Wednesday Link Waterfall

marmaladeOur move is mostly done, though the 80-20 rule suggests we still have 80% of the work to go. But, most of the boxes are empty and have been resold on Craigslist, we keep donating things to the Women In Need Thrift Shop, and we can see ever larger patches of floor.

Sadly, a casualty of the move was our Blood Orange crop. The tree is a small standard, about four feet high, and at some point it blew over and dropped its load of four small and unripe oranges. I gathered them up and brought them inside, where the skin slowly turned more orange. Both B and I accidentally started peeling one thinking it was a Mandarin orange, so that tells you how small they were.

But Blood Oranges are Blood Oranges, and there is probably nothing better to do with a tiny, bitter and sour orange than make marmalade. I followed the super easy recipe for Blood Orange Marmalade from Food in Jars, and didn’t bother sealing the jar—it just went straight into the fridge. Yesterday I also baked a loaf of bread—I continue to push My Best Loaf, this time by prefermenting a poolish. I was inspired by this link and conversation on Root Simple showing Craig Ponsford’s whole wheat ciabatta that develops enviable holey-ness.Ponsford actually uses a biga, which has the consistency of Play-doh. I am using a poolish which is more like pancake batter. I have no idea what effect that has on the bread. I sure wish there was a Bread Oracle I could get truth from, but, the internet offers ten different opinions per bread forum. The poolish definitely gives the bread more sourdough flavour and lots of rising power. Ponsford also uses lots of flour as the dough goes into the oven, which keeps the crust from burning during the long, hot bake and looks very sexy. I am still experimenting with hydration, so I am not ready to update my bread recipe yet.

So this morning I had a slice of fresh whole wheat sourdough bread with homemade butter and Blood Orange marmalade made with oranges we grew ourselves. As breakfasts go, I enjoyed it a great deal.

 

New on deck this week; Being a treatise on Significant Innovations in Egg Pickling, in which I drop two major bombs on the debate about how to hard-boil eggs. Answer: Don’t.

As always links abound:

Ecovative builds a proof-of-concept (tiny) house with mycelium grown inside the wall; structure and insulation in one.

Siberian percussionsists play Baikal ice.

The threat of Buddhist extremism is spreading.

Beyond organic—raising Instinctual Pigs.

Remember How We Forgot? Shane Koyczan spoken word with violin accompaniment.

Want to hook your solar panels to the grid? Read this first.

And James Howard Kunstler speaks truth to…well, probably to the choir.

My basic wish is that we would quit all our wishing in America and get on with the job of transforming our economic arrangements to a scale and mode that are consistent with the resource and capital realities of these times .

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