Ina Garten's Honey White Bread

This morning I was up early and talking to our friend Jonas in Boston over Gmail chat. He was telling me that he likes to use Ina Garten's recipe for Honey White Bread from her book Barefoot Contessa At Home. So, I pulled out my copy and decided to give it a try (and document for posterity)

Proofing the yeast...

Egg yolks.....the top two are from our new Americauna hens that have just started laying tiny eggs. The bottom yolk is from a store bought extra large egg. Farm eggs are far superior...much larger yolks and such a deep yellow color.

Finished dough on my grandmother's well-used bread board. Ready for the first rise.

After 1 hour in the warm oven.....

Punched down and shaped into loaves.....

Back into the oven for a rise in the pans.....

And baked! Yum....house smells good.

Building a Raised Bed

Inspired by the incredible Heirloom Garden plan from Beekman 1802 , I decided it was time to start a raised bed garden. Along with looking very tidy (Mrs. W mostly enjoys this aspect) raised beds are much more productive than gardening directly in the ground. They warm up faster in the spring, they allow for much more uniform soil, and allow one to plan much more densely than in a traditional garden (because you don't have to leave room for a tractor or person to get through between rows for weeding and harvesting) space thereby increasing productivity per square foot.





I'd like to build several for this year's garden, however, I've only built one so far. 4 feet wide, 6 feet long and 1.5 feet tall. I used pressure treated lumber from Lowes, but plan to line the inside with heavy plastic to make sure no chemicals leak out into the soil.

For the soil, I've found what appears to be a good recipe on http://www.squarefootgarden.com/. 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite. I think this mix will be very soft and good for veggies.

Welcome!

Welcome to the first posting of Pursuits of a Gentleman Farmer! I plan to use this blog as a way to document my various putterings and projects around our farm. You're liable to read about anything cleaning our our chicken house to cooking to building raised beds to ordering seeds. Never know what might show up because, we are, if nothing pleasantly eccentric. I'll leave you today with a picture of two of our heritage Black Jersey Giant hens from back in the summer.