Reviving an Ancient iMac

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Design
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I’ve discovered, as an Apple cult member since the 1980s, that their devices tend to last. But after a number of years Apple effectively makes them obsolete by no longer allowing you to update the system and then they end up in the landfill.

A few years ago I tackled the arduous process of installing a solid state drive in a 2010 iMac, thus giving it a new lease on life. Unfortunately, it could only run a very old operating system making many of the applications I use unavailable. Just last week I discovered OpenCore Legacy Patcher, a free means of loading more recent operating systems on old Macs and other hardware devices. There’s a helpful YouTube tutorial if you want to give this a try:

Installing OpenCore was far easier to do than replacing the drive. Just make sure you’ve backed up everything and are prepared to wipe the drive. The old iMac now runs 2023’s Sonoma Operating system and it’s a bit slow but perfectly usable for most applications. I don’t think I’d use it for more intensive stuff like video editing.

I’m attempting to get to know how these machines work as part of an ongoing project to use computers rather than letting them use us. More to come . . .

A Light in the Desert

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Design
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Kelly and I made a pilgrimage this weekend to friend of the blog Daniel Hawkins’ spectacular and improbable Desert Lighthouse.

The fully functioning, solar powered lighthouse sits atop a hill overlooking the town of Hinkley just west of Barstow. Hinkley is best known for unfortunate reasons, due to water contamination caused by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and portrayed in the film Erin Brockovich. The population has slowly decreased over recent years.

We got to go into the lighthouse and climb a ladder up to an observation deck.

It was a beautiful day in the desert–many thanks to Daniel and the people of Hinkley who hosted us.

Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast

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Bread, Food, Recipes, Reviews
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Loaf fail!

What could go wrong in a recipe with just four ingredients–flour, water, salt and yeast? When it comes to making bread, it turns out, a lot. In addition to the some recent, notable bread disasters, such as the one above, I felt that I had also fallen into a lazy rut, baking loaves that were edible but uninspiring.

On a recent Little Free Library perambulation, I stumbled on Portland, Oregon baker Ken Forkish’s Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, published during the heady artisan baking uprising of the early teens. I had seen this book at the library but never bothered to check it out. With a few free days of house sitting for friends, I decided to dive into Forkish’s recipes.

The book is divided into four parts: recipes that use commercial yeast, recipes that use a sourdough starter (or levain), pizza and a section on doughs that combine sourdough starter and commercial yeast. I’ve never tried this heretical combination and I decided to give a go.

I was blown away by the results. You get the same sourdough tang and long shelf life (due to the preservative effects of the acidic culture) combined with a more open crumb structure due to the extra power of the commercial yeast. It also idiot-proofs the proofing since just a small amount of added commercial yeast (a 1/4 teaspoon in Forkish’s recipes) gives you a greater chance of success, even on the cold day.

I really like Forkish’s clear instructions in this book, especially his suggested baking schedules which involve feeding the starter in the morning, mixing the dough in the late afternoon, shaping the loaves in the early evening and proofing the dough in the refrigerator overnight. This schedule is more likely to fit into a normal day, though it can, of course, be modified.

The book owes a debt to Chad Roberston’s methods including baking the loaves in cast iron pots. Unlike Robertson, though, Forkish’s recipes are easier to follow and intended for a home baker. In addition to the heretical commercial yeast/levain dialectic, Forkish also skips the slashing step allowing the loaves to, in effect, slash themselves in the baking process.

Now all I want to do is bake bread instead of make dinner.