More Bread, But Still About Keeping Bees

 

This morning's bread ready to out to the neighbor's.  I don't have it down 100% yet- seems to be always something happening in each round that I didn't expect, but inch by inch, making it more like a Ford factory- efficient, predictable, and with a product that people really like.

This is sourdough rye, and pretty dang good. It is really satisfying to make it, and even more satisfying to hand it out to those who like it. A loaf costs a buck in flour. Plus a little salt, a few cents. Plus some natural gas- which I haven't figured out yet. But in any case, it's cheap to make a loaf.

This is very akin to beekeeping- less the mites. Learning a craft, using ancient skills, and sharing the product with others. Who recognize and appreciate the special flavors and textures. In beekeeping of course, one can't really take credit for the flavor of the honey-one is just the midwife, and as long as one doesn't add corn syrup or something weird, one is really just the midwife. However, its still an amazing experience to do it- I can't count the people that have said "this is the best honey ever"and that sort of  thing- and even I am shocked when I taste it (oddly, like bread, I rarely have any). But it's nothing I am doing, I'm just the gatherer, I more or less assume than anyone doing this will have excellent honey, if the bees have access to good nectar.

Bread is different- though relies on much the same midwifery practice- of trusting the yeasts and bacteria to do their thing- and to be a midwife to the process. Unlike beekeeping, one has to be much more hands-on, in timing, controlling the temperatures, and that sort of thing. I suppose its more like being an actual bee, making honey, and letting the nectar do what it needs to to cure and become honey.

In any case, for a human, both strike a similar chord. Both are like many human activities. I suppose the over-arching skill is farming-which is the deepest interaction we have with food. These are lesser lights,but its all of the same cloth.