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This photo was taken at dawn a few days ago. It is a field of heritage Marquis wheat grown by Cedar Isle Farm. They have carefully nurtured an initial very small seed stock over a number of years and now have enough seed to grow Marquis wheat for a modest commercial harvest.  I saw this photo in their Late Spring Update e-newsletter and wanted to share it with the TFL community if for no other reason than it's a beautiful picture!  Here is the accompanying excerpt from the newsletter:

My planned Solstice bake has not eventuated, it may still in a few days time.  Still this bake started on 20th, and finished today.  My very first 100% Rye bread - Madelaine Jude's Danish Rugbrod.  Here in NZ,  it is the winter solstice so maybe it is fitting.

20th June

9 am - 20 g Rye starter + 20 g water + 20 g rye flour leave on bench

8 pm Add 60 g water + 60 g rye flour and leave overnight

21st June 

8 am Add 60 g water + 60 g rye flour and leave on bench.  Cover 125 g whole rye berrieswith boiling water and leave to soak.

I finally got the color with 10 gram flowers steeped in 250 ml of hot water.  I compromised brighter hue by using higher % of whole grain flours but I am happy with the turmeric contrast. I would love to see larger holes in the crumb but not succeeding somehow...

Well, I'm back with a new loaf of bread! This time I wanted to experiment something new and I decided to mix two of my favorite flours to create what I thought would be the perfect loaf to me.

I choose to go for 20% whole rye flour (that I think it's the same thing as dark rye in US) and 15% whole khorasan flour and all the process was smooth and relatively easy. 

But...there is a but! 

Since going on a 1 day French baking course at Christmas I have been keen to continue my croissant baking journey. There are many blogs on here already but I wanted a place to be able to track my progress and perhaps help other's in the meantime - even if it's just to show how not to do it! 

The recipe I use is from the Bread Ahead baking book. 

500g strong bread flour (I can't get strong bread flour so I used bread flour which I think has 13% protein here) 

12g sea salt

55g sugar

40g softened unsalted butter

30g fresh yeast

I was in pursuit of a relatively cheap hobby and basically entered into the Google search bar: "stuff to do for free." One of the many lists I read through suggested I make some bread. One loaf later, and I was hooked!

Standard recipe, with added mixed seeds sesame, chia, poppy, and 1/6 durum wheat along with the white rye, bread flour and 100% dark rye starter / mother dough.

I seriously can’t believe it. There’s now a grain mill in my kitchen! Needless to say, I planned a bake with freshly ground flour the day I took it home.

Brie, Hazelnut and Goji Berries Sourdough with White Whole Wheat Flour

Dough flour:

I loved the look of Ru's seeded SD so decided to have a go.  I made the exact quantity that she did but because I couldn't find any black sesame seeds I used black chia seeds instead.  

I refreshed my rye starter that sulks in the fridge without being wanted for weeks on end.  Wednesday at 8:30 am I mixed together

20 g starter + 40 g water + 38 g rye (all I had in the pantry)  and left at RT.

15:30 pm added 13 g water + 13 g rye flour and left to mature.  

I always wondered how this was being done... my first try.

I now know what needs to be done to improve on this.  This has no real use other than the wow factor, in my opinion.