(no subject)

[aslant]

i just finished reading the omnivore's dilemma (which is so, so good) and it changed my thinking on a few things, mainly how i want to spend my grocery money, and why and where. this summer i want to take a road trip to visit some local farms (well, most will be 2 hours away) and buy some grass-raised meat and eggs and dairy and see what all the fuss is about.

but there's something else i want to try sooner, and that is to make some bread using wild yeast as a starter. wild yeast! collected directly from the air! so neat. so i am going to try to start a bowl of it tonight and maybe by next week sometime i will have something alive and bake-able. and yummy.

(not that i think industrial yeast is bad, and i even have a packet in the cupboard right now that i could use, but the idea of getting something for nothing is very seductive.)

Comments

[aboutlooking.livejournal.com]

i want to read this!

he was interviwed on fresh air last week.

i love his writing.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

he's a pretty nifty guy! i am rereading 'a gardener's education' right now. he's speaking in cambridge on 5/17 and i am hoping to get tickets.

[aboutlooking.livejournal.com]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5336252

[paperthinwalls.livejournal.com]

i'm halfway through it already! what did you think?

[aslant.livejournal.com]

love love love love it. am violently insisting everyone i meet read it, too. the end, the foraging section, was not as fulfilling as the polyface chapter (a.k.a., make me want to run away to the country and be a farmer chapter) but still really cool. i am super excited to go hear him speak.

[cherokeelovebat.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a great book! Have you read either of Jeffrey Steingarten's books? (The Man Who Ate Everything or It Must Have Something I Ate) They're pretty entertaining.

I know that I started to buy organic milk and cheese about a year ago and can definitely taste the difference. I've had organic meat on a few occasions and I'd have to say that the difference there is even more remarkable.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

i have not heard of steingarten! i will look him up next time i am at the bookstore.

whenever we get our meat from whole foods it is always a million times tastier -- last night we had fresh chicken sausage with basil in it, which was amazingly fragrant and spring-perfect.

i can never tell with milk, but cheese is my favorite food group! so i think i will enjoy moving gradually over to organic with that as well.

[http://users.livejournal.com/lion_/]

i'm just reading the first chapter and intro given at the link that you put up-- it seems really great, and totally speaks to the attitude i've had lately towards things. what to eat? why is it so laborious? what's good and what's bad when there are mixed messages coming from all sides? i will def. have to buy the whole book.

wild yeast from the air! that's kind of scary but im sure the end product is delicious!

[aslant.livejournal.com]

my wild yeast experiment was an absolute failure, but i still want to make a 'proof' using regular yeast to make sourdough -- the proof is what gives the sourdough its flavor, apparently.

but yes, it's just a fabulous book. he also references lots of excellent other books, for further reading. enjoy!