My friend Celia, from Fig Lime and Cordial, sent me a sourdough starter from Australia a while ago that has been languishing in the belly of the fridge until I ceased my globe trotting.. (not quite ceased but never mind). Yesterday, stuck inside with snowstorm outside, I started the starter up. Her name is Priscilla and Celia has asked all the recipients of her sourdough to rename their sourdough starters with a reference to the mother – Priscilla so I called mine Bob – Bobsilla (kind of like Priscilla do you think?). She has very generously sent these starters out all over the world. 
Anyway young Bob is now wildly busy and active so last night I began to make some bread.(The black dress diet is officially over “Thanks Gods” as my German Godmother would say). As a great kindness to me and my other sourdoughly challenged friends – Celia posted the simplest of bread recipes on her site – with pictures, I have always had trouble with my sourdough breads sadly resembling depressed hard cowpats. It took the chickens DAYS to even peck through the crust. I could have used them as water bowls. I needed pictures. So this morning I am in the last stages of making a good loaf of bread.
Yesterday it gently snowed all day. Big wet benevolent flakes.
Soft and still, the wet heavy snow slowly built up to about six inches, it was above freezing most of the day so there were incidents of whole avalanches of wet snow sliding off the roof with solid Thwumps which set Ton to barking thinking we were being gently bombed by an apologetic army on the roof.
Being Sunday, and The Matriarch’s day to cook lunch, we drove into town, very slowly. Here is the drive. 
Our lane. 
The closed ashphalt plant.
I love this beautiful old broken down service station that was a restaurant about 70 years ago. I really want to buy this place. Really. Really. It is called Three Mile Corner being three miles out of town. I know I need to save for a truck first. Though I have a feeling this plot might be cheaper.
Local farms all tucked in on a sluchy snowy salty day. The roads are salted frequently so that they do not ice up.
Not much traffic.
And into town.
Later, back at the farmy, just about chores time, of course, the wind wooshed around to the North, the temperature plummeted as the wind picked up and the snow became Driven. Driven snow in the eyes hurts. The temperature continued to drop so fast my ears were popping.
The barn suddenly became noisier, manic. Early to bed tonight, I said to the pigs. No walkies. Poppy and Sheila were fighting, after being inside all day, scrapping like naughty children. At one point I got so sick of Poppy screeching that I used my teachers stern voice, raised it above the clamour and told her – “Stop that Immediately, Poppy, I cannot hear myself THINK. Share your hay!.” Mid battle both pigs went silent and slowly turned their great piggie heads towards me in surprise. Blinking. I heard the kunes wheel and scuttle quickly, on short legs, bottoms wagging, towards their own pen.
Hmm, I thought.
Thank you, I said.
I turned back to making their dinners. Chopped vegetables, fruit, eggs, yoghurt, warm soaked alfafa cubes. Godot flew down from his three story perch, landing behind me. Silent. A good boy.
Dinner? He breathed.
Of course, Godot, I said, I have been waiting for you.
Sheila snorted in a most unladylike fashion.
Good morning. Today I am going to order the next aquisition in my chicken enterprise- an incubator for hens and peacocks eggs. (I will grow all the chickens for my own freezers and hatch the next laying flock from the farm this year) You will remember that we have these two big beautiful new roosters. I have never had an incubator before so if you know anything about them I would be grateful for the information. I will be getting one that I manually turn, the mechanised ones are astronomically expensive.
When the sun rises it will be interesting to see what this wind did to all that snow.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
88 responses to “Sourdough and Snow”
All I know about eggs is how to cook and eat them, so I am no help on that score. That’s a city girl for you! I learned three things from this post today, Celi: a new interesting blog to follow, how to make sourdough bread and shower caps to cover bowls in waiting on the kitchen counter! Stay warm and upright.
Your Sour Dough bread making looks wonderful. Have you tried making this with a bread machine? I would imagine the timing would be off though and the dough too wet. However, I am interested in the starter. Do you share it? Would you like to do a swap for a Kombucha Tea Scoby or some Immune Tea (I make it from my own herbs grown in my organic garden)?
Diann Dirks thegardenladyofga.wordpress.com
I don’t have a bread making machine but I have heard that you can make sourdough in one.. ! I will look into how to share the starter.. I have only just started it up so far.. c
Thank you for the snow filled journey this morning. We have had no snow worth discussing this winter, with nothing expected into spring as we are just “too warm” here along the Pacific coast this year. Your stern voice towards Poppy reminds me of the stern voice I have felt compelled to use with the granddaughter in the last few weeks. That year between 2 and 3 can be so frustrating, for the young and for the old.
