The Staff of Life revisited

It’s time for another bread baking post. I continue to adore baking. I still bake my bread in a camp oven inside my wood-fired stove oven, a la the NYT as I explained here [1]. I bake fairly good bread, averaging 6-8 out of 10 on my subjective rating scale, with an occasional 9.

Currently I’m reading Rick Gallop’s informative 2008 book Getting the Best from the Gi Diet [2]. Gallop classifies foods and drinks using the traffic light system: Red for high Gi, yellow for medium Gi, and green for low Gi. It’s simple and easy to remember. He says the only green-light bread (Gi 53 [3]) is stone-ground 100% wholemeal – because stone-ground flour’s coarser and retains more of its bran coating, so it’s digested more slowly. Steel-ground wholemeal bread’s a yellow-light (Gi 69 [3]), and white bread’s a red-light (Gi 70 [3]).

I haven’t made much 100% wholemeal bread, so last Saturday I remedied that. I used a recipe from Richard Bertinet’s superb book Dough [4]. It uses a poolish, i.e. a style of ferment introduced into France by Polish bakers [5]. What a great word. And what a great loaf it helped make (pictured). Admirable character and flavour. And not too heavy.
I used store-bought wholemeal flour which was finely ground and so not stone-ground. I’m looking to buy a hand-operated flour mill. I already know my local shop sells organic wheat. I’m excited. Fun times are ahead. Healthy times too.

The billy goat and the ethical conundrum - part 2

My recent post ‘The billy goat and the ethical conundrum’ [1] snagged the interest of Farmdoc’s Blog readers, several of whom have asked me what’s happened since then. So here’s Part 2:

On 24 March, over dinner (fish and chips, FYI), Sharon and I decided to speak further with Mr Smith (still not his real name) by phone. As a day after her phone call with him, Sharon was still very upset by his verbal attack, we agreed I’d phone him. I did, in Sharon’s presence. Calmly and courteously but firmly, I reiterated to him our clear recall of the agreement, i.e. payment via one nanny kid of the Smiths’ choosing. After a long silence, Mr Smith said: ‘I’m speechless’. Then he hung up on me. The next day (25 March) Sharon received this email [2]. (She forwarded it to me on 27 March.) We decided the appropriate response would be for her to email him back, acknowledging his email and reiterating our eagerness to abide by our side of the deal as we recalled it, i.e. the Smiths to choose the best nanny kid in the mob. Sharon sent a short email along these lines over a week ago. There’s been no response from the Smiths. I intuit they won’t communicate further. Time will tell. But if anything further does happen, I’ll post it on Farmdoc’s Blog.

P.S. I’m considering sending this conundrum to the NYT Ethicist Randy Cohen [3, 4], seeking his response. Stay tuned.

farmdoc's blog post number 691

Today’s ‘List Friday’. Have you ever seen carrots as beautiful as those in the photograph? They’re from Daylesford Organics, grown by darling Kate and Brendon. They look wonderful; but I’ll bet you anything they taste even better. No doubt we all have our own reasons for the quality and quantity of food we eat. And often, or mostly, the decisions aren’t conscious ones, but rather reached by habit. When I buy food, the three matters uppermost in my mind are (in order): low fat, low sugar, and price. As I’ve grown older, the food I eat’s become more important to me – no doubt as the link between food and health (and/or food and disease) has become clearer. Today’s list’s from the New York Times way back in June 2008. Its title says it all: ‘The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating’. The list, which Sweetheart Vivienne alerted me to, was reportedly compiled on the basis of three criteria, i.e. healthy, easy to find, and rarely bought. The writer ends her article by disclosing that only two of the 11 are in her house. My score’s also two, i.e. cinnamon and sardines. But I’m aiming to up the number in the coming weeks and months. It shouldn’t be too hard to do. But the thing I’m really looking forward to is eating a Daylesford Organics rainbow carrot – at the Collingwood Children’s Farm Farmer’s Market tomorrow morning. I can hardly wait.