Thursday, September 20, 2007

Herman and I

For those who have met or heard about Herman my accomplished accomplice, a long awaited update. After travel to the U.S.A. carefully dried and packed in plastic he was rejuvenated with some crystal clear water and fed some freshly ground flour. After a lot of attention and feedings he began to bubble and grow. Herman was hungry and ready to put out after 10 days of rejuvenation. In his own 2 quart mason jar he accompanied me to Pendelton Oregon where we cooperated in making pizza and desem bread. He wasn't quite his old self but well on his way. The bread was edible and the pizza tasted quite nice. After a week we headed to Newport on the coast and stayed with my parents for a week. There Herman performed, wholewheat desem bread fresh from the oven it sure didn't last long. We were baking every other day or so for a week. Gathered all the tools. a tent and a mighty Coleman cooler filled with the surplus from the pantry. We wouldn't go hungry! Off to Coquille and the North American School of Natural Building for eight weeks plus. Herman was introduced to the folks already there and we tested out the failing cob oven to see if we could bake bread in it. Sure enough it held the heat okay and we proceeded to make a monster load of 25 pounds of wholewheat dezem dough. Two 5 gallon buckets served as our mixing bowls. The next morning at 04:30 am we fired the oven and formed the loaves 16 big loaves that with a we bit of cramming where baked in two batches. Fresh bread at breakfast! It was quite fun to see how folks react to fresh bread especially Hermanator Desem bread. I thought it would last the week. Major miscalculation! It was gone in two days. I was rather shocked and devised a plan to put the bread I baked on rations. Which worked quite well bread almost everyday with a few exceptions. Herman survived the return trip to Holland in his liquid state tucked in my bagage double bagged in his mason jar. The day after arriving home we made bread on home ground and were both happy to be back home after such a long absence. Herman is waiting for me right now to get in the kitchen and feed him and make dough!