Ryan Oeschger

Wayne Robinson wrote:The ongoing bane of my garden… when I first started my garden several years ago, I had a few saplings along the tree line, on the northern facing edge of where I put my garden. Didn’t know what they were at first, so I just left them be. When they first started dropping the green grenades, I had no idea they had walnuts inside, but didn’t think much of them because they were still small trees. I have tried harvesting them in the past, and I’ve had good success, but the shells are so hard, and the meat is so intertwined in it, that I decided it wasn’t worth all of the effort. Now, I am stuck with 3 30 foot walnut trees that poison anything I try to grow, other than herbs, squash and alliums, and whenever I get around to taking them down, they will still be poisoning the soil for years. The worst part is everything grows great, right up until it’s time for the veggies to fruit, then everything either dies or wilts to nothing

Have you tried tapping them? Black Walnut Syrup is divine.

I like to feed it before putting it the fridge just to make sure it’s happiest if I end up going longer than two bakes.

I almost dehydrated mine before our move, but decided to just keep it alive with English muffins in our rv’s easy bake oven instead. Boy I’m glad those days are over. :)

Oooooh. I’ve also successfully made sourdough biscotti. We moved recently. I would have to dig up the recipe. I will share if I can find it.


And sourdough tortillas are quite simple with the addition of oil.  Most recipes call for discard. I like to let mine ferment a bit still before rolling out.  You need to roll them out very thin allowing the dough to rest between rollings. Unless you want to make thick ones :)

I love sourdough crackers. Tarragon, black pepper & a little sea salt....mmmmmm

Nikki Roche wrote:I read about dehydrating sourdough discard and using it in place of part of the flour in baked goods, like cookies and such where you normally don't want the extra moisture of sourdough. It's on my list to try.

Now that is an idea :) I love to take recipes and convert them to sourdough. This would help with high liquid recipes. As it is...I run a lower hydration starter. 80% instead of 100%. You could also feed off a stiffer starter to lesson the liquid.

https://conservationgrains.com/

She is in Montana...sourcing from local growers. I really enjoyed talking to her when I was looking for bulk flour to move my business up this way. :)

She gets some pretty cool things in that might not even be listed on her site.

I have the Country Living Mill that most these days have. I don’t see how I could use a drill with it.

I would like to keep it mechanical if I can. :)

I just started grinding my own. I use a Country Living Mill and sift through a 30 mesh strainer stacked above a 50 mesh strainer. I feed the largest to the chickens and regrind what’s left on the 50 mesh before sifting that one more time.

It’s a lot of work, but I’m very happy with the crumb I’m getting in my loaves.  They still have a whole wheat depth of flavor to them with a light structure.

I use to sell sourdough at a Farmer’s Market. I’ve switched to just friends and the homestead since cooking with a wood stove now and grinding my own flour. That is so not feasible for a business. :)

I really like to make sourdough English muffins...I call them Mountain Muffins.

This should yield approx 2 dozen muffins. It is half of my batch size. I use a 4.5” diameter round cutter to cut them out.

4 cups of milk (or whey) (if you leave it out to come up to room temp fermentation will happen faster)
740 grams ripe starter
125 grams honey
1300 grams flour
20 grams sea salt

I mix directly in a 12 qt container and add ingredients in the order listed (flour and salt pre-mixed) so that things don’t stick to the sides too bad. I mix it by hand until it is well mixed.

Leave it out to ferment 12-16 hours (you’re looking for at least double in size) before rolling it out on a well floured surface. It’s sticky. Flour is your friend. Let it rest for just a minute so that your rounds don’t suck back in after you cut them. I like them rolled out to roughly 1/2” thick. Cut with your round cutter. I keep re-rolling out the dough until I’ve used it up, hand shaping the last one or two. Just like roll cookies the more you roll the tougher they get, so we eat those fresh and freeze the best ones.

Proof for an hour and then pan fry over med low heat in your oil of choice (we do lard). You can finish them in the oven after you flip them for a more even cook. I find it takes approximately 5 min in a 400 degree oven.