Week 1 — Books and Bread

I don’t remember exactly when I decided I wanted to homestead; I just remember it becoming a prevailing center of my attention over the past 10 years or so. I certainly wasn’t raised in the country, nor taught to cook, or sew, or knit. I was raised in a city, though not a big city, by a busy single mother who didn’t have much time in her schedule to can, bake bread or anything else associated with homesteading. I was somewhere between a city mouse and country mouse, identifying with neither, but appreciating aspects of both; one who lived for hikes in the Boulder Flatirons, as long as said hikes were followed by sushi in a Japanese restaurant. I was of both worlds.

One thing I could call myself since a child though, is an animal lover. What does that have to do with my aspiration to homestead? I believe it all began there. What started as a childhood love for animals, volunteering at the local humane society on weekends, grew to a college life of joining animal rights groups (SETA [Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] and Sinapu [a group dedicated to reintroducing wolves to Colorado wild landscape]), and a growing knowledge about and interest in living naturally, more in tune with the cycles of nature, respecting all her creations. That evolved into reading more books about living a life consistent with my beliefs and drew me to the first book that turned the homesteading gear in my head: “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” by Barbara Kingsolver.

I had enjoyed her fiction writing and when “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” came out I snatched up the first copy I could lay my hands on. I had just moved back to Colorado from Virginia and the book not only took me on a beautiful journey back to the South where the book is based, it also championed all the passions I held so deeply and provided thoroughly researched information supporting living such a lifestyle. I devoured it. And after that, I saw myself there. I saw myself on the countryside, but in my case, Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, with chickens, a goat or two, living in a way where I felt more in tune with nature’s rhythm, more responsible for respecting the earth that feeds me.

As a result, I did make tiny steps toward my growing homesteading dream, and those steps served to deepen the desire for more. We have a small flock of chickens, a compost bin and growing garden. I’ve purchased a few homesteading books over the past couple of years, but none that I felt a strong liking for. I think all together they will be good resources, but I felt I needed one homesteading bible of sorts, destined to end up tattered and torn from love and extensive use and referencing.

The book I think will fit the bill is “The Weekend Homesteader; A Twelve Month Guide to Self-Sufficiency” by Anna Hess. I chose this book for several reasons, the least of which is that I have a fondness for the name Anna as that was the name of my favorite Great Grandma — a beautiful Dutch woman who tended to her farm and family in Iowa.

I have it here now, all shiny with crisp pages, anticipating getting it dirty and well-worn over the course of the next 52 weeks. Flipping through its pages I see I’m already ahead! January projects include making bread, which I already do several days a week. New projects for me include things I’ve already wanted to do: soil testing and resourcing (or as she puts it, turning trash into treasure). The soil testing project will show up on this blog later this month.

Here’s the bread recipe I use.

It’s super easy, the kids love it and the way it makes the house smell is amazing. The biggest part of the equation, however, is the vessel. You really have to have the heavy cast iron dutch oven pot with a lid. It’s critical. It may be expensive, but worth every penny and will pay for itself in no time with how much you’ll save bypassing grocery store bread. I estimate this homemade loaf to cost about a $1.50.

3 c flour (I use King Aurthur Bread flour)
1 3/4 teaspoons salt (I use gray sea salt)
1/2 teaspoon yeast (not fast rise)
1 1/2 cups water

I also put in a 1/2 teaspoon sugar with the dry ingredients, which the original recipe doesn’t call for. Mix all the dry ingredients together first (I just use the knife I used to level the cups of flour). At this time you can add 1 cup of cheese, some herbs, some lemon peel, whatever. Rosemary asiago is my oldest son’s favorite.

After the dry ingredients are mixed, mix in the water. It will form a shaggy dough. Took all of five minutes, right? Perfect. Cover that and walk away.

Let it sit overnight for baking in the morning, or mix the dough first thing in the morning to have super fresh bread at dinnertime. It has to rise at least 8 hours.

Eight hours or more later … preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Once it is preheated, insert the empty cast iron pot into the oven and have it heat for 30 minutes. While it is getting hotter than Hades take the risen dough out of your bowl and put it onto a lightly floured surface. Do you you dislike kneading bread? I do. So let’s not do that. Just form it into a ball and walk away again until your pot is wicked hot.

At the end of 30 minutes, take out the hot pot, put the formed bread dough carefully inside, cover and insert back into oven for 30 more minutes. The house will now start smelling amazing. When 30 minutes are up, take the pot out of the oven carefully, take off the lid, and bake the bread another 10–15 minutes. That’s it. Once I’ve removed the finished bread from the pot, I set it on a rack to cool and take a minute to put my ear close to the loaf and listen to the cracking of the bread crust. That smell, those sounds and the beautiful golden brown crust are why I keep making this bread week after week. Oh, and of course how it tastes.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention my favorite homesteading magazine, taproot, which I happened upon serendipitously one day. More about that here. It’s overflowing with inspiration and ideas and very simply, makes me incredibly happy just flipping through its pages.

I have a good idea of what the coming weeks will hold and I’m excited! Topics I’m chomping at the bit to explore (in the tiny bite pieces that a mother of three with a near full-time job can consume) are the essential projects like housing (I’m in sheer love with the tiny house movement), reducing waste and energy use, and the fun (but still essential) things like making beer, tending goats and sheep, and making cheese.

My goal is pretty simple, I think. To learn enough to homestead, wherever and whenever that will be, whether here in the city or in my dream tiny house in the foothills. There’s enough to learn out there to do 52 New for several years.

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If you have any ideas for a weekly topic, just write a note below and I’ll add it to my list.