Brielle's Avalon

I had a spare bit of garden left when I finished planting what I had, There was a space of about I had about 4′ x 8′ to fill. I also had a bunch of barley I’d grown a couple years earlier to do some wheat weaving. Never got around to the wheat weaving but had more than enough so I grabbed a few bunches, broadcast the seeds, raked them in and mulched with the straw and more straw. This was late September or early October 2020.

As they grew across from the chicken coop the cats liked laying in it. It became their personal bird stalking jungle.

Eventually it grew to full gold wonder and I harvested it. This may have been late February.

Sheaves on the old bench I still need to fix (the slats need replacing).

I covered it with a sheet so it wouldn’t go to the birds and let it dry a bit more.

Before the rains came I took it out to the driveway and, between 2 sheets, managed to thresh it. Next time I’ll break off all the heads first and leave the straw behind. This was in March.

Then I just had to wait for windy enough days to winnow it. I was surprised that I had to wait for May to do this.

Winnowing was more a challenge than I expected. I ended up pouring from a bowl to a pie tin as the win d blew the majority of the chaff away. That was a LOT of chaff.

Then I set it aside in an old butter tub with a bay leaf to keep weevils at bay. It sat, contented, on my card table as I worked on other things until October, when I finally bought a hand-cranked mill to make the grain ready for the next part of the project.

In November I finally had time to do a final sort to get the last bits of this and that out of the grain. The nasty bits are on the lid with the bay leaf.

Then a few more days before the grinding. I put it through 4 times before giving up for the night. The next day I put it through twice again but didn’t take any more pictures.

I got about 3 and a half cups out of it and decided to try just using about half the medium meal in the first loaf. I put a teaspoon of bread yeast in, a sprinkle of salt and a Tablespoon of brown sugar.

Then I added a cup of milk and mixed well before covering with a towel and setting aside to see what it would do.

2 hours later… it hasn’t really caught the exuberance of the yeast so I added 1c flour

and 1/2 c milk

Now that looks more bread-doughy and we’ll see how it does overnight, and knead it a bit before work

After work knead it again and form into a boule, rub with soft butter, cover with tea towel and go to birthday dinner

Come back from dinner. It’s bigger.

Slash a pattern so it can expand as it bakes

Bake for about 30 minutes or so until it’s a nice golden brown and sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. Don’t forget to put a pan of water in the oven to add humidity for a nice crust, but if you forget it’s not the end of the world.

Let it cool about 15 minutes before cutting off a piece. Yes, I tried it plain then slathered the warm piece with butter and enjoyed it more. Excellent with stews or roasts or just plain with cheeses, chutneys and cold cuts or just jams for dessert. No, I don’t have pictures of that, sorry, I was too busy nomming. I took most of it to work to share, actually. They loved it.