Martin Fisher

That is so wonderful -- I am totally jealous. Ever think of publishing them?I hope to some day. ~Martin

Looks like the rules are the same as everywhere else, those with sales of less than $5000 don't have to be certified, but must still follow the rules. "In accordance with the California Organic Products Act of 2003 and the National Organic Program if your annual gross sales are more than $5,000.00 you are required by law to be certified." Source: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/i_&_c/organic.html ~Martin

If one sells less than $5,000 of organic products annually, he/she need not be certified, but still must comply with organic standards in order to market products as organic. ~Martin

Some folks do really suck up the exagerated marketing propoganda (and pay the price.) If a grower can take advantage of it I guess it's a good thing.....for them! I can't around here, most folks draw the line at about $2.50 to $2.75 a dozen, I've tried $3.00 but sales really taper off at that price. It wouldn't make sense for me to chase the upscale market due to the much higher overhead. Anyway, I like to have a close personal relationship with customers and all my customers know that I eat the things that I produce and I try to make them then best products possible, for all of us. I'm a firm believer in the benefits of pasturing poultry and feeding them a highly nutritious and very diverse organic diet....including but far from limited to probiotics in the form of fermented foods and purslane due to its high omega 3 content. ~Martin

There's no doubt that most professional bakers use weight measurements and have for ages....I don't think that anyone will argue that. ~Martin

I have far fewer older professional cooking and baking books than household oriented baking and cookbooks. Among the household baking and cookbooks, in addition to the many that I already had, I inherited several hundred from my grandmothers and other ancestors. Among the books 50 years or older, I'd guestimate that 85% of them use volume measurement. I'm not sure that any of that means much though, my grandmothers mostly used old tried and true recipes that were personally developed or gathered from friends and family. All of the recipes in my maternal grandmother's written journals use volume measurements. Too bad I had to give up almost all the baking due to carbohydrate intolerance. I love to bake! ~Martin

I'm not sure how the conversation switched to indoor stoves, bread ovens and dutch ovens, the point is they baked, regardless of the type of oven. Life certainly wasn't the same for everyone, most of my ancestors lived a rural existance, they didn't have access to a bakery, they had outdoor ovens and/or ovens built into the fireplace. I haven't found much mention of dutch ovens being used for serious baking in the diaries that I have. ~Martin

A couple recipes from Hanna Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, 1747. To make French bread. Take three quarts of water, and one of milk ; in winter ſcalding hot, in ſummer little more than milk-warm. Seaſon it well with ſalt, then take a pint and a half of good ale yeaſt not bitter, lay it in a gallon of water the night before, pour it off the water, ſtir in your yeaſt into the milk and water, then with your hand break in a little more than a quarter of a pound of butter, work it well till it is diſſolved, then beat up two eggs in a baſon, and ſtir them in, have about a peck and a half of flour, mix it with your liquor ; in winter make your dough pretty ſtiff, in ſummer more ſlack ; ſo that you may uſe a little more or leſs of flour, according to the ſtiffneſs of your dough ; mix it well, but the leſs you work the better. Make it into rolls, and have a very quick oven, but not to burn. When they have lain about a quarter of an hour turn them on the other ſide, let them lie about a quarter longer, take them out and chip all your French bread with a knife, which is better than raſping it, and makes it look ſpungy and of a fine yellow, whereas the raſping takes off all the fine colour, and makes it look too ſmooth. You muſt ſtir your liquor into the flour as you do for pye-cruſt. After your dough is made cover it with a cloth, and let it riſe while the oven is heating. A method to preſerve a large ſtock of yeaſt, which will keep and be of uſe for ſeveral months, either to make bread or cakes. WHEN you have yeaſt in plenty, take a quantity of it, ſtir and work it well with a whiſk until it becomes liquid and thin, then get a large wooden platter, cooler, or tub, clean and dry, and with a ſoft bruſh, lay a thin layer of the yeaſt on the tub, and turn the mouth downwards that no duſt may fall upon it, but ſo that the air may get under to dry it. When that coat is very dry, then lay on another till you have ſufficient quantity, even two or three inches thick, to ſerve for ſeveral months, always taking care the yeaſt in the tub be very dry before you lay more on. When you have occaſion to make uſe of this yeaſt cut a piece off, and lay it in warm water ; ſtir it together, and it will be fit for uſe. If it is for brewing, take a large handful of birch tied together, and dip it into the yeaſt and hang it up to dry ; take great care no duſt comes to it, and ſo you may do as many as you pleaſe. When your beer is fit to ſet to work, throw in one of theſe, and it will make it work as well as if you had freſh yeaſt. You muſt whip it about the wort, and then let it lie ; when the vat works well, take out the broom, and dry it again, and it will do for the next brewing. Note, In the building of your oven for baking, obſerve that you make it round, low roofed, and a little mouth ; then it will take leſs fire, and keep in the heat better than a long one and high-roofed, and will bake the bread better. The book contains dozens of baking recipes. ~Martin

It's also important to remember that many folks way back when and even in my grandmother's generation baked every single day, practice makes perfect! ~Martin

