Greetings and Great web site

Hi,

Came across this web this weekend, and am enjoying it very much, so I wanted to introduce myself.

I live in SoCal (about 50 miles north of LA) and have been baking bread actively over the last 4-5 years.

My main interest has been sourdough and rye breads. I got into baking because of my grandma, who used to bake rye bread 2x per week. One of my earliest (perhaps my earliest) cooking memory is being in her kitchen, hands in a bowl of sticky rye flour "helping" her knead. The smell of her baking bread is etched forever in my memory. I started baking about 10 years ago, trying to replicate my grandma's bread, with minimal success early on.

I kept at it, researching and learning more about what makes bread work. I've always admired Nancy Silverton's breads, and started baking from her cookbook. Made Silverton's starter from grapes, and experienced joy baking crusty, deep-flavored sourdoughs.

I'm happy to say that after much research, learning, trial and error, I finally figured it out how to make my grandma's rye! It was a revelation to me, and now every time I taste the bread I'm brought back immediately to my youth.

Still doing sourdough; I was inspired to do Glezer's Columbia bread from this web site, and it turned out to be the best sourdough I've had to date. The crust of the Columbia bread is phenomenal.

What's next for me? Learning & getting more experience with soft-textured breads: hamburger buns, sticky buns, soft light sandwich breads + rolls, and other breads fluffy, airy, light interiors. Also learning more about crust, especially blistering and flakiness.

I'm really happy to have this resource, I've already learned a lot already to help improve my baking. Looking forward to sharing and learning more! Thanks Floyd!

--Cranbo