It’s been a while since I’ve written. Life moves fast and sometimes we don’t make blog writing a priority. Between working, gardening, farming, keeping up a home and caring for my husband, I haven’t stopped. There have been funerals, engagements, weddings, birthday celebrations to prepare for, beekeeping classes and more. It doesn’t matter. I’m back.
I reported in my last blog that I would share recipes from my Maine Kneading Conference in Skowhegan Maine. I took classes all week and started with Lower East Side Manhattan’s Jaqueline Eng’s sourdough bread class at Kennebec College. I may have paid extra for this course, since it involved dinner with the bakers/instructors. Jacqueline owns Party Bus Bake Shop in New York City. She was young and fun and gave explicit instructions on how to form your loaf and even talked about the math and particular ratios that you need to make a sourdough loaf. I was out of my league. Tired to take notes. Maybe even took a video of her explaining how to change hydration, etc… I walked away defeated. But I’m a beginner, I have to remind myself. Whenever I’ve baked bread, I’m a rule breaker. I add an egg (from my girlfriends in the coop), dry milk, olive oil, butter, salt, sometimes molasses, or beer. You name it, I’ve added it to my sourdough loaves. That’s what’s so great about baking. When you have been doing it as long as I have, you have the courage to break the rules. Someone like my husband Ken, would be better at sourdough. He would follow directions exactly, and not change a thing. But that’s no fun.
Let’s go back to how the trip to Maine actually started. I asked my husband to confirm how to get the key, since he made the reservation. It was too late to call the night before we left, so in the morning, while I was packing, I called the VRBO. A man answered and informed me, his son lives in the VRBO now because of a divorce. He thought he had taken it off the website.
I quickly ran to the office where my husband works. He was in the middle of a training lesson and couldn’t help me. So, I called my good friend Nancy Solomon, who is a travel agent. She promptly made a few calls and booked another VRBO 30 minutes away from the conference. I was grateful. I could finish packing and get driven to the airport by Ken and pick up my son Curtis. Nancy makes my life easier. Here was my trip with Nancy in Iceland.
Spent the weekend before in Calabasas in Southern California. My Aunt Teri and I had attended her son Michael’s bride Alexandra’s bridal shower. My Aunt Teri and I drove to Southern California on Saturday, attended the beautiful shower on Sunday and drove home on Monday. We were graciously invited to stay with the bride’s mother Saundra. My Aunt Teri and I love to travel together. She is like a mouse. Super quiet. I toss and turn, but she never snores or moves an inch.
Ken drove Curtis and I landed in Boston late July 25th. We stayed at a hotel in Boston, then got a shuttle to the rental car place at the airport the following morning. Curtis scored a 2023 Q50s Infiniti by talking the sales guy into an upgrade. We took off for our destination, only stopping in Freeport Maine for chocolates at A. Wilbur’s of Maine and lunch at Tuscan Bistro. Had to buy the chocolate covered blueberries, liquorice and a few dark chocolates with caramel.
Curtis dropped me off at Kennebec Community College a few hours later and he then checked in to our VRBO in Heartland Maine. The place was located on Moose Lake. It was out in the middle of nowhere. My only two complaints were the wet dog hair smell in the house and how there wasn’t a bathroom upstairs. Each time we needed to use the bathroom, Curtis and I both had to walk down these creaky steps to the other side of the house. Overall, we were grateful to have a place to sleep, since our plans had changed at the last minute.
Don Guerra gave the keynote speech after a hearty breakfast made by Beesham Soogrim from Sweden also known as Beesham the Baker and his staff at the Skowhegan State Fair. Don’s speech about his start in his “garage bakery”was inspiring and started off our week with a positive message and warmth. Don is an internationally known baker, educator and advocate for local food systems. Similar to Berkeley’s own Alice Waters and Chez Panisse (a blog about her restaurant and mission here ), he is passionate about providing heritage grains to the local community and beyond. He has taught at the University of Arizona and affiliated with the seed to table program at Tucson Village Farm. He’s a James Beard Award winner, the founder of Barrio Bread, an artisan bakery in Tuscon Arizona. His newest enterprise will be bringing Sonoran wheat sourdough bagels, baguettes, breads and more to the new Gilbert location in Phoenix at Hayden Flour Mills’ kitchen one day a week. He is happy to be collaborating with Vermont’s Emma Zimmerman the co-founder and who recently received a James Beard nomination this year for her book “The Miller’s Daughter.” She was also involved at Amber Lambke’s co-founder of Maine Grain Alliance’s Kneading Conference and stood out sporting a dress made with an Arizona grain bag. Just stunning and so creative!
We ate well, trying several types of bread for the next three days. Beesham Soogrim shared his Walnut Bread recipe and his Beetroot Bread recipe which I have yet to try. He teaches sourdough master classes online and has a You Tube Channel. Andrew Janjigian (also known as wordloaf on Instagram) prepared his Armenian Tahini Spirals substituting mochi flour (or glutinous rice flour) instead of whole wheat. Andrew sells a popular Bread Baker’s Pocket Companion which provides conversion tables, formulas and bread recipes. I’m most excited to make this tahini spirals, since I’ve never tried baking anything like this before.
Nora Allen from Mel the Bakery in New York taught a rye bread (Smoorebrod) workshop at Maine Grain Alliance’s Kneading Conference. She shared a handout on Rye since she had a class on rye bread. Chef Ashley Patino from Pizza Bones in Richmond, Virginia Gave a pizza making class, and The Maine Meal taught a pasta class and explained how they got involved with a farm to school lunch program in Skowhegan during the pandemic. Of course they use Maine Grains flours and their pastas and soups can be found at the Belfast Farmers Market in Skowhegan.
I barely caught the end of Alex Bois’ flat bread class. Alex is from Lost Bread Company in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. He owns a bakery (Howard Street currently closed, but reopening soon) and mill and sells his breads and pastries at a few New York Farmers Markets and four Farmers Market locations in Philadelphia. Alex makes a smoked potato knish, a hominy biscuit, a buckwheat cherry loaf, a whole grain croissant, a spelt hand pie, pretzle shortbreads and more. My son Curtis and I had a lengthy conversation with Alex while running into him at Bloomfield’s Tavern, the local bar in Skohegan, Maine.
One morning I woke up extra early for a Grain Walk with Richard Roberts a grain expert. He took us to a wheat farm similar to Tara Firma Farms in Petaluma which I haven’t written about yet. They grow the grain for their non-profit Honore’ Farm and Mills. Last May, Ken and I went to a community Hourani wheat, and Jaljuli planting day led by Mary Giles. Mark Squire co-owner of Tara Firma Farm shared his farm story.This day deserves a blog to itself and I promise to share more.
The best day was taking a drive into Skowhegan where I had lunch at The Millers Table Cafe and Bakery. The Maine Grain Mill was closed for tours that day, but the dry goods store was open. I had a ball looking at all of the gifts, books about growing grain and Maine Grain’s offerings. I would love to write more on this beautiful place as well. What was most inspiring was their library of cookbooks which were free to the public to check out. I was mesmerized by all of the famous authors and writers and wished I could have rented out a few.
Thanks for all the support and for taking the time to read my blog. It means the world. I’ve barely scratched the surface of writing about the Kneading Conference. Let’s see if I get my chef drive back into the kitchen to whip up a loaf. You know i will share it on Instagram, so keep a watch out.
Teri
Let's Make Mud Pies 