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”
We got over a foot of snow here in Michigan, I think we have even more where our apartment is located, but we’ve been stranded with my parents for the duration of the storm. Have fun with the sourdough, it’s my favorite to make!
yikes, hope you all have some good books..
Haha, we do!
We have snow coming down and swirling around madly. Blowing snow warning in effect. I came out of a class to find 4 inches of fresh snow on one side of the car only. Drifting and sculpting into fantastic effects… I, too, have a teacher voice that I call up occasionally. The dogs are impressed. 🙂
i have the cheap hova bator styrofoam incubater, always have good luck with them
make sure it is the model with the fan to circulate the air inside, the fan keeps air even temps throughout,and follow directions that come with it.
i have been useing the same egg turner for 30 or so years, they are a good investmewnt, seems to increase the percentage of hatching, because you are not opening it as much to lose heat and humidity
i usually put few drops of food color in the water,that way i can tell the water level without opening
i also buy a digital indoor/outdoor themometer, i put the outdoor part in incubater to tell what temp is without opening.
after hatching, disinfect the inside, put in sun to dry
store till next yr in sealed up garbage bag
it will last for years
thank you ron, some good ideas.. the one I am looking at has a fan, I can buy an egg turner for it later on, one question when the chicks are hatching do I leave them in there until they are all hatched? or take them out one by one and put them into the brooder – it seems to me that opening it and closing it would let humidity and heat out..
i remove the turner day or 2 before expected hatch date.
sometimes if temp is bit high,not all thermometers are accurate.the eggs will hatch a day or 2 early
i then turn them last couple days by hand
but if you forget to remove turner, the chicks can scamper out of way, it moves so slowley
I’m glad you’re back safe and sound Celi. Mind you, you could have left the snow behind. It’s bad in Toronto too, we’ve already shovelled once and I suspect we’ll have to do it again, sooner than later. I love these winter photos, particularly the ones that looks as if they are black and white with one brightly coloured thing, like the stop sign. You have such a good eye. My dear Mother had a voice like that, I swear the world stopped when she said “enough”! I am looking forward to your sour dough bread, I’ve ruined my share of starters so having a real good one is so fortunate. How did you import it?
Celia just dries the starter and pops it in the mail.. it has recovered Well!
[…] from C. Gunther The Kitchens Garden and used with permission. C. retains all image […]
I use a hovabator at home for lizards. I’ve never hatched chickens! I will say it sometimes takes a few days to get the temperatures right, so I always get set up well before I actually need it. But you already knew that!
Yes when my incubator arrives i will trial it for a few days.. also i need to collect all the eggs.. lizards.. hmm.. c
Will you candle your eggs?
yes i look forward to that bit, need to set something up so I am take a shot of the image.. any ideas?
A tripod with a remote should suffice. the right egg light provides plenty of light for a picture. tuck the light just under and behind the egg for best exposure of embryo development. it’s fun! play with it!
Baking sourdough seems like the perfect thing to do amidst all that snow. I’ve been very lucky to benefit from Celia’s wonderful sourdough generosity too & Priscilla’s offspring, Edna, is looking ready to bake with, will write about results soon. Good luck with the snow, sourdough & hatching!
Snow photographs so familiar to ex-prairie people like us. I loved them Celi. We miss the snow.
“…gently bombed by an apologetic army…”.
Which reminds me that I have been wanting to thank you for all your adjectives and adverbs, those little surprise delicacies.
Actually, I thank you for your entire one-of-a-kind daily blog.
and you are most verily welcome! Nuri, thank you for reading.. c
Looks like our town.
The images of your cold cold exterior world are amazing to contemplate, stunning in their clarity, simplicity and detail. I imagine how wonderful it would be to experience that snowy climate but I know the reality be for me a grander version of brain freeze!
I have a Priscilla starter from Celia languishing in its dried form still, waiting for me to give it some attention.
It is a great starter! But now i just want to make bread and then i will want to EAT it and you know what will happen next.. c
Exactly!!!
Feel totally useless and inefficient! Way back Celia actually gave us the address of the NW US firm which supplied her with ‘Priscilla’ . . . well, I promptly ordered, not one but two kinds [!!] – after more than a year they must be at the back of the fridge somewhere 😀 !! Hmm, looks as if I am not a baker 🙂 ! Absolutely love your winter photos: well, can’t feel the cold or the rain here . . . just look at the beauty! And it looks as if you have not ‘lost it’ as a teacher . . . methinks the piggies all will look at Miss C lots more in awe . . .
get them out and start them up!! they might still work! c
Sheesh, Teach! That would be a ‘tall ask’ but I just might be as good as the piggies and listen to you 🙂 !
Funny, I made sourdough bread yesterday too. A friend gave me the recipe for starting the starter a couple of years ago and I’ve been using it since. I make a white wheat multigrain bread, four loaves at a time. They freeze well and while they aren’t the best for sandwhiches it makes wonderful toast – sticks with you for hours. I also make some really tasty sourdough pancakes. My starter is more liquid than most I think, I have to feed it with milk, flour and sugar, it smells really beery. We had the driven snow all day yesterday so it was a good day to bake. Today we had beautiful sun though it was only in the teens F but no wind so I was able to get out and walk with the dogs. They were much like Shiela and Poppy after being cooped up all day yesterday. Two miles in the cold took their edge off quite well!
i forgot
i have set a few eggs every day,when not have enough to fill it up all at 1 time.
or if i have chicken and guinea eggs that hatch at different times.
i use pencil to write hatch date on each egg, do not use ink. eggs written on with ink will not hatch
also chicks need time to dry off on incubater, so i open mine 3 or 4 times a day to put hatchees in brooder
Good, very good, thank you ron..