Sidetracked ...

For the moment I've left tinctures, teas and elixirs behind because I've gotten really excited about no-knead breads and the coming gardening season.   In the photo above is Easy Four-Grain Pot Boule from Nancy Baggett's new book, kneadlessly Simple.  It is so easy to make and will fit into anyone's daily schedule because there is very little to do besides mixing the ingredients together and when you are ready sticking it in the oven.  Basically you mix the ingredients together, let it rise for 18 to 24 hours, deflate it, and if desired stick it in the frig until you have time to bake.  Then take it out, let it rise for an hour or two, then bake. It's sooooo good. 

Here is site with a slightly different twist.  For this kind of no-knead bread, you mix enough ingredients to make a number of loaves and you keep it in the frig for up to 2 weeks, baking a chunk of it here and a chunk there, whenever you want.  I just put a batch of 100% wholewheat sandwich bread together today and sometime in the next day or two I'll bake a loaf.  The longer it sits in the frig the more sour it gets, making it a sourdough bread.  This way of baking bread is all very new to me and I love it because I can fit it in between my daily chores.

As for the garden, I've discovered all sorts of wonders.  At this site, I got all excited to find that you could grow potatoes in pots, saving room in the garden and lots of extra labor. So I've ordered some seed potatoes and friend K. has located the required 15 gallon nursery pots.  That has led me to the discovery of self-watering containers for growing veggies and I'm trying to decide if I want to give this a try since we're already abnormally dry in the moisture department.  Just since January 1st, we are down almost 4 inches of rain.  Never mind that the past year was also exceptionally dry and the ground water is very low.  It's time to get creative about how to grow summer crops.  I do have a small vegetable garden, but by using some of these pots that have a reservoir that you fill only once or twice a week, I can make some additions to what I want to grow without having to water so much every day when there is no rain.  I'd be able to save most of the rainwater I harvest for the in-ground garden, allowing much more flexibility.  There is so much to think about and I'll keep you posted as I make decisions as to exactly what I'm going to do and what I'm going to grow. 

In the meantime, I hope everyone is as excited about spring as I am.  I can barely contain myself and have to take some time-outs to breathe deeply and slow down a bit. I often get so zealous that I take on far more than I should.  So, first things first, I'll  clean out the potting shed and slowly figure out exactly how deep in the mud I want to immerse myself!