Oh please God, give me a laying hen.
There’s a house, a few streets over, equipped with a rooster. I’m not sure if there are hens also, but I hear that proud and cocky little rooster singing his song from time to time and it’s enough to drive me berserkers. I’ve been begging RW to build me a little chicken coop so I can keep two laying hens alongside the studio, in the raspberry patch. He has yet to acquiesce to my (annoying) demands.
Can someone write him a letter and explain, in full, what fresh eggs would mean to me and how I could dress up even niftier, from day to day, as a wee and bedraggled country orphan who has nothing to her name but a mangy set of barnyard foul. Just imagine! I could walk those ladies down the country lanes on a set of patent red leather leashes…I could put one in my basket on my bike and tour around town! If I only had a few skinny chickens to tend, my world would be a better place. I’m sure of it.
On other farmy topics, I made bread yesterday. It rose robustly whilst RW and I clipped perennials in the garden and trimmed the lilacs.
THE LILACS ARE BEGINNING TO BUD! THE IRIS PATCHES ARE SENDING UP STEADY GREEN SPEARS! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?
On a related topic, there’s a wonderful lady
I do not know who lives down the street
and is the keeper and arranger of the
Gypsy Garden. I think she is actually
a titled landscape artist. Her gardens are amazing.
She inspired my lilac trimming this spring for
hers are trimmed like topiaries and rather resemble
Truffula Trees when they are
in bloom — tall, willowy stalks with a puff of
purple blossoms on top. I love the way they look
and mine will follow suit this year though I think
the look may be achieved after a few years of
dedicated trimming…I’m patient. Kind of.
GIVE ME TRUFFULA NOW.
Alright. Back to the bread.
I always think about how I want all of YOU to bake your own bread, while I’m kneading a lump of dough on the counter top here at The Gables. I think about sharing my recipe with you but I don’t really follow a recipe. I’m not even sure how much flour I use — I mix my dough by touch.
This is all to say, you should bake your own bread.
That sounds bossy, but if I explain to you why I bake MY own bread, perhaps it will inspire you to do so as well!
1. I bake bread because I like the feel of dough. When I flip a lump of the stuff out of my mixing bowl and onto the counter and begin to knead, it feels incredible under my hands. It’s warm and extremely flexible beneath my fingertips. The surface is elastic feeling. Dough is puffy. Dough is soft but firm. Simultaneously. I like the way it flows, somewhat. If the consistency is perfect, I can mold it into a roundish lump but if I leave it for a few seconds, it gently puddles. It’s fleshy. This is all to say that working dough with my bare hands is a very sensory experience.
2. My mother baked bread when I was growing up. She’d whip up HUGE batches of bread and buns. Somedays I’d walk home from school for lunch and find fresh bread and fantastic homemade soup for lunch (My mother is the queen of soup from scratch. I don’t care what you say. Yours is NOT as good.) We’d eat some of that bread hot and fresh and she would freeze the rest in one of our huge freezers. Her mother before her knew how to bake bread. And her mother’s mother baked bread. I feel connected to those women, my matriarchal lineage, when I bake bread. I’m not feeding farm hands. I’m not taking meals out to the men in the fields or feeing a handful of kids around a small kitchen table but I feel like I’m keeping my heritage alive. The only thing that could make me feel more connected to the women who came before me is if the flour I use for baking originated in the wheat fields of the Thoen homestead in Saskatchewan. It’s probably best that my flour doesn’t come from The Farm, I’d be crying into my mixing bowl from the sentimental nature of the situation. All the time.
Bottom line: I think baking bread, from scratch, is a rite of passage for a gal. It’s ok if you don’t, but life is more full if you do!
3. I like to take the time.
Mixing dough takes me mere minutes.
But waiting on two rises takes a couple of hours.
I like having to commit two and a half hours of my life
to warming up my home with an oven,
using my hands and my heart,
physically mixing dough on a counter top,
setting a bowl in the sunlight on the kitchen table
and wandering off to garden or read a book while I
wait,
punch it down,
roll it out,
fold it down,
wait for a second rise,
and bake.
I like to take the time.
I like to slow things down.
4. Have you tasted hot bread, fresh out of the oven?
Have you been in a house when bread is baking?
The scent that fills the air is utterly mouth watering.
