CSB

Hello good people, Well, Passover is officially over, and I’m currently picking myself up off the floor after a rager of bagels and cookies. What a celebration of the end of a celebration! In all seriousness, I actually loved abstaining from leavened bread and goods this past week. I used it as a time to get to know my grain stores a little better by transforming them into homemade matzah. Each one was more flavorful and surprising than the last. Without the complex flavors of the fermentation to push through, the aromas and nuances of each type of wheat … Read more

Hello good people, Happy Spring! I hope you’re able to get outside and enjoy these first lengthening days of the season. I’m taking some time this week to plant seeds of emmer wheat. I’m pretty excited to get low and dirty and just be with the grain and watch it grow. I’ll keep you posted, of course. I just finished reading Restoring Heritage Grain by Eli Rososa, and wow did it get me excited to double-down on using heritage varieties of wheat! Also, she’s an Einkorn aficionado and after reading her work, which included a lot of einkorn recipes, … Read more

Hello bread and grain lovers, Wow! I’m still in the inspired afterglow of my short trip to Los Angeles to attend the Breadwinners symposium. The whole evening was about women in the bread and grain world, and many of my heroines (heras?) who have been nearly overlooked were honored by some of my favorite women doing work in the field (literally!) In a particularly electrifying speech, farmer Mai Nguyen encouraged us all to take our phones out on the spot to write a thank you to Monica Spiller, a scientist who preserved heritage seeds from the germ plasm and … Read more

Hello bread and grain lovers, I had the chance to make bread for a great cause this past week. A friend reached out to me and asked if I’d like to contribute to the Portland Alliance for Self-Care and after checking them out, my answer was a resounding YES!!! I love their mission of connecting vulnerable communities to access for self-care. The event itself was like the church basement dinner of my dreams. For one, it was at the Unity Church of Portland, whose mission is inclusivity. And yes, it was, literally, in their basement. For the price of … Read more

Hello bread and grain lovers, Wow—what a robust few weeks it has been! In my travels, I was able to meet up with some of my longtime friends from the grain world, some of whom I’d never met in person. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the opening of Jonathan Bethany’s bakery in Washington DC, Seylou, and I made a special stop between Florida and NYC just to visit. Omg, I’m so glad I did! I was inspired at every turn. Not only is he pushing his excellence in whole grain baking, but he’s also holding his pastry chef to the … Read more