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Garden Potatoes, Pastured Pork Belly, Chow, and Sourdough Bread

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Garden Potaoes, Pastured Pork, and Sourdough Bread

Notice the date of this Post, 29 Feb 2024, and We’re still eating out of the Garden! Even though the Garden is long gone, Potatoes are one of those things that last for months when properly stored. Chow, made from Green Tomatoes harvested last Summer, keeps well in the Pickle Jars. Our Pastured Pork, and this Pork Belly, is so succulent and tasty, it’s incredible. The Sourdough Bread, made from our own Starter, who we call John Dough, is just the right contrast to the potatoes and the sweetness of the meat and chow.I also want to take a moment to acknowledge our friend, Sandy, for making the Chow! Made from our Fresh Green Garden Tomatoes last Summer, with our help, but so nice of Sandy to help us.  Knowing, that tomorrow is March 1st, and we have leftovers, means we will have eaten during nine months of the Year from last Year’s Garden!

We Made Butter From Whey and Wish We had Way More!

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Goat Milk Butter

Recently we made Cheese from our Goat Milk, and a little Colostrum! Yes, even Colostrum makes great Cheese! When we make Cheese, we start with Milk, or Colostrum, usually Milk, and as we process it the Milk is separated in Curds and Whey! Yes, just like Little Miss Muffet we eat our Curds and Whey! 

Normally when you Make Butter, you use Cream and that is usually made from Cow’s Milk, because it is easier to separate the Cream from The Milk. When You milk a Cow the Cream rises to the top of the milk and you simply skim it off and use it. Goat Milk is naturally Homogenized, meaning the Milk and Cream are naturally combined. To separate Cream from Goat Milk you need to let it sit, and after a few days the cream will slowly rise to the top.

Till recently, when we had a happy accident, or happy discovery, depending on which way you look at it. See, after separating the Curds and Whey, after having used the Curds for making Cheese, we sat the Whey aside to use it as a base for a Chowder. For a few days, and maybe a little longer, we let the whey is in our cold-room. When we were ready to use it, we noticed something, sort of like a white, floating, disc was sitting on top of our Whey! Much to our surprise we had discovered that You can Make Butter from Whey!

Making Sourdough Pancakes

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Sourdough Pancakes Batter

As someone recently pointed out, We’re really rather Cultured here at Briden Farm! What with our rekindled passion for making Sourdough Starter, and using the Discard for everything from Crumpets to Sourdough Pancakes, as well as our recent stint of Cheese Making, I guess I have to agree! In fact, as I’m writing this I’m also sipping a Tea and eating a nice piece of Toast with some really nice Briden Farm made Goat Milk Butter!

So, I thought You might like to see these beautiful Sourdough Pancakes!

Sourdough Pancakes

Made from our Sourdough Starter who We’ve dubbed, John Dough! Of Course!

We always tweak our recipes using Watkins Flavours and Extracts, like the Maple for making a Syrup!

We borrowed, and adapted, the Recipe from King Arthur and wish They Shipped to Canada!


 

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Sourdough Starter, Recipes, and Histories

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Sourdough Starter

In recent memory, and yet, hardly believable for some, is the recent history with Sourdough, and Sourdough Bread making when in 2020 many of us were seeing empty store shelves for the first time in our lifetimes!

We might say Sour Times, lend themselves well to Sourdough! So, let’s get a Starter!

Ok, Ok, I know! Don’t worry though the real proof is in the Rising Dough!

Now, before I loose You, let’s take a quick look at the History of Sourdough.

It is said that, Sourdough bread has a rich history dating back to ancient Egypt, around 1500 BC. Funny, because most of my people were eating Manna. Of course, after 40 years on the Wilderness eating flatbread it’s no wonder someone, somewhere, came up with a fermentation process, driven by naturally occurring wild yeast and lactobacilli, to make leavened the bread! Right?

In more recent times, Sourdough gained popularity in Europe during the Middle Ages. I said more recent, not modern! However, more recently when in 2020 we were faced with empty store shelves, people weren’t just hoarding toilet Paper, they were also learning to make Sourdough Starter, Sour Dough today, its distinctive tangy flavor and traditional preparation methods continue to captivate bakers and food enthusiasts worldwide.

Meanwhile at home, here in Canada, we’d be a miss if we didn’t mention the History of Sourdough in Canada and how Sourdough played a vital role in Canadian history, especially during the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 19th century! Prospectors carried sourdough starter cultures on their journeys, relying on it to bake bread in the harsh conditions of the Yukon. This iconic connection between sourdough and Canadian frontier life persists in cultural narratives and culinary traditions. Which sort of brings us full circle to Life at Briden Farm!

Take for example how, just today, We’ve rendered lard from our Woodland Pastured Pigs, made homemade bread, manually carried water buckets and feed to our animals through the snow. Some of which we pulled along on the toboggan, and kept warm by our kitchen wood stove while preparing supper of  rabbit and fried potatoes. Potatoes from last years garden of course. I also started feeding my Sourdough Starter, that I started just a couple days ago! Not wanting to waste the Discard from the Sourdough Starter, I found a
Recipe for Sourdough Crumpets! Imagine!

Sourdough Crumpet Dough

Like the Watkins 1944 Calendar that hangs on the Wall beside my Recliner, we often do things the old way, the simple, basic, things are often the best! Take this basic Beginner Sourdough Starter Recipe for example.

See, I hate to waste anything, and to me the worst part of making Sourdough Bread isn’t necessarily the seven days it takes to feed a good Sourdough Starter, to me it’s that when you feed the Starter You have to throw half of it away! Not once, but everyday! At least for the first week! So, I went in search of what I could do with the “Discard”. Here’s what I found!

Sourdough Discard Recipes from the King Arthur Baking Company (Wish They Shipped to Canada). Wouldn’t i just be coo to say You got that from King Arthur! In fact, if You’re in the United States you can just order your Sourdough Starter from King Arthur! I think it might have been Guinevere’s Recipe! Maybe not!?

Anyway, back here in Canada, where we can’t order from King Arthur, and where we like to do things for ourselves, We like this Beginner Sourdough Starter Recipe.

 


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