Garden Growing and Grain Grinding

So today I thought I would just do a catch up post, to catch you all up on what has been going on around here.

First of all - we are seeing growth in our garden.

Our onion bulbs are sending up green shoots and we are so excited. We have never grown onions or potatoes - so this is all new to us. I noticed growth with the onions earlier this week:

Then yesterday evening, when I went to put my chickens up - I walked over to our potato garden box and notices several of our potato plants already growing:

 

I have been making my own bread for the last several weeks. And I decided to get more serious about making my bread by also grinding my own flour. I talked to a friend who also grinds her own flour and got some great pointers. I had really wanted to get an electric (stand alone) grain mill - but they are over $200. and we really don't have that kind of money right now so my husband and I decided to get this attachment for my KitchenAid. I did warn my husband that since my KitchenAid is over 15 years old - that by using this attachment - that it might cause my mixer to go out and if so we would have to get a new one. He agreed - so this is what we went with. I am quite pleased with it!!

It is so easy to attach - that even though my husband has been out of town again this week - I was able to get it attached and use it - all by myself!

 

I have made rye bread- LOVE it! And I made a dill/onion bread- it is great too. It is a recipe that came from my ex- step mom. I am working out the details of the recipe - she gave it to me in a 9 loaves recipe- she sold bread to the public. So once I have it broke down and worked out - I will share it here.

 

So I found a great savings this week as well. At a local HEB store - I found this 1 pound container of yeast for only $2.77!!!

 

Now is you buy your yeast like this -you will want to store a majority of it in the refrigerator. Now I have an old spaghetti sauce jar- that I store most of my yeast in. And I have an old smaller jar that I had bought some yeast in years ago- that I store a smaller amount of yeast in. The only problem is that I was storing both of them in the fridge. But you won't want to do that. You will want the small one stored in your cabinet - at room temperature. That way it will be ready for you to use when you are ready to make bread. I plan on making up another batch of rye bread today - just so I can use the yeast - when I KNOW it is at room temperature and I look forward to how it turns out. I will try to share that recipe soon as well.

 

I am very lucky to have found some rye berries at a local store! It costs $0.79 a pound.

Oh and the lady that I was talking to about grinding my grains? Well she goes to a place about an hour away and buys a lot of her grains. So since she was making the trip this week - she asked if I wanted to go in half with her to get some grain. And I did - so she bought some prairie gold wheat berries and some kamut berries. And she bought them in a bucket- so since she already has buckets for storage - I get the buckets! Oh and she bought a big box of bread bags- and going to sell me 50 of them for $2.00! Since my bread is pretty big - I have had to use my produce bags. And I know that is not the best things but that seemed to be my only option. Now I will have special bread bags!!

I look forward to getting my half of the grains and making bread with freshly milled grains.

 

If you do use freshly milled flour- you need to be careful because your bread will begin to mold sooner. When you buy flour is has preservatives in it to keep your baked goods from molding too quickly. Tomorrow I will be going to pick up my grain and when I do - she will be telling me more about the whole process. So I will try to remember so I can share with you all.

 

So my husband will be home this evening. Next week is Spring break for our granddaughter and so my husband has taken that week off. We have some fun things planned! I look forward to our time with SweetPea and the fun things we have planned. A trip to a zoo and we are also going to go see a butterfly exhibit that is only open for a month a year. We are going to learn about butterflies, lady bugs, earthworms and more next week!