On Seeing and Being Seen or How Toast Carries Us

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It’s early morning. Light is starting to filter through the shades drawn low to keep the cool night Oregon air inside. You hear the first signs of the household stirring. You’re alone with the ovens firing behind you and dough on the counter ready to go in. This is open before you:   from Citizen, Part V by Claudia Rankine   In line at the drugstore it’s finally your turn, and then it’s not as he walks in front of you and puts his things on the counter. The cashier says, Sir, she was next. When he turns to … Read more

Stone Punk Diary by Rob Salvino

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The second time I met Clif Leir he was covered in dust and taking a break from grinding grooves into a thirty-inch round piece of pink grey granite. The granite was to become the bottom stone of a flour mill he was building for a friend. When assembled and operating, wheat would travel in the grooves—known as furrows—and get sheared into progressively smaller pieces by the top stone that rotated over the bottom stone. Building the mill was precise, hard work—the type of work that I sensed Clif loved to do. The first time I met Clif was at … Read more

Sunlight, Seed, and Soil

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Understanding new visions of FARMING grain There was a time when I didn’t think much about flour. Sure, it was one of those pervasive ingredients that appeared regularly, but beyond lifting it off the grocery store shelves, I didn’t ponder this silky white powder. I just measured it out and that was that. It was a backbone, but mostly I just saw it as a blank slate. It always seemed so inert in and of itself, kind of like a drab little wallflower that had some prospect for pizazz if you knew how to nudge her the right way. … Read more

Los Angeles Bakers & Millers

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Hello, my loves. I’m back at it, firing my ovens after a weekend of excess and inspiration in LA. Besides the fact that I grew up there and kept bumping into loosened strands of the little lost kitten I once was, one who purred into the heart of her own experiences with a fervor that still lives on, I also got to eat (and eat and eat) a lot of tremendous bread. It all started when I stepped off the plane last Thursday and drove straight to the home of my childhood best friend in Culver City. Through a … Read more

Quick Breads and Mama Bread

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I returned from Anchorage and the first thing I did when I walked through the door at home was to go tend my starter. I fed that little levain with fervor, for I’d missed having my hands in dough so badly. Alas, it would still be a few days until I could bake bread since it takes a some time to get the yeasties active again. Hence, I went on a quick-bread and/or snacking loaf kick. It started with this grapefruit snacking cake that I spotted in the April issue of Bon Apetit on the plane ride home. This … Read more

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