Shelby

The gardening and farming for us has been quite challenging this year due to the massive flooding. Most of our field corn was wiped out and we have now re-planted. A lot of the garden--and the field corn seeds have had trouble sprouting. The ground was so flooded...and then the sun beat down and basically baked the top layer of soil to the point that it's so hard and crusty that the little plants are having trouble bursting through. So, we'll see what we end up with. Snapped some pictures this morning. We have 3 different gardens this year. One will have pumpkins and other odds and ends, one has the asparagus, a few tomato plants and a lot of red potatoes. All of the cucumbers I've planted have looked great for a few days and then they up and die. Arrrgh. I hate to think of summer without fresh cucumbers from the garden. Anyway, here are some pics of the main garden: Jalapeños and bells Radishes Red potatoes Red, yellow and white onions--the onions certainly loved all of the water we got Beans--lots of the seeds didn't sprout Some basil Mustard greens and collard greens okra Sweet corn-again lots didn't come up About 60 tomato plants Squash

Instant Pot potato salad, SV'd pork tenderloin and beans and garden veggies

Everyone's food looks so good. @liuzhou I'm always jealous of that insanely fresh shrimp that you get. Venison tostadas Minus the sour cream. As I was carrying it to the table, I dropped it. Broke the bowl . Hot wings and salad. Used the last of my brother-in-law's homemade sriracha. I'm hoping if I give the empty bottle back he'll get the hint and make me more this summer. Last night I had a craving for French dressing so I made some for salad along with spaghetti and venison meatballs.

Roasted chicken, mustard greens and scalloped potatoes

Ok. Using the pineapple juice method, I now have two more starters going: These little cans are perfect since you only use 1/4 of a cup per each. These both should be ready to use by next Wednesday.

Got my pineapple juice and my vital wheat gluten today. Tomorrow the games begin

You must have the patience of a saint.

Oh thank you thank you thank you. I needed this. Mine has bubbles at times and then looks like it's dead . I will keep going.

"All 16" of Shelby's brain cells can't remember a simple salad.

Today was going to be a mill/bread day but my washer broke and I had to spend the morning figuring out what the heck was going on. I'm all fixed up now, but I'm kinda pooped. I fed my starter again yesterday about 5. It looks really good right after that, but then it fizzles. It still smells good and it has bubbles, but it doesn't double in size like the instructions say. I'm not giving up yet.

I need to remember this. Right up my alley. I'm sure I'll forget so when I post in a couple months that I want to find the zuke recipe with the olives will you remind me lol?

Oh it's SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! You make me want to throw all my stuff in my cabinets on the floor and rearrange and paint lol. It looks like a dream to cook in. PS--I see room for another CSO. Just sayin'.

Oh Elsie, those look SO dang GOOD! I'm so glad you liked them. I just knew you would. Just glad I could pass along the good advice I've learned

Rhubarb jealousy .

It's addictive. Basically it's candied jalapeños. The recipe I use has cider vinegar, mustard seed, sugar, turmeric, cayenne, celery seed and garlic powder. Good over cream cheese eaten with crackers. Good on ribs. Just plain good.

Good to know. I'll know what to put out when I have you over for dinner.

Did you let it rest at all before kneading? What was your flour to egg ratio? In no time we will all be experts at all this stuff Or maybe semi-experts?

I thought snail mucus was a basic condiment for everyone 🤷‍♀️

Do you think it had mostly to do with using the Vitamix to grind? Or the wheat itself doesn't have enough gluten which would be why you would add some AP flour...... I haven't run across anyone adding vital wheat gluten but that doesn't mean it isn't done ---I've been reading about making pasta from home milled flour (just a bit this morning online). My eyes are a bit crossed from all of the studying I've been doing lol.

Yes, excellent link. Thank you. Taught me a lot. Heck, I'll experiment with all kinds. I'm just so new at all of this. A lot for this Kansas girl to learn I've got some unsweetened pineapple juice on the way. Hoping that does wonders for a starter. I'm not having a lot of faith in the one that I've got going. Ronnie has named it "The Beast". However, it's not being very beast-like at the moment lol.

I'm not just saying this because it's my recipe I swear! That is an excellent idea! I've been hoarding one last jar of the C. candy. Must try this soon. Thank you!

Glad to know I'm not the only one. Oh Jo, I hope you can get one. I'll do my best to show the ins and outs. It's definitely easy to remove the hopper/bowl but I've yet to try to put on the sifter. I'll post pics and descriptions as soon as I do. Good to know. I just ordered a new spray bottle from Amazon. Mine are all icky. Time for a new one.

