Making Bread

Here are three adventures related to bread.

The rooster at the watermill.

Sue and I took a field trip to the Little Salkeld Watermill in the Eden Valley of Cumbria.

One of two waterwheels.  The mill dates from the 17th century and might be 200 years older than that.  The owners aren't certain.

The water turns all kinds of gears and is used to power all kinds of devices like hoisting heavy bags of grain to the third floor where it can be poured into a hopper for the millstones.

The stoneground flour was soft as baby powder (I purchased wholemeal, rye, spelt, and malted wheat) and the millers were amiable and highly informative.

Freshly milled wheat flour.

The millers that operate a 300-year-old grain mill.

A mile away in the middle of a farm is one of the many henges in the Lake District and one of those British cars that just about makes you hear the background music for a BBC special.

Back home in Lancaster we had sourdough pizza night with a penguin and learned to make pizza Florentine from John and Nicky and the penguin.

Nicki making sourdough bread.  She's a natural!

Sue assembling pizzas; John checking for doneness.

Dexter with his creation.

Pizza Florentine.

I also took a trip to the National Collection for Yeast Cultures where my sourdough starters are now being analyzed for their biodiversity of yeasts and bacteria.

The liquid nitrogen bath holding more than 4,000 species of yeast.

Where my sourdoughs will now be stored.

From the street in Lancaster and the train.