Photo Tour of the Root Simple Compound

May 6, 2011

Design

New, as yet unnamed, kitten enjoying homebrew. Photo by Emily Ho for re-nest.

In case you’ve tired of the continuous coverage of Osama Bin Laden’s compound, how about a look at ours? Writer and photographer Emily Ho sure did a nice job putting together a photo tour of our crib over at re-nest in a post entitled “Kelly and Erik’s Urban Farm.”

Funny, when I look at our house I see all the work I have left to do, the chipped paint and broken concrete. Emily managed to capture the pretty stuff. Thanks should also go to Tara Kolla of Silver Lake Farms who helped us redesign the garden last fall.

At People’s Coop in Portland This Evening

Mr. Homegrown

May 4, 2011

Events

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Today , Wednesday, May 4th: We’ll be speaking and signing in the community room at People’s Food Co-op, 3029 Southeast 21st Avenue at 6PM. Please note that we gave an incorrect time in our last post–were on at 6 not 7.

To our readers elsewhere in the world, well return to our normal DIY posts soon.

In Seattle, Headed to Portland

Mr. Homegrown

May 3, 2011

Bikes, Events

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Photo from bikejuju.com

Dig that tallbike, welded up by our host in Seattle Tom, a.k.a. “bikejuju” who has a blog at www.bikejuju.com. His wife Lyanda is the author of a book readers of this blog will enjoy, Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness. And they have the prettiest mixte I’ve ever seen in their living room.

This afternoon we head to Portland. Hope to see you at one of our appearances.

Tartine Bread

Mr. Homegrown

May 1, 2011

Bread, Food

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A whole wheat loaf fresh out of the oven at Tartine. It tastes as good as it looks.

As a bread baking geek I’ve set a goal of visiting the best bakeries in every town I’m in. Here in San Francisco, on our book tour, I had the privilege of waiting in the long line outside Tartine Bakery to buy a loaf of bread.

It was well worth the wait. Founded by Chad Robertson, Tartine specializes in naturally leavened breads with dark, thick crusts. Robertson’s technique involves moist doughs, no kneading and a long secondary fermentation in a refrigerator. Best of all, Robertson has adapted his methods for the home kitchen in a lavishly illustrated book Tartine Bread. Like the popular no-knead bread recipes circulating the interwebs, you bake your bread in a dutch oven, which simulates the steam injection of commercial ovens–the secret to a thick crust. But with naturally leavened breads such as the recipes in Tartine Bread, you get a much deeper flavor. Natural leavened breads, due to the higher acidity of natural leavens, also last a lot longer before going stale.

I agree with what Robertson says in the introduction to his book, that naturally leavened breads take only a little more effort than yeasted breads and yield much better results. When I return from our book tour I’ll share some other tips I’ve learned about how to bake naturally leavened bread.

Can you folks in Seattle and Portland suggest some good bakeries to visit? Leave a comment . . .