Farm Life

650g Flour 350ml water 25g fresh yeast (3.5tsp dry yeast) 60g butter or margarine 12g salt Dissolve yeast in water add to the flour add salt and butter knead until soft If dough is sticky - add more flour Shape dough into pretzels (or any other shapes) Make lye solution: (you can use baking soda solution, but it will never be the same) for every liter of water - use 50g food grade lye I used 500ml water and dissolved 2g lye WEAR PROTECTIVE CLOTHES (GLOVES) DO NOT USE ORGANIC MATERIALS NEAR THE LYE (granite countertops should be covered, any wood, bamboo or other organics will degrade. !!!!DO NOT USE NON STICK TEFLON!!!!! Cover with parchment paper. Submerge your shaped pretzels in the lye solution for 15-30 seconds each. Place them in the freezer for 30 min to hold their shape while dipping in lye. The longer the dip, the darker the bake. Bake soon after dipping - this dough does not need to rise! Sprinkle with coarse (Pretzel) Salt Bake at 450F for 15 min

I have built a few different emu feeders, mostly to keep the goats out. Now I'd like to keep the chickens out too, so it was back to the drawing board to make something without having to purchase any materials. You can make this one with a removable/lockable top access (to put food in and keep rain, goats and chickens out) - just place it high enough so the chickens cannot easily fly right into it (the access holes for the emus). Placed on the outside of a fence with an access in the upper back area to load the feed and where emus can get to the holes in the front through a fence would also be ideal.

Many people use banneton baskets to get the pattern of the basket on their breads. After many uses, you may get dough stuck in the grooves, which may or may not come out with the next loaf. . . If you have this problem - especially with sticky dough - try avoiding flour as a dusting agent on your bannetons

When I was young, we only used fresh yeast to bake. Fresh yeast is hard to find in the US. Dry yeast has its pros: It keeps well, it is readily available and easy to use - also many recipes here call for dry yeast. But I want to get to my roots again and NEVER BUY YEAST AGAIN So here we are -making homemade fresh yeast from dry yeast. Which in itself gets you 10x the yeast you started with - then we will extend the yeast and grow it whenever we need to. it can be frozen as well - you can put it in ice cube containers in measured portions. it can easily be converted to be used in any recipes that call for the dry yeast: for any regular light (white flour or sweet yeast doughs) use double the amount of fresh yeast to dry yeast (so 7g of dry yeast would be 14g of fresh yeast). For heavier good, such as mixed (rye and whole wheat breads) use 3x the amount of fresh yeast as required in dry yeast. For very heavy (whole grains/dark) breads you can do 4x the fresh to dry yeast proportions..

You can grow many things from seed. Many people buy "starters", but you are truly wasting your money on most of those. Even potatoes can be grown from shriveled up sprouted old potatoes. But did you know you can plant potatoes "TPS" - true potato seeds? Also instead of buying expensive seeds for growing, it is cheaper to buy those same seeds as a food (if they are for consumption)- look in the spice isle for whole seeds, see the whole peas, beans etc. Your flowers - do you buy the same flowers, year after year? Why not grow them from seed yourself?

About ½ cup of flour (do not use bleached flour) Good natural yoghurt (about 2 heaped tbsp.) - do not use pasteurized About 1/3 cup water (more or less depending on consistency) A few caraway seeds (about ½ tsp) 1 tbsp. Rye flour (optional) The higher protein flour you use, the faster the fermentation will set in. All measurements are approximate, as the bacteria is not demanding and will take over the starter. The better the environment for the bacteria, the better the fermentation and your starter will be. The starter should be a little thicker than a pancake batter. Once combined, let it sit, with a breathable top on the countertop for about a week. You can stir gently every day, but this is really not necessary – just as a reminder that you have something on your countertop. After a week, take the sourdough and start mixing in more flour Any flour – just not bleached, this will kill off your sourdough. Add enough flour to dry out your starter – when you think you’ve added enough – add a little more. Once you are satisfied that your starter is dry, place it incased in flour in a jar, or even inside your bag of flour for safe keeping. To rehydrate the starter: The day before you bake: use about a golf sized parts(s) of your dehydrated starter. Add enough water to get it to a soft dough consistency Leave it covered on your countertop overnight – Your sourdough should be alive and active by the time you are ready to bake. I usually use around 1/5 of the grams in flour (for 500g of flour, I use 100g sourdough). Depending on the strength of your sourdough and the flour you use in your recipes, you can do more or less. A lighter bread (white bread) can use less, a heavier bread (dark rye etc) will use more.