Essay sent...23º...skiff of snow

Essay finished for another month and on its way to Katey for critique. Whew...Rusty is back in Bend, slick roads from Joseph to Baker City, then better for the last half of his trip...Herb has gone for a dental appointment in Enterprise this morning...His cold is slowly getting better.

Single loaf crusty and warm

On with my day, but first, yesterday...Last week I saved potato water and decided to make it into a sourdough started...So I added flour, warm water and a few grains of yeast...Soon it was happily bubbling away...I made biscuits on Sunday using some of it, they were okay...But yesterday as I've done many times before (never with very much luck) I decided to make sourdough bread...Again I surfed the internet thinking I will get some sage advise on the art of sourdough...Of course utube pops up with all kinds of videos and I hone in on a lady making sourdough bread...She talks through her nose, I almost switch her off, but don't...She has only 4 ingredients, flour, starter, salt and water...Basic recipe: 2 1/2 cups starter, 3 1/2 cups of bread flour, scant tablespoon salt, 1 1 1/3 cups warm water (more or less)...I immediately think this lady might know something...I've made many, many loaves of bread and know that the amount of flour is never a given...Then she says your sourdough must be very active, you should feed it periodically for 3 days before using it...Just so happened that that is what I had been doing...Every morning as it sat on the counter it had used up all of its food the night before, so each day I added flour and water and now ended up with over 3 cups of starter...I measured 3 cups flour into a bowl, made a well, added 2 1/2 cups starter, salt and started to stir adding the warm water as I mixed...then started kneading and kneading and eventually I added the rest of the flour and a little more...The dough started to feel warm, stretchy and soft in my hands...It kneaded easily with a bare minimum of flour...It was as soft and smooth as a baby's bottom...I rolled it in a little olive oil and put it in a warm place to rise...The end results are in photo's above and below, 3- 1# loaves, extra crusty, wonderful texture...It needs more sourdough flavor, not sure how you get that but I'll keep practicing....Hug to all OWAV:)

Two Freeform loaves