Thank you @rotuts and @Okanagancook for all of the helpful tips. Definitely will look into the pasta book. I'd LOVE to use this to make pasta. I knew you folks would be able to help me learn all of this

I'm taking the plunge into milling my own flour to use in breads, sweets, maybe pasta etc. I have no experience....I've never even seen a home mill in person until last week when I became the very, very proud owner of a Komo Fidibus XL 600 watt grain mill. The glass tube on the right is a sifter that attaches to the mill when you remove the bowl. There are inserts for the sifter down in front that are different sizes. I think it's so pretty. Which is a good thing since it will be living on my kitchen counter a lot I'm well stocked with many different kinds of heritage and ancient grains: The manual that came with my mill says that you can also grind spices, legumes and coffee beans. I've read online that you can also do rice which must be true because the manual also says that if you need to clean it for some reason (meaning you milled something oily that isn't recommended) you are to run long grain rice through. So, the last few days I've been googling and reading and watching videos online and also reading through the following books: The manual that came with my mill doesn't say to do this, but I read online that it was recommended to run a couple cups of grain through and then discard the flour--just to make sure it's all clean and working right. I'm glad I did because it gave me a little chance to play with adjusting the mill from fine to coarse and in-between. I used this kind: Rule #1: Turn the machine on and THEN dump your grain in the bowl/hopper. Oh it smelled SO good. Clean and sweet and a bit nutty. You adjust from fine to coarse by turning the bowl/hopper--to the left is Fein (fine) and to the right is Grob (coarse)--it's made in Germany and comes with a 12 year warranty. I was a bit confused at first. You see that black dot on the bottom of the bowl/hopper? I assumed that meant that if you want it the finest grind you can get that you move it all the way over until it can't move any more (the bowl/hopper has "clicks" that you can feel to make your adjustments). That isn't the case. When I put it clear to the left and turned the machine on, the stones were touching/grinding together. You don't want that. I had to click to the right about 6 clicks to get it to stop doing that. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't calibrated like I thought it should be until I started thinking about the grinding stones and how they heat up during use. The more you use it, the warmer they get causing you to maybe need to adjust lower to get to the finest setting you can. Trust me, you know immediately if you need to adjust up so that the stones don't hit each other. Side note: After opening the bag of grain I decided to see if the Vacmaster would seal it up for me again. It worked! That will come in handy! Anyway, I've stocked up on yeast. But, then after reading a bit online I decided it would be wise to make a starter. I've never done that either. Frankly, it seems daunting. All the feeding and then throwing some of it away and then feeding again. I don't have children....but I have something similar, it seems, in a jar on my counter now😛 I'm starting with a very basic recipe from a book listed above called The Best Bread Ever. It's called Simple Wheat Starter. It uses some AP flour, some whole wheat flour (I used the hard red shown right above here), water and a pinch of yeast. Here is is just after I made it: Question: Could I have used the whey that is in my fridge that I saved after making cottage cheese in place of the water? Here it is right before I went to bed last night Right now the bubbly part has doubled, but see that bit of liquid in the bottom of the jar? Well, it's about an inch tall now. I was concerned but after reading online maybe that's normal for such a starter like this? It smells very sweet and good. I'm going to feed it again here in a bit. Sigh. I'm nervous. The starter is supposed to be ready to use by Wednesday morning. I could use major pointers on starters. And , pretend you're explaining it to a 4 year old so that I can understand 😁 ********************************** Now, I'm going to jot down a few thoughts, questions, things I found online etc. Later, after I have my own experience, I can either debunk or support. Yesterday, for me, a half cup of the hard red winter wheat berries netted roughly a cup of flour. BUT it was "fluffy". The hard wheat might be better for breads and the soft wheat might be better for pastry and sweet things. Spelt might be better for pastry items too. In a recipe that uses store bought AP flour, if you sub fresh milled flour you usually have to increase the water. Or, you generally use 3 T. less of milled flour per cup of flour in a recipe. If using spelt flour you might use 2-4 T. MORE per cup in a recipe. I have a great video where the person making the bread uses no measuring at all. Just goes by feel. I want to get to that place and be like him! Using the autolyse method seems like a good way to go. Is that the same as kneading for a bit, and then resting for 10 mins and then kneading again? Also, while kneading, have a bowl of water to dip fingers in to reduce sticking to hands. Vital wheat; I ordered some. Should be here the end of the week. Do I need it? I dunno. I've read that it helps with rising when milling your own grains. Then, I've also read that there is enough gluten so why would you need to add more. Is there more gluten in hard wheat than soft wheat? Need to do more research on this. So, that's what I've been up to. Anyone have a mill? Anyone that can answer my billions of questions? I'll post here with successes and failures. I hope others join in.