmaking workshops - including advice on how to fit bread into a Festival routine, period breadmaking equipment and how to use it. Maybe that could happen first thing Friday morning - making bread and then how to fire the oven could happen at 3pm. We could make more bread then too, for the next day.

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mrsbrown's list of things to make and do - bumper edition

2012-06-15T22:56:30Z

I spent most of yesterday on the couch, staring at my computer. I'm hoping that will trick my body into thinking that I don't need to do that again today. I was paid to do it yesterday, I won't be paid today (except for that 3 hours I have to make up for this week).

Anyway, as I sit here in my nice warm bed, drinking tea provided by my husband, I'm contemplating all the things I would like to have completed by the end of the weekend;

~~Cook those two loaves of bread I prepared last night~~ (hang on......ok back now)
make lemon and ginger cordial to take to work as a herbal tea like thing so I can kick my caffeine habit before we go to the US. (I'm not hopeful of getting regular tea, certainly not the 6 or so cups I'm currently drinking)
~~clean the kitchen~~ - I'll do this in several bursts or persuade someone else to do several bursts, omg so filthy! We have made pasta, lasagne, bread, frittata, stir fry and various lunches and breakfasts since the dishes were last done. It ought to be filthy.
make the pasta dough into pasta and dry it - I'll do this once the kitchen is clean enough to have pasta draped over it for a while.
~~Muck around in the garden~~. I have ~~seedlings to plant~~ and a green manure crop to start. I have to c~~lear/clean some space~~ first. I may also ~~move my rhubarb plan~~t out of prime sun position to somewhere a bit more shady. It doesn't need all that sun, and other stuff does. I might put ~~half of it in the front garden~~ too.
I should make something with spinach too - the perpetual spinach is about to take over it's bed.
Take another look at my half-baked pizza oven plan; ~~clear the space,~~ identify the stuff in our backyard we can use and gather some bricks. It's looking like I can't find a decent space. If I put it in my preferred location I may well cook the lovely grape vine - not OK
make a pizza oven
go to the market, or ~~get someone else to~~
do a thorough tidy of the loungeroom and find my wallet
watch River Cottage DVD's and knit my jumper I think this is next
sew some more of the cover for the couch

That's all. What shall I do tomorrow?

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MrsBrown's philosophy of life and stuff

How to make some bread - Festival opportunity

mrsbrown's list of things to make and do - bumper edition