Hot fresh bread is like mana from heaven, but made with mortal human hands.
Bless it.
And bless the work of a bread maker’s hands.
Now go find yourself a recipe.
Do not fear the yeast.
Knead.
Feel the dough.
Set a timer.
Oven at 420F. Twenty two minutes.
Smell that baking bread!
And eat it with butter and plum jam (if you have some).
Happy Monday to you all!
Didn’t it take FOREVER for the sun to rise this morning?
xxxxxxxx
Jillian Susan
PS I finished this on Friday:
The Heart of Gold Belt Buckle.
For a beautiful woman on the hunt for a heart of gold…
…in the Etsy Shop tomorrow!
PPS It would be so wonderful if I woke up tomorrow with a chicken under my pillow…
hmm.. I think you're right about the rite of passage. you see, the boy in the household does all of the baking! and beer-making! [yeast-master, is he…]
You have inspired me again, lovely jillian. and I LOVE LOVE the newest buckle! Happy Monday!
There is a large bakery in the middle of my neighborhood, and in the mornings and evenings when there are fewer cars and more wind from the harbor, you can smell the fresh baking bread for a mile… it is high up on my list of reasons for why I live where I do!!
Methinks I can smell that bread from here . . . salivating. I shouldn't read your blog at lunchtime.
Amazing lady, you.
How about fertile eggs under your pillow? Could be a bit dodgy, I know.
Wonderful essay! I can feel the dough and smell the bread baking. Fresh GOOD bread from street bakeries is one nice thing about living in Europe.
🙂 (Wish I could get "P" to face the other way to convey licked lips!)
One of my goals is to get over my fear bread and master it. Past attempts have fallen flat, quite literally. I'm inspired to give it another go.
I love you
I will write to your RW and explain that fresh eggs are super important. I totally see why you need chickens. I sort of recall Miss Michaela showing her gorgeous chicks a while back but I may be wrong.
Don't remind me of bread making,,, I so would have loved to be a bread maker but my impatience gets the best of me. I did make a few loaves of brick a while back.
Just this weekend though, perhaps your bread making vibes reached me, I bought (not made) fresh fresh irish soda bread. Yumm yummm. I am making myself very hungry.
This part is for RW- Please man..be a good husband and buy Jillian a couple of chicks who promise to lay colorful eggs. What harm is there in this? I say none.
My job is done Jillian…the rest is up to you!
XOXO this Monday morning!
I have two recipes for no-fail, no knead bread if anyone is interested.
One makes a crusty loaf and the other is for buttery buns.
Oh, and RW should absolutely let you have two hens. Have you tried asking with a pouty lip and batting your eyelashes?
Works for the girls on their Papa.
Michele,
Please share…I am willing to try again! : )
Thanks!
Sigh. I long for country life & chickens. We can't have them where we live, sadly 🙁 I think the neighbours would kick up some dirt if we tried.
hmmmmm you know, my grandmother on my dad's side made the greatest dinner rolls, they were so soft and fluffy. Yet my aunt, or my cousin could never make them ( always turned out like pellets)
She always told me that I was the only one she could see making them, because I have the patience, and understood the art of it.
I never did give it a try while she was around, perhaps today is the day 🙂
I am off to try and find a bread recipe that doesn't look too scary – do I need special flour just for bread?
*gulp*
Jaime
This is RW. A package just arrived for Jillian and the label read – Jillian Lukiwski The Noisy. —– how appropriate, that chickadee is peeping non stop about her desire for wee chicks.
You make everyone so proud RW! : )
oh my gosh, do you remember that dream I had about you and me and the chickens that the crazy woman gave you? The bloodthirsty, killer hens that escaped up onto the west bench and were a dire threat to the population of Pocatello and we had to rock climb through wet sand to find them?
Don't get those ones, ok?
and p.s. my favorite chicken, of all the chickens I've owned was named Dixie Chick.
maybe I had too much vitamin b that day too.
in other words, HERE HERE! BAKE YOUR OWN! NOTHING IS BETTER THAN BREAD MADE WITH YOUR OWN TWO HANDS!
and JEN, MLJ and other professed brick-makers: at the risk of overstepping my boundaries, go see this recipe –
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Simple-Whole-Wheat-Bread/Detail.aspx
it's what I base my bread off of and promise, I've not had a loaf come out yet that I didn't want to smother in jam and eat one slice after another!
