It’s pathetic really, but I blame our pandemic restriction, having to work from home, I become a villager, walking around the neighborhood watching the same gardens slowly changing from winter brown to summer green.
Like many middle aged men I turned to baking sourdough, to learn how to master the development of dough through autolys, levain and baker’s math. Today I find my heroes on YouTube and as every loaf becomes a little better, yet another shining moment of a better crust and oven spring.
Last week we were told that we will probably not see the inside of an office until next year so I have another six months to become a baker. It’s pathetic really, but at least the bread is good. Maybe I have time to teach myself to be a blacksmith next. Pathetic really.
June-morning walk —
meadow grass weighted by dew
soaking his shoes
I feel that my baking is improving, and it feels like a shining moment to be able to create a loaf from scratch with my own sourdough, flour water and salt, but it’s also a little bit sad that I have to find something so many others master so much better.
Haibun Monday at dVerse is hosted by Lilian and the topic is “one shining moment”.
June 22, 2020
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Delectable tale. 🙂
mmmmm….looks delicious! Hard to hear the working from home will last so long. Same for my son here in the states. But I think learning to master bread making is fabulous! Many many years ago when we were in Iowa and our kids were babes, I had a sour dough starter. Made bread, pancakes, coffeecakes, muffins, etc with it. There really are a lot of sour dough recipes out there….perhaps expand from the bread?
I make pancakes once a week as well… excellent weekend breakfast. I have tried making sourdough waffles and foccacia as well… and actually sourdough banana bread. So I think there will is more to come.
Looks really good. Not pathetic at all!
Beautiful looking bread!
Your bread looks delicious, Björn – each loaf is a shining moment . You’re so lucky to be able to find flour. My husband has had to give up baking bread until flour comes back into our shops. The pandemic has placed unwelcome restrictions on us but working from has given you time to perfect your baking skills – and you might become a blacksmith before next year! I love the image of ‘meadow grass weighted by dew’ – the wet shoes might be uncomfortable.
we have been lucky when it comes to flour but the good bread flour has been a bit hard to find.
Some would say that being able to make good bread is far more laudable than what many of us get paid for doing.
I partly agree, and it’s a wonderful feeling when you understand the whole process. I still need to be better at shaping and scoring the bread, but it’s getting better every time… it takes 24 hour from the time I wake the starter until the loaf is out of the oven.
As soon as I get a proper oven I’m going to have a go at making sourdough.
You can do pancakes or naan on the stovetop in the meantime… you only need a skillet for that.
I have a mini oven which is pretty useless but it just about manages pizza bianca.
This is perfection as I feel certain your bread is! I can almost smell that loaf here in Bend! Beautiful job on a challenge to end challenges.
I got flour and no yeast!
Sourdough only takes ten days to make from flour and water 🙂
The photograph makes me hungry. The haibun is light-hearted, but allegorical for the times we live in.
I’ve baked bread for years, but sour dough seems like so much work. It’s as good a thing as any to master–and practical. However, if you do learn to be a blacksmith, you can maybe bake your bread in the forge. 😏
Yet another year of working at home?! You will be a master baker! This quarantine has presented surprise gifts of all sorts!
An admirable oven-spring. And haibun, too.
wow that’s a long time to work from home, people here are sharing what a drag it is and are super keen to return to the office at least part time.
Love the haiku. Not sad that you are learning new skills, how’s the housework and meal preparation going?
I can smell the good bread baking! Perhaps home won’t close in as much during the summer months. I enjoyed your story even if you thought it was pathetic! :>)
The extraoridinary witness of an ordinary life! Excellent!
That looks delicious, I know some people who took to baking bread during the lock down. The it stopped as the stores had no yeast or flour. It was hard to find stuff around here.
Covid 19 is certainly making you more adorable Björn
Much💖love
It looks very yummy 😋
A skill that could possibly sustain you if things were to get worse.
I felt the morning dew.
Isadora😎
A man who can bake bread is a hero in my book!
Oh dear! I am totally envious about walking and seeing the same garden be transformed by seasons! Definitely feel you on the office part but I am glad you’re on your way to be a certified baker Bjorn!
Nothing pathetic about that crusty bread, Bjorn…I’m impressed!
Oh, but theirs will never be yours. Each unique just like each human.
Love this, Björn… especially since I broke up with my starter and have decided to forego the whole crazy thing!
Nothing pathetic about any of this!
I hope you never had the chance to name your starter before you broke up.
That’s just it, I had been told to name it and doesn’t matter, Charlotte dissed me.
Ha… I think a sourdough should be a man to stay kind.
There was my first gaffe!
Oh, it looks so scrumptious! This weekend I baked an artisan bread for the first time, using a homemade starter dough. It was good, but had a few issues and I am not home enough to perfect it. Not pathetic at all, you put your hands to work and learned something new!
Not everyone can master bread. It is a fine accomplishment!