The Cotton Shedd

My Everyday Bread Recipe

This is my every day bread recipe.  I usually bake this once a week and it makes five 8" loaves.  This is great bread for sandwiches, toast, garlic bread etc.  It turns out very light for whole wheat bread and does not have a heavy flavor.

I use a Bosch mixer and a Wonder Mill to grind my whole wheat flour from hard white wheat.  If you don't have a grain mill, I would substitute King Arthur white whole wheat flour.  If you don't have a Bosch you can make it a family affair of kneading a lot of dough.

Place the following ingredients in mixer with a dough hook:

• 5 Cups very warm water (110 - 120) degrees
• 2/3 Cup Rapadura sugar (can substitute white but not as healthy or rich)
• 1/2 Cup butter melted
• 3/4 Cup olive oil
• 2/3 Cup dry milk powder
• 3 Cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 Tbsp of Celtic Sea Salt (can use regular salt)
• 4 Tbsp SAF Yeast

Mix on a medium speed until combined. 

Then add

• 4 Cups whole wheat flour
• 6 1/4 Cups white unbleached bread flour

one cup at time while mixing until sides begin to clean from sides of bowl.  Watch closely to get just enough flour for a soft workable dough.  Too much flour will result in a heavy, tough dough.  Knead for 6 minutes on a medium speed. 

Let dough rest and rise in mixer bowl for 45 minutes.  I cover my bowl with a damp towel because the dough can sometimes rise and break the mixer lid.  If I am busy I will punch down the dough and let it rise again until I have a bit of time to form loaves.

Turn dough out onto a clean oiled surface and form loaves.  I use a little olive oil on the surface and my hands to prevent sticking.  I do not use flour. 

Put into greased loaf pans.  Let rise for 35 minutes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until golden brown.  Let stand in pans for 10 minutes after removing from the oven.  Remove from pans and cool completely before slicing. (Yeah right!).

This bread freezes extremely well unsliced.  Sometimes I add a couple of Tablespoons of ground flax and a handful of raw sunflower seeds to the dough. 

Variations:

Amazing Cinnamon Bread:

Take the dough for one loaf or all five and roll it out in a rectangle 8 inches wide and however long.  Sprinkle liberally with Rapadura and cinnamon.  Roll up and form loaf.  Place into pan and bake as above.  This also freezes great and makes a yummy quick breakfast - especially toasted.

Pizza Bread:

Take the dough for one loaf or all five and roll it out in a rectangle 8 inches wide and however long. Sprinkle with hamburger, shredded cheese, onions, garlic whatever.  Roll up and form loaf.  Place into pan and bake as above.  This is a great take along dinner.

Winter Fun

We arrived at the mountain house and found a lot of snow from that big, big, storm...

 

The back porch is a snow cave and the big pile is just from the driveway.  Other houses had more...

 

Proper snowmen have been built in the yard.  Note the neighbor's really big snowman.  They could not let the lowlanders out do them...

 

I really like our snowman herd - they don't have to be fed and watered twice a day.

 

The crew has been doing lots of skiiing and Caboodle and I have stayed at the house and knit, walked in the snowy woods, split some good chocolate and snuggled.  Yesterday on a no ski day, I took an all day sock class.  Because of time constraints the main sock parts were done and not the middles, so I have a sock for a one legged goat.  I learned so much though.  Yarn & More in Pinetop is a great place and June is a wonderful teacher.  I started a real sock for Caboodle on the needles...

 

The quilt was made by Rod's grandmother out of scraps from the clothes she made her children and grandchildren.

Lovely Little Cotton Angels in Great Britian

I had the most delightful email from my British online friend, Maria.   She travelled to the US and brought back some Georgia cotton and made these great little cotton boll ornaments for her tree.  I just had to share.

 

She sends me virtual rain and snow and I send her virtual hot weather.  It would be so fun to actually meet someday. 

It is really fun when this internet thing connects you to interesting folks you would have never met in your own backyard.

A must read article on farming. Please read if you like to farm, like farms, or just like to eat food.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/18/agriculture-farming-organic-opinions-columnists-joel-kotkin.html

A New Knitted Hat

A new knitted hat using double strand worsted wool from my own pattern.  She is now prepared for snow.

Gentlemen Farmers

We just returned from one of the formal hearings before the EPA designates our county as a nonattainment area for dust.  Oddly, even though everyone in our county will be effected by another layer of regulations and fines for noncompliance, the audience was made up of 90% farmers and ranchers.  For the most part the meeting was about how this will effect all of us and trying to reach attainment while doing the least harm to our county.

However, one lady used her comment time to tell all us aggies in the audience how we are dirty, our cows stink and we kill children for profit.  That none of us should be allowed to farm here since people from other states have moved here and now they cannot even go outside because of all our dirty farmland.  I saw her light up a cigarette after the meeting, BTW. 

