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Making Bread
After the blowout fracture and surgeries of my right eye orbit on July 4, 1966, (click here for that "memory") and during my stay at the Logan Hospital, I was served some of the most wonderful tasting bread. I was surprised to learn that the hospital food, generally thought to be good for you but not necessarily good tasting, was outstanding at the Logan L. D. S. Hospital. I so enjoyed the bread that I asked where it was purchased. The nurse assured me that she would get the information for me. Later she returned to my room with a card in her hand which contained the recipe - the delicious bread was made by the hospital staff "from scratch."
Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
When the hospitalization ordeal was over, Phyllis and I decided that we wanted to make this bread ourselves. That would be easier than getting it by being hospitalized from time-to-time. Also, living in Utah (where Bread for Man was a frequently heard motto), we decided to purchase a stone wheel flour mill to grind our own wheat - something that was fairly standard practice in Logan, Utah. One of our good friends had suggested that Magic Mill was the best available.
Magic Mill
We also purchased a Bosch mixer to assist with the kneading. 15 minutes by hand was a bit difficult for Phyllis with three little ones to look after - especially given the fact that she was making six loaves of bread every week.
Bosch Mixer
We even got an antique hand-crank bread maker which was similar to one that was used by our friend, Alice Parker who would sit on the floor at her Singing Brook Farm in Massachusetts and crank out magnificent loaves of bread for her family and guests when not creating the most beautiful arrangements and compositions for the Robert Shaw Chorale.
Alice Parker and Phyllis Ramsey
when we were guests at Singing Brook Farm
Antique Bread Mixer
When we moved to California, we planned to continue our bread making passion using our flour mill and mixer. We were concerned that we wouldn't be able to find unprocessed wheat in the San Francisco Bay Area, so we purchased 200 pounds of wheat in Utah and put the new bags of wheat on the moving truck when we moved from Utah to California. We had been advised that in order to keep the wheat free from vermin, we should purchase large metal garbage cans with tight-fitting lids and several blocks of dry ice. As instructed, we placed blocks of dry ice in the bottom of the cans, poured the wheat on top of the dry ice and sealed the cans to prevent any infestation of bugs, insects, etc.
| Several weeks later, we opened the can only to be greeted by a large swarm of weevil erupting from the can and buzzing around my head. |   |
There were two sizes of weevils: tiny weevils and much larger weevils. The tiny ones we called the lesser of two weevils. (GROAN!!!) |
We still enjoy making (and eating) homemade bread of all sorts (minus the weevils).
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Italian FocacciaRead more about Alice Parker here