RW. This is just for you:
SQUAWKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!
…hey. Wait. A package did arrive and it IS addressed to The Noisy.
Hmmmmmm…..
There wasn't a chicken inside.
Oh Thank you Miss UmberDove – that recipe has tons of fab reviews – I do believe I am going to try it ( wish me luck!)
Jillian, thanks for your challenge, I can't wait for the house to smell like baking bread!
I really Knead to commit!
The way you desire a little coop, is par to how I feel about those belt buckles… They're too flippin' stunning I can't get over it!
A gal can Dream!
OH my goodness…. I have, at this very moment, fresh baked rolls a'cookin' in my stove and an egg – from chickens I know and love – frying in my cast iron pan (for a fried egg sandwich when the rolls are done, YUM).
Think of the chickens, RW! I reckon they'd be much happier going through life with your dear wife than….the *other* reality laying chickens are doomed to…..
Plus, chickens eat mosquitos!
xo S.
Oh Truffula <3. I love the smell of bread baking, I love eating it still warm, fresh from the oven. I love that you are a fan of chickens, and I wish, hope and cross my fingers that RW will see the sense in freshly laid eggs! 🙂
I finally figured out how to successfully bake bread – we'll never go back.
p.s. We have friends who supply us with eggs from their chickens-LOVE. There really truly is a difference in the taste, plus I love knowing the names of the chickens supplying us with our breakfast so I can name our meals after them, like Frida Quiche and Penelope pancakes.
RW, for goodness' sake, get the hens.
Three or four. (We have 45 or so now, but that's another story.)
Get hens in pretty colors. Mild-mannered females to roam around the yard and pick up bugs (they do an awesome job on ticks–Farley and Penelope will thank you).
Get an Aracauna or two so you can have blue or green eggs just for fun–plus they have amazing cheek feathers–and they're tough!! Nothing much seems to bother them.
Hens are QUIET. They produce a bit of lovely compost. They'll provide outstanding eggs for your table. AND they'll be grand company for Jill while you're gone.
And do NOT worry about your dogs–they can be trained. I know. We've educated five different Labrador retrievers, some as pups and a couple as adults, to respect the hens. Your dogs will listen.
(How'm I doin', Ms. Plume???? Any sign of cracks in his armor???)
Let me know if chickens are in the future!!!!!
Caroline,
You are OFFICIALLY the straw that broke the fellow's back. I'm going chicken shopping tomorrow!!!!!
WHEEEE!!!!!!
A few things Jillian has failed to mention. Number 1 – the Zebra Finch incident!!! Number 2- the Bunny I bought her named Asperagus. Number 3 – Her parakeet named Beeker. ———– Please note the past tense in reference to all of these pets. ————— Well I suppose I best begin planning the portable coop I am about to construct!!!
RW
OHHHHH I'm going to get you!
The cat gave the finch a heart attack.
Asparagus is a sad story that I shall not divulge.
I never had a budgie named Beeker.
And RW is a cruel though dreadfully handsome man.
HUMBUG.
I am thinking one Yellow Orpington and one Americanas hen that lays blue eggs! RW
Ok.
Just get me my chickens and I'll forgive you for that last comment.
*sniff*
….please.
….i love you.
This is the funniest set of blog comments I ever read:) You two!
In other news, I do wish you the best with your chickens, Jillian–may the dogs keep the raccoons far away.
And in again other news, I like the new header picture. You are meant to ranch, Jillian: the pictures from your last post were full of love, and now a post on chickens, bread, and gardening. You two should be farmers. For sure. I know you know that, I'm just reiterating for the emphasis of it all.
baking bread is the best! and that belt buckle isn't so bad either 😉
Woo-hoooo!! Good for YOU two!!
Buff Orpingtons are a GREAT choice–very mellow, sweet hens, lovely eggs. Aracauna for green/blue eggs–a MUST. And here's a surprise we discovered this winter–the plain old white leghorns that lay plain old white eggs are OUTSTANDING–we're getting HUGE eggs AND their big old red combs didn't show the least sign of frostbite through the winter in the barn–they're amazingly tough little girls.
Other favorites (because they're so sweet and good layers) — black Orpington, black giant and barred rock.
I vote for three hens. 🙂
and please post photos of that portable coop you design???? Doug has thought about making one… I hear good things about them.
