FYI

Sincerest apologies dearest bread-lovers
We have been on a mission to create and conquer the medieval ovens that we have chosen.  Krista and Karen were planning on creating the whole experience and going out to Sooke and camping whilst the stone oven is created.  On the other hand, Angela and I have spent most of today (Sunday) building the oven and so far everything has gone according to plan.  More information to come, just be patient dear bread-lovers, messages like these took probably 2 days to get from sender to recipient, while modern-day technologies (ie. internet) takes only 2 seconds.


-J


PS- in a recent turn of events, the amount of bread that we possess has been drastically cut due to a ferociously hungry beast named Sophie.  As well, the house was nearly burnt down, but George (the hamdyman) came and saved the day...yet again.
PPS- the "heat withstanding tiles" do not withstand heat, do not use.  Tile explosion will occur

Triumphant concrete slab success

So as many of our followers know, Angela and I are making the terra-cotta oven which is going along nicely.  However, some there are also rumours swirling around about our little "adventure" that we had during our quest to gain this concrete slab.  Angela pointed this out in previous posts so instead of recreating the whole ordeal through written word (because I am definitely not that wordy) we, luckily, documented the trip on video camera.  We also have some fun photo's of our supplies.  Enjoy!

terra-cotta goodness!

concrete slab, height withstanding tiles, and charcoal

JUST starting our journey

Hopefully the actual construction of the oven goes easier than the transportation...stay tuned!
Also, my rotation skills suck, sorry!


-J

Quote of the week:

"How are you guys going to make this?"
"Jesus is a construction worker right? He'll help us out. Oh wait. A carpenter. Damn."

Bread!

Stone milled rye flour plus yeast!

Plus ale! The Devil's Elbow. Yummy.

And some egg.

After letting it rise for an hour, get ready to knead it.

Kneading.

The recipe is too sticky! We have to add more flour.

More flour, but my hands are still covered in bread.

Karen, releasing me from my bread prison!

I sit by with my bread gloves while Karen takes over.

You have to punch the bread..

Before baking.

After baking! And it was edible!!

The Return of Angela Buttress

My dearest Bloggowers,


As you may have noticed, I have been MIA for the last couple days. The fact is, hauling our large concrete slab 5 kilometres took it out of me, and I contracted a ghastly illness. I am assuming it is the Black Death because that would fit in nicely with our medieval theme. But, the good news is I am back and primed for some bread oven building adventures this weekend. Jessie and I have procured 99% of the materials needed to construct our terra cotta pot oven (we have been unable to locate an acceptable child's hoe, but feel that we are capable of improvising), and are planning to commence said construction tomorrow at 17:00.


The purchasing and transport of the concrete slab and associated slate tiles is an epic tale on par with the works of Homer and Virgil. We battled the elements and the censure of Home Depot employees, and yet still managed to achieve our lofty goal; the concrete slab rests peacefully in my garage, never hinting at the trials and tribulations that its every move creates. The only difference between our journey and the Iliad is that we took pictures and videos of our epic, which I am guessing will soon be made available to our loyal followers. In fact, I am quite excited to see them myself.


So if you find yourself asking, "Just when will I find out whether building a medieval oven is possible, when, when will I at last be able to see the outcomes of this monumentous endeavour for myself!?" Then tighten up your ship because I already told you. Tomorrow. 


A

Oi. Blog. Right.

Welcome, gentle readers. Before I embark upon a potentially enthusiastic description of my bread-making endeavours, I must provide a disclaimer:

I FRIKKING HATE BLOGGING.

Ok. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, time to share my breadish thoughts.

I have looked up mortar. I came to the conclusion that I'd really rather not use it. But if I have to use it, lime mortar seems to be the way to go, since it is the medievalish type (rather than Portland mortar, which is a modern concrete mixture). However, I have no clue where to find said limey mortar.

Dry stone for the win.

Or fail.

Either way.

Possibly clay.

I should turn my blog posts into Dr. Seuss poems.

Um....yeah....

Let's see...I have also been in contact with a friend named Karos regarding the acquisition of barm. I'm still not entirely certain what barm is, but I gather it's some partly brewed beer by-product. Um...here's the wikipedia article... Apparently it's beer scum. Yup. I kinda figured as much.

Yummy, scummy beer bread!

*hrm*

Karos is in the middle of brewing some stuff but can start another batch. It shall be ready in a week. Not sure that's in time - but I think we could make practice yeast bread and then try the barm when we get it.

We have also gone to Lifestyles Market to get flour. Sadly, there was too much flour. We decided to try out some rye flour. I'm keen to try some barley flour too. Oddly, the recipe never clarifies what sort of flour to use. Yay experimentation!

Um...there was some rock collecting also. I'm not saying where we got the rocks. The fact that there are photos of us holding rocks on a beach is completely coincidental. We would never steal rocks from a public park. That would lead to erosion and....stuff.

I will say that we may have been slightly followed by a police car at one point during our innocent beach frolicking. Maybe.... but it could have been someone else being followed.

So here are some photos of us innocently having fun at a beach.

This stick was very resonant when we kicked it on the sidewalk. So we brought it with us. But then we abandoned it.

This is Krista playing with rocks in the ocean.

Krista has a rock! It's awesome!

There's a tiger digging in the sand for rocks. I think his name is Curtis.

Aww... Curtis gave Krista a rock.

Bare feet!

This is a dragon egg.

See? Krista's just skipping rocks! Completely innocent!

Also, standing on logs is innocent.

This was a cute kitty we saw at a bus stop.

Ok. I'm done. That's all the blogging for now.

Boogeyboogeyboogey!

Photos!

Karen, with rock!

                                                                    Karen, throwing rock!

                                                      The pile of rocks from our first trip.

                                      Taking a break from gathering rocks on trip two to have fun.

                                                    Building a paper towel model of oven.

                                                           Success! But slightly not fireproof...

                                                          Dinosaurs!!!



And that was our weekend. That is all.
--K