Over the last week I have sanded, sawn, drilled, painted, swept, glued and more.. in fact at one point I almost set fire to the truck through a misplaced vigour, an angle grinder and some rather ignitable dust. I am having the best time. I really can't believe how much fun I am having, and how much satisfaction I get out of this process. Dad joins me in the truck each morning and nods approvingly at the progress, much to my delight. We take a tour of the previous days work, coffee in hand, and problem solve the issues that are set to challenge me in the day ahead. He is not only a wonderful companion to have alongside, but he is also a fountain of great engineering wisdom, and an endless font of stories that start with "Well, you probably want to...." which usually include advice as well as an anecdote about how badly it went for him in the past when he tackled a similar problem...
Alas, to most people the truck today would look almost identical to last week, such is the visible pace of progress! Things are moving along and my mind is constantly busy planning the next stage. When I don't have a power tool in my hand I am doing my best to drink in any knowledge that will aid my quest for life without money. This week's spotlight goes to one of mankind's greatest inventions: bread. Stay with me! This is not any old bread - but a slowly fermented, easy to digest, crispy on the outside, springy and hearty on the inside, oh so good with any topping, king of breads: sourdough.
How did I end up here? Well, one of my very good friends Alix is a master sourdough baker, so much so that she won a competition whose prize was a 60 year old sourdough starter. Now to most people (myself included before I read up on the subject) that sounds old and undesirable. But it turns out that sourdough has this magical ability to live forever, and these super aged starters are the bees knees and uber desirable amongst keeno sourdough bakers. How curious.
What's more, to make a sourdough starter (which is basically a gloup with live yeast in it that you have to feed and cull to allow it to grow and paradoxically also not kill itself in a bath of self-made acid) all you have to do is leave flour and water out in a bowl - the environment, as in, any environment anywhere, has yeast spores wafting around and miraculously somehow they arrive at the flour water mix and start doing their thing, becoming sourdough starter. Oh I am hooked! So here began a foray into the world of starters, sponges, kneading, dutch ovens (no sniggering!), and the illustrious search for the 'perfect' loaf.
So we return to Alix and her prized (literally) geriatric sourdough starter Llud. I have explained one way to make a starter, the other way is to lure one to your house with the promise of a slow roast lamb supper for it's owner. Much to my delight not only did Alix bring Llud but she also brought with her enthusiasm enough to write me an idiots guide to sourdough whilst we sat, bellies full of roast, by the fire.
Which brings me up to last night. With Alix's generous gift of some very prestigious, highly sought after starter gloup and her personal recipe tweaks, I began measuring and pouring, mixing and kneading with gay abandon. You can imagine my absolute delight when out of the oven came a truly magnificent looking loaf. It literally took me sitting on my hands to prevent myself from slicing into it immediately (Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall frowns upon this, advising to leave the bread to rest for 20 minutes or so http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/may/10/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-recipes-sourdough ). So, having gathered my mother, some salted butter and a carton of hummus, at last I sliced into the loaf.
Now, I, as much as anyone would expect the first pass at any baking attempt to be a bit of a disaster, much like the rubbishy first pancake of a batch that you always end up feeding to the dog. But I have to say, I managed to impress myself! It remains to be seen whether I can reproduce the same quality of product next time round, or whether it was beginners luck. But whatever the case, today we have dined handsomely. All that Puck needs now is a wood burning stove with an oven compartment to allow me to continue this adventure and bake my way across Europe..
Knife ready, obediently waiting for the torturous twenty minutes to be up:
That's right, half the loaf has gone. Into my tummy.
One or two truck snaps of what I have been up to this week.. the back door frame is now caulked, the doors are sanded and repaired. The double glazing unit I had made is now fitted and I have fashioned an insulated panel that fits below. All the bare wood is now primed with aluminium primer, just waiting for me to decide on colours...
The aftermath of priming with aluminium..
And the obligatory cute shot of the doggie curled up by the fire :)
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