I love Sundays. They seem to be the one day a week where I can do as I wish. Which lately, believe it or not, involves a lot of work. Some of it occurs in the shop but the most gratifying of it, occurs in the garden. I really enjoy hard, manual labor. I like the feeling I get at the end of the day when I have put in many hours to the completion of a project and can stand back and say..."I did that." I like pushing myself beyond what I think my body is capable of. Between working on inventory in the shop and back breaking work in the garden I was fortunate enough this weekend to have the time to bake a rosemary and red onion flatbread from scratch. Mixing the ingredients, which included fresh rosemary from my garden, kneading the dough, and waiting for it to rise before baking is a lesson in patience. You can't rush homemade bread, it will rise in its own time. I like to think that my ancestors would have made bread in this way and that in my small way I am carrying on the tradition. There is nothing quite like fresh bread straight from the oven, but I can tell you this.....it nourishes more than the tummy. With the first bite my soul was lifted and with the last I was saddened that the experience was over.
You've done it yet again.....brought me back to my childhood days! Love it and thank you :)
ReplyDeleteFrom the time I actually have memories of how I grew up, it was on a farm and in the gardens that we ALL as a family had a hand in cultivating. It was truly a FAMILY ordeal.
Makes me totally appreciate the "green-thumb" I have for grewing new life from the earth.
Here's to a great day of "gardening", or whatever makes "your" soul happy!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your food ideas from your garden and home.
That's what's missing from the modern way of life. Patience and time. Time to grow the wheat, the onions, the rosemary. Patience to tend, weed, water, and finally to harvest the crops. Time to mill the wheat, transform it into dough. Kneading, folding, and kneading again. More time, more patience. And after all that hard work, and making bread is certainly hard work, there's the time to wait (patience) for it to be finished so it can be eaten and enjoyed. Yes, we're too fast paced these days to know, or to remember, what food is supposed to taste like. We compromise flavor and quality for speed and efficiency. There's nothing quite like a good home made hamburger...and there's nothing quite like one from McDonald's.
ReplyDeleteThis past St. Patrick's Day, I made my own soda bread for the first time to accompany the corned beef and potato meal (not a big fan of cabbage) to celebrate our heritage. The bread was so good, the kids have asked to have that now instead of the faster, more efficient, brown-n-serve rolls you pick up at the grocery store.
Yes, let's learn to be patient and enjoy the fruits (and grains) of our labor. :)
Great post, my friend.