While we have come a long way technologically, we still have to use dirt to produce food and fiber.  Grocery stores don't make the food they sell.  Most of us actually like children alot.  We donate school sites, run 4-H clubs, serve on school boards and raise healthy children - even in the dirt and farm doo.  Dirt don't hurt.

Anyway, after being just hammered by this woman's rant, no one interrupted her, no one was rude to her, they just let her say her peace.  I cannot think of another group who takes such abuse and turns the other cheek.  I did notice a bit of sadness and disbelief in the audience though.  

I have worked in the ag industry as a woman, a farmer, and an attorney and I can say that farmers and ranchers as a group are the truest gentlemen/gentlewomen I have ever known.  They are decent and hardworking, and if protecting their way of life, which believe me is not about the money, makes them bad then we really need to rethink our priorities in this country.  

I thank God that the food my family eats is produced by trustworthy, steady, intelligent American farm families and not politicians and misguided urbanites who try to live in germ free bubbles that are not based on any reality.  It is awful easy to criticize those whose hands do the dirty work that makes a clean and sterile life possible.

It will be a challenge to meet the guidelines handed down by the EPA for Pinal County.  In a nutshell we must all work together to make our air as dust free as is Maine's and Manhattans.  No problem.  Will do.

 

This was taken during a dust storm in which dust travels from 100s of miles away and lands on us.  Ever see that in Manhattan?

Well, if all else fails and we still have dirt in the desert we can just pave over the ag land and write more tickets.

Easy Potato Garden

We planted red and russet potatoes today - the easy way.  We layed down cardboard boxes.  Cut the potatoes into sections and put them on the cardboard.  Each section had at least two eyes.  The potatoes were ones that were going a bit soft and sprouty from the pantry. 

 

Next we covered them with barley hay about 4 inches thick.  Any hay will do except bermuda hay because bermuda is the arch enemy of the garden.

 

We watered it in and will keep the hay moist.  Now, we just sit back and wait for the plants to grow through the straw and die.  Then we just harvest our clean fresh, potatoes by removing the straw which then becomes compost.

We also ran some chicken wire around the garden to keep out the sneaky hens.  I think barley hay would just be too much fun for them to resist.

I am trying to do a little bit every day in the garden so as not too be exhausted and overwhelmed.

Indoor Herb Garden

It is so hot here that herbs do not survive the summer.  I do like to cook with fresh herbs - especially in the summer.  So the newest garden experiment is an indoor decorative herb garden.  I have parsley, cilantro, thyme, basil, and stevia and I will soon add oregano.

 

They make the room smell earthy and it adds a refreshing feel.  So far the plants seem happy in this south facing window.  Time will tell.  As an added note, watering the herbs with water drained from the sprout jar gives them a bit of a boost.

Growing Food In the Arizona Desert

My garden obsession began twenty years ago when I married a farmer and fell in love with homegrown tomatoes and old world non-hybrid roses.  I really didn't have a clue what I was doing and at the time there was only one book on gardening in our desert (published by the UofA).  

Now, we produce a minimum of 50% of our own food depending on season.  We raise all our own beef and eggs as well as a huge percentage of our fruits and vegetables ranging from tomato products to strawberries and figs.

When I first started this garden adventure people thought it was very strange to grow and preserve our own food.  After all why when it is so readily available?  Now, with the economic downturn, people are starting to see the benefits of growing your own.  Benefits include better nutrition, huge cost savings, built in exercise, general enjoyment and amazing flavor.

Since I am starting to get a lot of interest in the hows and whens of what we do I am going to start a bit of a garden journal.  While my way of doing things works for me and is always evolving it may help someone who wants to start their own garden here in our desert climate.

The good news is that the garden produces all year long.  The bad news is it is completely different seasonally than most other parts of the country.  Learn to work with our seasons and fresh produce may be had all year.  Learn to preserve and have variety and abundance all year long.

If you want to plant a spring garden from seed, right now is the time to begin.

Today, we planted strawberries from nursery transplants in the garden.  We covered them with insulate made to keep plants warm while still allowing light and water.  The hope is to get a good crop of stawberries before the heat of summer stops fruit production.

We are harvesting broccoli and carrots daily - some for meals and the rest are going in the dehydrator to be used in soups and casseroles when they are no longer in season.  They can also be frozen but it is just easier to dehydrate and eat fresh when in season.

Spinach and lettuce is still fresh and delicious at least when we get to it before those sneaky chickens who also think it is fresh and delicious.

I have all my tomato seeds ready to be put into indoor plant pots to start in the house.  Hopefully, I will get them in tomorrow.

The most important thing to remember is to always feed to soil and the plants will thrive.

Snow Days and New Kids

We headed to the mountains to ski, knit, rest and play.

 

Here is a good brother...

The life of the baby....

 

The night we left these two cute pygmy kids were born...

 

Here is the proud herdswoman with her kids and one of mine...