Hmmmmm.... My German ancestors moved to America in September of 1733 and settled in northern New Jersey (A year and a half after George Washington was born.) I know for sure that they were baking at home then and for many generations afterward. (I have several diaries.) Much the same with many of my other ancestors. They used natural yeasts and hartshorn before commercial yeasts and leaveners came along. ~Martin

I get less than half that for organic eggs. ~Martin

Lovely? It was all hit-or-miss!!!! LOL ~Martin

Thanks ... that's pretty much the advice I've received. There is a problem with this approach: if the recipe was written and tested by the author using the "dip and level" technique, you will be in trouble. I speak from experience. I attempted a genoise from a book, and spooned the flour into the measuring cup, instead of dipping and levelling. When everything was mixed in, the batter was a disaster, there wasn't enough starch to balance the moisture of the recipe, and the result was simply unusable. This was years ago, but I still remember that I wasted 12 eggs and 2 vanilla beans in that recipe - ugh!! I also have a major issue with measuring spoons, because you use them to measure leavening, and using the wrong quantity can ruin your cake. And this is why I avoid like the plague all recipes that don't give weights. If I find a recipe that uses volume measurements, and I am dead set on making it, I test it first. And when I test it, I take note of the weights of all ingredients (ideally), or at least the dry ones (if I'm in a hurry). Some authors will be nice enough to include at the beginning or end of their book a section wherein they will specify how to measure, Martha Stewart's cookie book has one, for example. But I fully agree with Lisa, a scale is your best assurance of consistent results in baking. I learned it from my grandmother and mother 35 years ago. The technique served my grandmother well in her nearly 80 years of baking. It it more predictably repeatable than scooping, obviously it's not going to work perfectly in every situation because, as you said, not everyone practices the same tecnique, not to mention the fact that flours are different. I do agree that weighing is better, but that is also sometimes unpredicatalbe due the difference in flours. No method is perfect in every situation. ~Martin

Don't scoop the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup and level off with the back of a butter knife or the like. ~Martin

Congratulations!!!! ~Martin

Dry brining only draws moisture out initially but it is reabsorbed. I don't think it tastes like cured meat or the texture either but I suppose length has something to do with this. Kenji over at Serious Eat's is a proponent of it over a wet brine. I don't recall reading about injecton brining or why Modernist Cuisine prefers it but I'll have to go back and read it. That aside, I think brining in general is overrated, especially wet brines. I also agree! A cured taste and texture is a symptom of too much salt. ~Martin

That's great! Yeah, no issues with growing season where you are. Actually, the lady who started East Branch Ginger worked at Johnny's Selected Seeds up in Maine, it all started up there. http://www.mofga.org/Publications/MaineOrganicFarmerGardener/Winter20112012/Ginger/tabid/2055/Default.aspx ~Martin

Here's a website with a lot of good cultural info: http://www.eastbranchginger.com ~Martin

I grow for the stem ginger as well as the tubers. The drip tape should work well. Although some insist that it's not necessary, in my experience, soaking the the tubers in warm water (85 degree F) for an hour or 2 just prior to planting seems to "wake-up" tubers and initiate prompt sprouting. I usually grow in containers because that allows me to get a 6-8 week (or longer) headstart inside, but it's not essential. Container grown ginger needs to be watched quite closely because the growing medium can become too dry quickly. ~Martin

I'm also in NY state, unfortunately, Chemung County to be exact, I grow it as an annual, but as you pointed out it certainly could be overwintered inside given the room. ~Martin

Have you considered growing it? That's what I do. It's quite easy to grow if you meet it's needs (ginger likes a lot of moisture.) It can be grown from the ginger from any grocery produce department. ~Martin

I lot of low-carber's make cauliflower fauxtatoes. A bit of cream cheese and a touch of xanthan are often used to thicken them up. I like to combine them with rutabaga and a touch of xanthan. ~Martin

Lots of folks use Himalayan pink sea salt or Celtic sea salt for fermenting vegetables. I don't know about it's use in cured meats, I use Mediterranean sea salt. ~Martin

I spent several weeks looking for a reliable and inexpensive way to do indoor cold smoking. I settled on rolled cigarettes (LOL) heated with a soldering iron because it’s possible to smoke with pure tea leaves, herbs, sawdust, etc. without the fuel burning up too rapidly. I invested about $20 in the cigarette roller, papers, soldering iron, spring and clamp. Below is some rosemary being rolled. Maple smoked butter, rosemary smoked foccacia, tea smoked hard-boiled eggs….the possibilities are endless. The cigarette must be able to slide freely inside the spring. The soldering iron raises the temperature inside the cold oven only about 10 degrees above room temperature. Each cigarette smokes for about 30-40 minutes. A vent hood is recommended. My vent hood doesn’t vent to the outside, but that wasn’t a problem with a window open and the ceiling fan running. : ) Note: Placing a bowl over the targeted food does help to concentrate the smoke. It's habit forming!!!!! For consistant and reliable smoke in the smoker, I highly recommend the A-Maze-N smoke generators. I have all of their models, they work great. ~Martin

Yes, that's a good idea. Jacques video..... http://youtu.be/ogwXvV_LcJE?t=5m18s ~Martin