Homesteaders

[Beekissed]

I wouldn't even know where to get Pine shavings without buying those little compressed cubes from the store. Ironically cheaper is easier when you can get bulk mulch or just have a tree trimming company drop off their load in your yard.

Pine shavings are often delivered in bulk to places like riding rinks, stables and such. Folks will get those from those places and put them on their gardens thinking they will mulch down similarly to the wood chips. My brother has a smaller garden, so called me to ask if those cubes of pine shavings would be as good as the wood chips for mulching there. Needless to say I'll be delivering wood chips to his place for a more successful outcome.

Funny thing is, a person can rarely get tree service byproducts out in the country, though they are in great abundance in and near towns. I have to truck wood chips out to my place from areas closer to town, as the tree services will not deliver out here...not even for the offer of cash on delivery.

 

[KlopKlop]

Making a batch of bread today, both regular table bread and banana nut bread. It's a rainy, cool day that just seems to warrant fresh bread and venison stew. Every time I go through the age old motions of making bread I think of all the women down through the world who have made these same motions, rocking to the rhythm of the kneading, adding a bit more flour, kneading some more....I feel a connection with all those women, of all tongues and peoples. I especially feel a connection with my mother and grandmother, as making bread was a weekly thing for them, this was a common chore a lot of women did as a matter of routine back then.

I can't remember the last time I bought a loaf of store bought bread...and I'm glad of that.

I am also a home bread baker. I picked it up from my grandma years ago. I will admit though that I use an electric mixer more often than not. It allows me to get the bread kneaded while doing other tasks around the kitchen. The feeling of soft, elastic, well kneaded dough is one of those feelings that you just cant get elsewhere.

 

[Talithahorse]

I, too love making bread. Ironically it was my father who instilled in me, a love of bread baking. My mother taught me to can and make jelly but my father would take the old sour dough starter (that traced back to the alaskan gold rush) and make homemade bread and as a special treat homemade sour dough english muffins so good we would line up at the kitchen door to get them right off the griddle. I should make more than I do and I have to admit that I sometimes resort to buying sandwich bread. I will really work on that this summer.

Does anyone grind their own wheat?

 

[KlopKlop]

I, too love making bread.   Ironically it was my father who instilled in me, a love of bread baking.   My mother taught me to can and make jelly but my father would take the old sour dough starter (that traced back to the alaskan gold rush) and make homemade bread and as a special treat homemade sour dough english muffins so good we would line up at the kitchen door to get them right off the griddle.  I should make more than I do and I have to admit that I sometimes resort to buying sandwich bread.  I will really work on that this summer.

Does anyone grind their own wheat?

I would love to try it but I don't have a source for wheat berries. It is cost prohibitive to buy the berries vs the flour for me.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I, too love making bread.   Ironically it was my father who instilled in me, a love of bread baking.   My mother taught me to can and make jelly but my father would take the old sour dough starter (that traced back to the alaskan gold rush) and make homemade bread and as a special treat homemade sour dough english muffins so good we would line up at the kitchen door to get them right off the griddle.  I should make more than I do and I have to admit that I sometimes resort to buying sandwich bread.  I will really work on that this summer.

Does anyone grind their own wheat?

I do. We grow wheat, so I steal some from the farm and grind it with an electric grinder. I love having that easy source of wheat flour. I am working on finding a good whole wheat bread recipie that does not use any white flour. They do not rise as well when all whole wheat. But i will get it figured out.

 

[KlopKlop]

I do. We grow wheat, so I steal some from the farm and grind it with an electric grinder. I love having that easy source of wheat flour. I am working on finding a good whole wheat bread recipie that does not use any white flour. They do not rise as well when all whole wheat. But i will get it figured out.

Perhaps try adding vital wheat gluten?

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Perhaps try adding vital wheat gluten?

I have heard of it....worth a shot isnt it. I will have to look for some.

 

[KlopKlop]

I have heard of it....worth a shot isnt it. I will have to look for some.

I will try to remember to look in one of my bread cookbooks. They have a recipe for a bread additive that is supposed to make whole wheat bread softer and chewier. It has powdered milk, vital wheat gluten, citric acid, and something else. It works pretty well in my opinion and I don't think anything in it is really unhealthy. I think it is trying to increase the protein and gluten levels

 

[rancher hicks]

I've never really heard that the wood shavings in the bales are bad. I've used them to mulch my first garden and they're long gone. Can't see why they'd break down any different than any other. I dump them right in the compost with everything else.

I've used the chickens cleanings to mulch around trees with no trouble. Except for the chickens scratching them all up. I've even dumped the coop cleanings fright into the raised beds, Covered with garden soil and have had no trouble. Though I do add peat moss and aged horse manure too.

Course a good wet winter helps break things down. m I've dumped the coop cleanings around a tree, planted "road lillies " and they've come up fine.

I've also read that pine shavings are good around Raspberries too.

Raspberries enjoy a couple-inch layer of mulch. Good mulches for use in the home garden include leaves, lawn clippings, and wood chips or shavings, because they are usually free of weed seeds. From the Minnesota extension page.

 

[Beekissed]

I, too love making bread. Ironically it was my father who instilled in me, a love of bread baking. My mother taught me to can and make jelly but my father would take the old sour dough starter (that traced back to the alaskan gold rush) and make homemade bread and as a special treat homemade sour dough english muffins so good we would line up at the kitchen door to get them right off the griddle. I should make more than I do and I have to admit that I sometimes resort to buying sandwich bread. I will really work on that this summer.

Does anyone grind their own wheat?

I do! I was gifted over a dozen 40# tins of red turkey wheat that had been sealed up back in the 70s for the year 2000, and also an electric wheat grinder. The wheat is just as fresh as if it were grown last year and makes such good bread that it is truly a gift to us. I'm going to try and plant some of the wheat next fall so I can start to replenish my stores.