Bread of Life

Without electricity, we had no refrigeration. Thus, no dairy. No corn tortillas (they mold too quickly in the Virginia humidity). Bread only when we’ve recently been to Whole Foods (even if we buy out the store’s entire spelt bread section, we can eat through it in less than a week). Not many vegetables (ever seen broccoli or kale after they’ve sat on the counter for a couple of days?). Not much fruit.

Plenty of noodles; plenty of pancakes (from a mix). Oatmeal and rice, except certain family members dislike those grains. Eggs when we can get them (the approximately 30 Bessette chickens are now laying two eggs a day, so that source has dried up). Delicious ground beef when we’ve visited the Bessettes.

But now we have electricty, and a breadmaker (courtesy of my sister). And although our two mills (one electric, one hand-cranked) are both somewhere in the storage part of the office trailer, I determined to make bread this evening. Using the oat press, I ground 4 ½ cups of spelt. It was rough, like corn meal, but I prayed over it, and started it on its way.

As the yeasty smell wafted through the trailer, the boys, who were supposed to be going to bed, grew more and more antsy. Abigail, who may be getting sick, fell asleep, but the boys stayed awake until they could have bread.

It was delicious. I have another loaf started, so we can have an easy breakfast tomorrow. (Pancakes are yummy, but they take a lot of time to make.)

Another good news: Phil reviewed his wiring, and realized he had made a mistake. Our heater now runs beautifully—heating our house with minimal noise and maximum heat. Phil also picked up a little radiator, and with the seven of us in here, and the breadmaker, too, we don’t think heating will be a problem anymore. What a relief!

While I figured out a workable kitchen space (mostly), Phil went to the laundrymat and did three double-sized and one regular-sized loads of laundry. I have a mountain to fold now, but how great to have no more cat-peed items. I made a Coconut Red-Lentil Curry (similar to http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Coconut-Red-Lentil-Curry-236684, a recipe courtesy of my friend Steph), and then cooked a chicken for dinner in my cast iron Dutch oven (courtesy of my mother). The children polished off the entire chicken. Every last bite. I’m saving bones and broth for stock or dumplings tomorrow. That sounds good.

I have waited over a month for today’s homesteading moment: garlic planting. Garlic, besides being a culinary MUST HAVE, is also excellent medicinally. And, I have heard, a profitable crop as well. I would hope so, as the seed stock I bought was over $11 per pound! Yikes!

I didn’t know this until I started researching, but there are two main types of garlic, softneck and hardneck. The type I’ve bought in the grocery store is softneck. The cloves are larger on the outside and get progressively smaller as you use them, until the centers, where the cloves can be very small. Had the ends been left long, you can braid the flexible ends together (imagine ropes of garlic hanging from the ceiling in an old cabin).

The type of garlic that discriminating palates prefer, however, is hardneck garlic. I had never seen hardneck, and purchased two varieties. One variety was Elephant. I ordered a pound of it, and I received one head, with two cloves extra on the side. The head was about the size of an orange; there were twelve cloves in all. Twelve.

The other was named Music. As with all hardnecks, it had a single layer of beautiful, uniform cloves around a solid center. When we finished pulling the cloves off, the center with the base looked like little mini toadstools. I had another pound of it, and had 40 plantable cloves. I wasn’t sure how much space the garlic would take up, so I prepared four beds for it. The two pounds I’ve planted so far have planted 2/3 of one bed. I do still have 1 ½ pounds of softneck to plant tomorrow, but I think I’ll order some more. Garlic can go in the ground until early November, so it’s not too late to order some, if you want to try it!

At the risk of blabbing on and growing tedious, it cracked me up today to hear Abigail playing. I overheard the following:

Isaiah: Hi, Abigail, can I play with you?
Abigail: I’m playing by myself.
I: Please? I really want to play with you.
A: Okay. I have a princess and a dragon. You can be the princess.
I: Um, I’d really prefer to be the dragon.
A: Well, it’s a girl dragon, and a queen, too.

My boys have never played queens and princesses before. Moms and Dads, yes, but royalty: never.