Welcome to the Art of Growing Food newsletter. I write about artful growing tips for cooks who love to garden. You are receiving this newsletter because you are a free or paid subscriber. Thank you! - Ellen Ecker Ogden
Hello Everyone.
I was sixteen when my mother decided it was time for me to learn how to cook. She pounded on my bedroom door, barely discernable above the Bob Dylan music playing on the record player. I was already a budding artist and was drawing what came to mind through the music. (Yes, I was that type of teenager.) She told me to be downstairs in five minutes, and that I was going to learn to cook. Oddly, food has always been a draw for me, so I agreed.
Until this point, Mom had allowed me to be in the kitchen only to assist: set the table, slice apples for a crisp, whip cream for a dessert, and heat hors d'oeuvres for a cocktail party. But to follow a whole recipe and turn raw ingredients into a meal was never in my scope. Things were about to change.
I came downstairs in my ripped jeans and a baggy sweater, hair falling into my eyes, feeling a little surly to find the Better Home and Gardens bread book open on the counter. There was a large mixing bowl, a jar of yeast, flour, and molasses. The recipe was open to Anadama bread. I groaned loudly and complained a bit but then got started. Instead of hovering, she sat in the dining room nearby.
After reading through the directions, I twice tested the temperature of the warm water before adding the yeast to the proof. Heated the milk to scalding, and in the large bowl stirred together the cornmeal, butter, and molasses. Blending in just enough flour to make a wad of dough, I kneaded it on the kitchen counter watching the clock as I punched and pulled for exactly 8 minutes. Then kept rolling it around for two more minutes for good measure.
After placing the dough in a bowl, I checked on it an hour later to see it had grown to double in size. My heart swelled. This was far more fun than sitting in my room making art
This began my lifelong love of cooking, but mostly baking. I love the simple alchemy and the ease that a few ingredients can create. I continued to bake bread right through my thirties, yet somewhere along the lines, I stopped. I began to buy it instead. It became a vehicle for butter, jam, peanut butter, and sandwiches for kid’s lunchboxes.
I do not even remember when I began to miss the physical act of kneading a wad of dough and filling the house with a luscious aroma, it simply vanished from my repertoire as a time-saving element.
Last weekend, with the temperatures outside hovering at 5* and a long-distance friend coming to visit, I had a single piece of bread left in the plastic sleeve. It was time to bake again. Even though I have more than enough cookbooks with bread recipes, I did what most Americans do – I googled an oatmeal bread recipe and came up with a King Arthur flour recipe ( link here). Reading it through, I was sure there was a mistake. It called for adding everything all at once into the mixing bowl – no proofing the yeast, no meticulous adding flour to form a dough, no kneading by hand – it was a recipe that seemed to be written for a bread machine, which I was not. I was sure it was wrong. But trusting the experts, somehow it worked.*
Baking bread is one of those traditions that is easy to get into the habit of doing, every day or every week. But is also easy to forget. It is easier than most other baking, and far more practical (and nutritious?) than baking sweet cakes and cookies. But what does it have to do with gardening: Inspiration.
Picture yourself right now in mid-winter, at the kitchen table drawing out a design for your new garden, or turning the pages of seed catalogs while the fragrant herb cheese bread bakes in the oven. The only drawback to baking bread is it requires time at home so the bread can rise twice before baking, and then be near the oven while it is baking. Many recipes offer slow proofing in the ‘fridge, and other variations and luckily bread is fairly forgiving once the yeast is in action.
For the past 20 years as a kitchen gardener, it has been my goal to inspire new gardeners to experience the joy of growing and cooking straight from the garden. Growing food truly matters on many levels – as individuals and citizens of this Earth. Yet my priorities are shifting a bit. While I still encourage growing food - especially fresh herbs - I also hope that everyone learns to bake a loaf of bread, at least once in their life. It may change the way you think about what to buy and what to make because it’s always better homemade.
Bon appetite.
Ellen Ecker Ogden
* post note on the King Arthur recipe - I have now made it twice. Once by traditionally proofing the yeast and the other by following their recipe - which combines everything. I will continue to proof yeast, as the result was superior.
I too was baking my bread every week and somewhere along the way I turned to buying it. I need to get back to baking my own. I’m in the middle of closing and getting ready to move. I’ll get back into it when I get settled.
Reading this was akin to a warm hug. I loved it. This is the home I hope to create. Having never really been from a home of cooks, it now starts with me. Thank you for this it was great ❤️