Jillian, hope you're celebrating!!!! Doing the chicken dance?????
(Glad I could help…maybe I'd better send more pasta for RW????)
You're making me jealous for some land we could have our own chickens on with all this talk of chickens! Seriously, what could be better?
On the bread side of things, I have to sympathize with all of you who refer to your bread making attempts with the brick adjective. I've spent many nights swearing in the kitchen at my bricks, swearing I'd never attempt bread again, as my man laughed at me (who gets a beautifully risen loaf of bread every time!) All that work for a brick. For you makers of bricks, here's two tips that finally made my bread light:
1) The windowpane test. To rise well, bread has to be well-kneaded, until it will pass the windowpane test. When you think you're done kneading, take a golf ball size piece of the dough and stretch it out into a square until you can see light through it. If it will stretch to that point without tearing and getting a hole in it first, then it passes the windowpane test and you can stop kneading.
2) Don't let it overrise. That gives me bricks every time. Doubled in size-but not more. I have to set the timer to keep checking it, one and a half hours usually. The second rise takes half the time of the first.
See if these tips help the brick side of things.
And you are right, Jillian, what is better than the taste and smell of fresh, warm bread just out of the oven?
GUFFAW!
Katie! I wonder what I'm doing RIGHT when I bake bread. I always let my dough over rise — I think it makes it fluffier when it comes time to bake it. Hmmmmmm………what elevation are you at???
Coop Update-
I have been working on the portable coop all day and I must say I am very excited. Currently I am working on a crank door that Jillian can use to close the house off from the run area without ever entering the pen. It looks like the unit will be able to house three hens comfortably. —- I may have to put one end on wheels so Jillian can move it easier by herself. The house itself will be shingled with redwood shake —- I did not want to buy an entire roll of tar paper for 8 square feet so if anyone has any ideas of what I can use instead to seal the plywood underneath the shingles let me know. I just love the look of buff orpingtions — but black are great too.
RW
I made bread for the first time a few weeks ago. It tasted good but it turned out weird looking. See?
http://witandwhistle.com/?p=1779
Maybe you should make a bread making video! Yes, definitely. Once you finish making your chickens a home. ; )
There is "Saskatchewan Farm-girl" ALL OVER this post 🙂
oh this one's for RW……if you are feeling patient, you can polyurethane the who-ha out of the plywood, and then cedar shake it…did my bunny hutch that way!:)
I've been having the same squabble with my hubby about the chickens – I've planned a perfect spot, researched coops, have books on raising your own backyard chickens – cutely telling him fun facts and why they're useful as I peer over my book with Doe eyes…but NOPE. He still doesn't want them.
Please tell me if you find success what you did to acquire your feathered friends.
P.S. I really just want to walk about the yard in boots, a skirt, and apron and spread feed around while the cluck and flap around me.
And I want to name one Henrietta.
Henrietta?
Oh!
My name choices are Dolly and Loretta……..
……I'm with you on the apron and the clucking.
Back to bread.
See, I'm learning new stuff all the time. Does elevation effect the time it takes to rise? We're a mile high. I guess by overrise I mean that my bread kept hitting the point that it was fully risen and then started sinking back down again. Not so light and fluffy any more. Because, you know, three little ones and all the chaos that that causes, I think it got neglected. I guess I decided to error on the side of under yet almost risen, that was still pretty light and fluffy.
Just wondering…
Is the amount of rise different when it's with sourdough versus store-bought yeast?
For RW:
If the ground on which said coop is a-movin is rough, you might consider just cutting some PCV pipe in half and making bottom runners. I once made a portable little chicken run with a henhouse at one end and a wire-enclosed dome out the front porch using such runners. Worked out quite well and it turned out to be an excellent soil-turning mechanism to boot (and by "it" i mean "the chickens who lived inside and did all the mulching work").
you must, must, must get hens and ducks… 🙂 Our life has become so much richer since we got all our girls.
You bake bread like a true pioneer.
{without the kitchen aid;}
Thanks for all of these incredible and hilarious comments. AND for the serious chicken comments as well.
Officially, RW is building me a first class coop for the back yard. It's looking incredible! I haven't got my little chickies yet but believe me, when I do, there's a gonna be a poultry post.
You're all amazing!
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