Kneading Conference West 2012 - Day 3
Day 3 - The last day of the Conference - as I arrived, was happy to be greeted by dew-kissed apples in the orchard,
and another beautiful, sunny breakfast :^)
There were also fresh, wood-fired bagels – my goodness, we were spoiled with all of the fresh, lovely food we were presented with!:
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The morning passed quickly, being very absorbed in Scott Mangold [1]’s class, “Test Baking with Local Wheats for Home and Bakery”. Scott is a very good teacher and gave very practical advice on the testing process, and conveyed his considerable level of skill and experience as he assessed locally-grown wheats, whose properties could be unknown or vary from season to season.
MC (farine-mc.com [2]) has (so kindly!) written a detailed post about Scott's class, found here:
http://www.farine-mc.com/2012/09/scott-mangold-test-baking-with-local.html [3]
Assessing rise and spread of doughs made with two different local, whole-wheat flours:
The baked breads: I got to taste two of them – both were good, and but my favorite was the bread made with Red Russian wheat - I sure do hope I come across that variety of wheat someday, for baking ; its flavor was exquisite :^)
Four varieties of local wheats tested: Renan, Hedlin Farm's Bauermeister, Camas Red Fife, and Red Russian
A close-up of one of the loaves:
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After the morning class, one last walk along the colorful path from the Sakuma Auditorium; so many pretty flowers :^)
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We were treated to another great meal, a lasagna lunch (yummy and from Patty Pan catering), before saying our good-byes or departing for tours that had been scheduled for the afternoon.
This year’s Kneading Conference West was, just like last year, great fun and a fantastic opportunity to get together with so many other generous people, interested in bread and grains, and willing to share their knowledge and experience; I sincerely hope this Conference continues as an annual event at WSU.
Many thanks to the hard-working organizers, instructors/presenters, volunteers and caterers for making it such an educational and enjoyable event to attend!
:^) breadsong
Previous posts: Kneading Conference 2012 - Day 1 [4]
Kneading Conference 2012 - Day 2 [5]