I enjoyed this field trip into town, to see more of your local world.
The snow is beautiful, but being a Texan, I would be over it very quickly! Poppy and Sheila were probably so shocked you raised your voice! My dogs straighten up immediately when my ‘stern’ voice happens. Hubby has no ‘stern’ voice and is amazed how the dogs obey me when I go into my stern mode.
I once had a sourdough starter. Oddly, it didn’t add much taste to anything I made. When my and my hubby’s waistline began to grow, I ditched the sourdough starter. Baked goods are just too irresistible for us.
I have a similar problem if there is fresh bread in the house i HAVE to eat it .. ALL.. with Butter, lots of butter, which is fine when you are fifteen, not so good at fifty.
We paid about $45USD for our automatic egg turner. I think they’re worth every penny, but I would never remember to turn the eggs three times a day for 21 day. Incubating is easy, but as the chicks do not get exposed to their mother’s bacteria upon hatching,
wow, that was cheap.. what kind was that?
This one. It was a little cheaper at our local feed store.
Sorry…I always give them probiotics for the first few days. It makes a big difference in their chance of survival.
how do you give them the probiotics?
I use this. You just put it in their water. Very simple. 🙂
thank you.. will order some..
Best of luck! Can’t wait to hear about your experience! 🙂
“…solid Thwumps which set Ton to barking thinking we were being gently bombed by an apologetic army on the roof.”
Celi, your pictures were amazing, but it was your words that held me today. You paint with words like the old masters did with brushes and oils. It is a gift.
I’m reading your post, as I do most mornings, sipping a hot cup of tea and munching a slice of sourdough toast. This one is a spelt, pumpkin seed sourdough and was astronomically expensive at $7 for the loaf (whole foods). You are extraordinarily lucky to have been given a sourdough starter. I was just thinking…actually for about a month now…of making my own bread again, so am about to have another go at growing a Priscilla. (I get a 8 out of 10 failure rate with sourdough starters 😦 but nevermind that)
I absolutely loved seeing your sepia world! That shock of that stop sign, just heavenly. For a visual person like me, a treat to the max. Thank you so much and now I have to go back and look at them all again. Big hugs and good luck with the chicks and the incubator. X
Priscilla is voracious.. now i am going to ask Celia about looking after it Between batches.. I think this is where I go wrong.
add 1/4 cup of flour and water and straight back into the fridge evidently.. c
Ah, then there’s that…lol. Full time organic dough child. 😀
I love seeing those snow photos of places near the farm–gorgeous. And making sourdough bread (and mastering it) is on my list of to-dos for this year, so I’m interested to hear how yours turned out.
I had to read your description of the pigs squabbling and their shocked reaction to my husband. He enjoyed it too. (we’re retired teachers.) One of the many mistakes I made as a 21-year-old, teaching in an inner-city high school, was trying to control some 60 students in “Study Hall” by losing it completely and screaming, SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! They roared right back, YEAH.!
That is so funny! When I was training young teachers (I was the Dean) I would tell them never to use confrontational discipline, but they could lose it about once a term and use terrible language just as a reminder to the kids that they could play hard too.. 60 kids, that is tough.. c
Ah, the memories of Nebraska winters… just looking over your photos gave me that feeling of riding in a toasty, warm pickup truck, watching the blustery, frigid conditions just outside, listening to the “whump whump” of windshield wipers. It was twenty-five years ago on the 16th of this month that I moved south permanently. On days like today (BRR!) I’m not sure I went far enough south!! Keep warm and toasty if you can Celi! 🙂
Your snow was lovely, even the drive not too bad. Then to have it turn into driven snow…sigh! Driven snow is very hard to be in.
Linda ❤⊱彡
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
https://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/sherlock-boomer
It appears my comment disappeared .. sigh. Had to smile at Poppy’s dismay at being shouted at 🙂 I enjoyed the trip into town, but was grateful that somebody was driving. I am almost tempted to start a Priscilla again, tried a couple of years ago and failed dismally. Hope your temperatures rise and the sun comes out again. Laura
I always like it when someone else drives in these conditions, I come from the beach!!..c
I try to always let Terry drive in it also. Not fond of ice!
Linda ❤⊱彡
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
https://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/sherlock-boomer