Pie in the Sky

Today I was preparing a turkey pie for our supper and my stream of thought took me to thinking about pie crusts and their purpose. Preserving food was a very difficult task before refrigeration, freezers and canning. These are all very recent methods of keeping our foods fresher, longer. Food had to be dealt with quickly and eaten within a very short time. 

Pie crusts became a way of keeping the food within them a few days longer. They were made with lard and usually in a heavy, deep dish. The crust would be thick and heavy as to envelope the food and protect it. It was most often a meat dish. Usually hunted game or pork. It was baked in a wood fired oven and then set to cool. 

Pie cupboards were created to keep the vermin out of the food. They were made mostly of wood with holes (vents) drilled into the sides to allow air to flow through. The vents were tacked with bits of metal grating so no creatures could get in. 

These pie safes, as they were called, are very collectable now and often found as decorative furniture in some homes. 

My mother tells of a story when she was young. The pie safe was full of goodies as Christmas was near. My grandmother had a lock on it. She was out and so my grandfather conspired with the children to enter the cupboard from below and remove some of the tasty morsels. He was positively delighted to be conducting this prank with the children and all anticipated how my grandmother would react once she discovered the theft !

I don't think you have to imagine too hard how my grandmother reacted. At first she just couldn't figure it out but once she did she was angry. Problem was, she couldn't get mad at the children because their father had set them to it. 

Needless to say they didn't try it a second time. Its always interesting to me how food got to be presented the way it is. There is always a story, usually practical and makes perfect sense. 

By the way. Our turkey pie tonight was delicious. 

All the Right Tools

 I know why I love baking and gardening.

Both let me get my hands into it.
As a child I remember how much I liked "feeling" things.
The many different textures and sensations.
Nothing has changed. I still like it !

 I also learned from my mother that having the right tool for a job made things a lot easier in the kitchen.
I do everything with hand tools.
I have cultivated quite a collection over the years.
When I am in the thrift stores I am always on the look out for those forgotten, neglected hand gadgets that don't get used by most people anymore. Many of mine were old when I got them but they work like new every time and have stood the test of time.
They don't make things like that anymore.



On bake day, out come the essential tools I need to accomplish the task of creating wonderful breads and more.

 Best of all I get to have my hands involved. They are absolutely my BEST tool. They give me the ability to feel, sense and know when the doughs are at their right moment.

Dough is alive and has different feelings through the course of its' creation from culture to bread.  


I love being in my kitchen and knowing
that I have all the things I need at
my fingertips so that I can pull up my
sleeves and get my hands busy whenever it strikes me.

Working in the garden or out in the fields is the same. The work goes a whole lot better when the tools are there when you need them.
Mostly though I like to have my hands in the soil, feeling it and knowing it. When I think about it I already knew as a child what my destiny was going to be.

Thank goodness my inner child followed through.

Breaking the blog Fast with Bread

Its been awhile since I last posted. Winter is our down time. There are always things to tend to on a farm but for the most part it is quieter and easier to convince yourself to take a load off and read a book, visit a friend, take a walk, linger over morning coffee. We spend much of our time conversing on the past season and the season coming up. There are the usual seed catalogues to look through and plans to make for the coming year. Already the requests for farm stays and apprentices are being interviewed and booked. This winter has been somewhat different in that we have had a new "toy" to play with and figure out. This past summer we built a french Canadian style bread oven. It was curing until November and in the meantime I was practicing with bread recipes and culturing a good sour dough starter. Our first bake was in late November and we have been baking weekly since then. We have had a few failures but surprisingly few. Even the burnt bread was great inside ! We have made pizzas and cakes and use the residual fire to bake one of our organic chickens slowly in a cast iron pot that roasts and browns the chicken to perfection ! It is a real learning curve figuring out how long the fire has to burn to get the interior hot enough long enough. Then the fire comes out and the oven has to "soak". The timing is everything. Bryne is working the fire and I am working the doughs so that all is ready at the same time. Coordination and being organized is key . There is not much that can top the taste of bread baked on the hearth. The essence and energy of all the elements that come together to form this most ordinary of foods becomes extraordinary !