What did you do in the garden today?

[pennyJo1960]

I would encourage a white bread with yeast most common bread back then

7-10 cups flour 1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs salt
2 pack. yeast
3 cup water
1/3 cup olive oil(or peanut)

Heat water to 110°, put salt, sugar, and yeast in a bowl and pour water over and add oil, stir with wire whip until dissolved.
First Kneed
Stir in 4 cups of flour until mixed well. Add more flour until you have a stiff dough and then kneed until dough is smooth and elastic (3-8 minutes).
Cover and let rise about one hour.

Punch down and knead until smooth. Divide dough into thirds, shape into 3 loaves and let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour) and then bake at 400° for 20-30 minutes. Bread is done when the bottom sounds hollow when you tap it and internal temperature is 195 to 205 degrees.

Variations:
Replace Sugar with Molasses, Honey, Raw Sugar or etc.


Up to half of the flour can be replaced with other types of flour or nuts and etc. Whole Wheat flour will absorb more water, so let the first kneed be a bit sticky.

 

[Yowza Wowza]

That looks like a nightshade- blue potato bush

@weefarmersarah
I need to change over to real paint stirring sticks. The quart ones this year are thinner than popsicle sticks and snap if you look at them. The full size paint sticks are great too. 10 for 98 cents. Those I drill a hole at the edge and use as a spreader. My pear trees are notorious vertical growers.

Orchard is trimmed, but I need stronger for those darn pear trees.

Just looked a bit online, and they’re definitely berries from the blue potato bush. I figured they were a whole other wild plant.. (the name from earlier)
They turn from green to an orange (from what I’ve seen, and none are red)
(I found these pics online)

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Just looked a bit online, and they’re definitely berries from the blue potato bush. I figured they were a whole other wild plant.. (the name from earlier)
They turn from green to an orange (from what I’ve seen, and none are red)
(I found these pics online)
View attachment 2014892
View attachment 2014895

The leaves look more like what you find on citrus type plants. What do the leaves and the fruit smell like? Sorry if this sounds like 20 questions.

 

[TropicalBabies]

yup. leave them alone for now. Introduce them to the outside world slowly when we get warm enough.

Drives me bonkers when places do that.
========
Orchard trees getting done tomorrow. We'll be in the high 50s this weekend before we plummet again. I need to trim before they run sap.

I'll get spacers in tomorrow too.
I also need to finish the bathroom tomorrow and friday morning as the plumber is coming friday after two to check my connections and set up the shower fixtures.

I got a hold of a bread trough this week! It's really old and from a local homestead estate. carved in the 1860s or brought here from before that, I don't know. It's so awesome I could cry!
I need to built a cradle for it. I'll scrub it down, clean it, and reseal it with butchers block wax and then she's off and running to making bread!

I also need to make a large dala horse standee for a friends shop opening day. Going to be busy this week. LOL.

Gardening is still too far away.

Please, please send us some photos of your new, awesome bread trough. I'd love to see what you got. Also the horse standee. I have Norwegian blood in my veins and would love to see what my people got going on.
You sound busy as all heck- good luck with the plumber- Rock on!

 

[TropicalBabies]

I'm jealous! The one time I found one I didn't know what it was at the time. It was huge and looked hand carved. I found out just days later what it was and regretted not buying it. It was at Home Goods. They are like a clearance outlet store (a sister company of TJ Maxx actually that's just focused on home furnishings) so they tend to carry random things as they get their hands on them. I've checked several Home Goods stores since then, but no luck. I'll find another one one day...

Try look on Etsy just saw some fairly inexpensive- I had to google... did not know what one was-I'm learning lots today.

 

[Yowza Wowza]

The leaves look more like what you find on citrus type plants. What do the leaves and the fruit smell like? Sorry if this sounds like 20 questions.

https://www.thespruce.com/blue-potato-bush-growing-profile-3269148

 

[TropicalBabies]

the spring in the northwest comes on in a rather nebulous way. this winter has been mostly mild, the garlic is already 3 inches tall and the weeds are already vying for space. I planted my potatoes last fall, when I planted my garlic, the strawberries are now completely died back... all three are getting my attention now with a little pecking away at weeding here and there. nipping things in the bud is my ideal, and as winter wafts back and forth between spring, I find that now is a very good time to catch those persistent weeds before they get big. I also keep putting out the offerings of beer to the slug gods, and surprisingly, the slugs really don't seem to get slowed down much by the cold, so I feel like getting them now is like dead heading the weeds before they spread their seeds! for every slug I drown now, I figure I'm curtailing dozens that I would otherwise have to fight in the spring once there is vegetation to munch and they all start breeding.

Hi @Birdinhand , welcome!!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Hey there @TropicalBabies check out @LittleBrownie post trying to identify a “fruit” from her yard. It looks like some sort of citrus to me by looking at the leaves. But you have more experience with citrus than a crusty old New Englander.

 

[WthrLady]

Jeg snakker Norsk også! The bread trough is a couple posts back. My horse is a fjord horse, but my friend is a Swede, and wants a dala like the rest of the town has in front of their shops. this is my fjordhorse. I am totally ticked off that the sealer I used has yellowed and it wasn't supposed to. it's 4x4 feet. I'll get a pict of the dala up when I have it.

 

[Yowza Wowza]

Jeg snakker Norsk også! The bread trough is a couple posts back. My horse is a fjord horse, but my friend is a Swede, and wants a dala like the rest of the town has in front of their shops. this is my fjordhorse. I am totally ticked off that the sealer I used has yellowed and it wasn't supposed to. it's 4x4 feet. I'll get a pict of the dala up when I have it. View attachment 2014939

That’s beautiful!