Every year, at around this time School of the Air hosts a conference relating to all things distance education and home schooling.  This year, as well as socialising and strengthening friendships we learnt about thinking styles and patterns,

Kinesiology, Brain Gym and other skills to help us educate our children.  The experience was valuable and a good break away from the farm and our routine.

However, by the end of the third day I started to miss home.  I missed dinner conversation with my husband, our coffee machine, the vegetable garden and mostly my ability to make bread.  As I drove home from our conference I thought about my chooks, no-knead bread, sowing my autumn vegetable seeds and generally doing all those homely things that keep me grounded.

 

 

Recently I had a conversation with Rohan about making no-knead sourdough bread and he was kind enough to share his recipe with me. I have always gone through a lot of steps with my break making.  I knead, or if I am making a big batch I use an electric dough mixer.  Kneading is followed by resting, a bulk prove, knock back, shaping, final prove and scoring.  To simply mix, prove and bake felt very different.

My loaf was distinctly sour, but not overly so. It was certainly tasty but it was a little gummy in texture.  I feel my no-kneading could do with more practice but in reality I like kneading.  For me, the physical process is therapeutic.  It was an interesting trial and something I will continue to experiment with.  Rohan, thanks for sharing.  It is always fun to chat with fellow bread enthusiasts.

Are you kneading or no-kneading or chatting about bread?

Are you planning or planting?

Friends, have a lovely Sunday.