Greetings from Toronto
Hello! I am here because I am sourdough-obsessed. My starter was born in October 2021 and I started baking bread in November. Loaf #65 is in the oven as we speak.
We are on Disability and this bread has changed our lives. Prior to this life-changing discovery, I had cut all ties with bread. I was quit for over two years. I am a scratch cook, and my purpose is healing with whole foods. Working with local organic whole foods is the closest I can get to being in nature, while being stuck in the city. For me, this is equivalent to soaking in the sun and walking barefoot in the dirt. It feels like grounding. It feels like love and connection to the universe. It feels like rejuvenation and inspiration. The lightbulb went off, that, when you're caring for your self, your health, by consciously choosing your system's input, you are also caring for the local organic farmers, who are caring for our Earth, the soil, and all life on this planet.
I started by using a small manual coffee grinder. I didn't know what I was getting myself into but I wasn't having it any other way. Throw yourself to the wind and ride. For me, it's the real deal or no deal. I'd spend days happily milling with videos on all things bread playing in the background. I'd take notes and mill with love, joy, wonder, awe. We quickly realized we need a proper grain mill, so we upgraded to the Victorio Roots & Branches Hand Crank Grain Mill. That wasn't enough for our passion, and desired production, so we upgraded again to the Wondermill Junior Deluxe Plus...My Old Man and I both fell so in love and got so obsessed, together we were baking 1-3 times a day, not to mention all the wonderful recipes I have that uses flour.
Well, the Wondermill was a bust. The stones didn't last us not two months and we already need to buy new stones! And we can't keep buying new stones. So...we're back to the slower, smaller output Victorio mill until then...you have to be gentle or it'll wiggle. Now I can understand how some bakers find themselves sitting on top of a pile of old mills. We still need a solution. Ah, we'll get there. Don't know how but...never in my wildest dreams did I ever fathom being here where I am today doing as I am doing right now, so...Hello Unknown! Hello TFL. It is indeed a great pleasure to be here.
I look forward to sharing my bakes, and reading about all the bakes posted on here, and consuming as much knowledge as I can.
Thank you for having me.
B
Welcome Boonk. I look forward to your future posts. You have definitely landed on a great supportive site. Please share your successes and failures.
Cheers,
Gavin.
Thank you Gavin! I certainly will. I just spent a couple hours browsing through the blogs with my morning coffee(s) and I am feeling overwhelmed and thrilled! Wow! I've already been exposed to many new ideas, took note of a few desired experiments. I am finding this site to be a treasure trove of information. Very excited and inspired by this all.
Not to mention the old school forum thing. Takes me back. I am someone who just can't do social media whatsoever so I am digging this!
Cheers!
B
Hello Boonk from a fellow Torontonian. I look forward to your contributions to TFL. It is a great place and one of the only forums I’ve even been on where everyone is kind.
Benny
Hello Benito! Thank you! I cannot wait to try your Hokkaido Milk Bread! It's been on my list for some time, a freshly milled sourdough version! Well, that basically sums me up - making a freshly milled pure sourdough version of everything, like the braided challah, chocolate croissants, etc.
I wanted to master the simple and pure three ingredient sourdough bread that is flour, water, and salt, before moving into all the crazy fun bread stuffs.
B
Unfortunately I won't be posting pictures. I don't own a computer, I am dependent on my smartphone. All of my photos exceed the maximum size limit 2 MB. I already spent too much time today trying to figure this out and quite frankly it's time I regret losing. I could not be arsed to make an account on some third party website to post my pictures on there to post a link here to there.
I will still enjoy observing the forum and pursuing knowledge.
B
That’s a pity you won’t be sharing your photos. I use my mobile devices as well and don’t need a third party service to upload my photos. On iOS after you’ve selected the photo, at the bottom of the pop up window you will see the file size, if you click on it you get a selection of file sizes to choose to upload with, I just choose the second largest and then it will upload without issue.
Benny
Benny,
Thank you kindly for your comments. I appreciate it. I have an Android and I do not see a selection of file sizes. I hope to figure it out soon!
B
Edit: Found a helpful link: https://www.fonedog.com/photo-compress/how-to-reduce-photo-file-size-on-android-phone.html
on your phone. Pul up your mega sized photo (editing if needed) and make a screen shot of it. Then crop again to cut off everything but the picture. Try it to see if it works. :)
Thank you! I found out a way! On my android phone I share the pictures I choose to post to myself by email. When I go to share pics by email and attach them, a popup appears that asks if I want to reduce the size for the email, or keep the original size. So I say yes, reduce, then I download the reduced pics email attachments.
I've posted a few so far, while restraining myself. A good looking successful bake gets a little photoshoot. Kristen from Full Proof Baking - her Instagram photos are inspiration to me. I've got thousands of pictures and no more space on my phone. It's been violated by bread (and food pics). I may have a problem! Haha! TFL may be the only place, with the only people, that would tolerate this, lol. :') Seriously. Pictures are important for the documentation, for my own learning process. They all correspond to my sourdough journal. I look up any photo, find the date, and go to my journal and see exactly what that bread was about.