Unbelievably I didn't kill it!

My experimental cookery lesson in growing my own s'or didn't seem to be going so well. Its been a week now since I put the original mixture together - but although there seemed to be plenty of 'hooch' being produced - couldn't actually see any bubbles - let alone froth.

S'or if you remember is the basic yeast mixture that is cultivated separately and added to the bread flour which in turn is proved (warmed through) and causes the dough to rise.

Since my camera passed away quietly a couple of weeks ago AND my computer is doing everything in its power to resist me uploading photos from anywhere - I can't actually show you what I mean.

Take it from me though - the weird looking glop in the jar isn't looking anything like 'alive'. In a moment of inspiration I re-read the instructions....

'place your mixture in a warm place around 78 degrees'

HA! maybe that is the problem - kitchen is to cold for the little wild yeasts to breed - or what ever it is that wild yeasts do to reproduce - so I moved the jar into the airing cupboard. Which both cats will testify to being quite toasty.

That was two days ago. Yesterday I forgot to 'feed' the mixture. However - WE HAVE BUBBLES ! Oh yes! Unbelievably I didn't kill it - well not yet anyways. Still some days to go before Frantic Friday and bread making.

Ok so all being well then - I should be able to move into Phase II of the Grand Experiment - that is - making the sour bread using this wild yeast mixture.

Now this has got me thinking. I just have a tiny jar - holds about a pint of liquid and I'm experimenting with just one cup of flour... I wonder just how large and how many buckets of this stuff the ancients would have had hanging around their homes - in order to make sufficient bread for their families each day.

Humm can't see my great-great Briton ancestors doing anything like this in their wode covered huts - far too cold and draughty. They would have stuck with eating bannocks.

The Circle of Life....

...... returns with the beginning of seasons - Spring. And for Israel, the Spring harvest of the crops of barley that were planted in the Autumn of last year.

With the approach of Spring I find myself looking forward to the changes in the season from darkness into light, from the constant cold into (hopefully) something a lot warmer. Inevitably I find myself looking ahead to Pesach.

This year is going to present a few challenges; we have invited our first guests to join with us as we celebrate Pesach; that is of course, IF I can settle on a date. But of course the main questions of the moment centre around 'what constitutes leaven?'

How odd it is that I feel compelled to review this matter again. Perhaps though, all things considered, I shouldn't find it odd - merely exploring in greater depth than all the previous years.

I wonder where the best place to start would be: probably 'hamatz and s'or'

and I remind myself what Ariel ben Lymen (03 Chaggim HaMatzah page 1-2) has to say on the matter:

But the mitzvah does say to remove all leaven (the word used for leaven is hametz) from your houses (Ex. 12:19-20).

In Deut. 16:3, 4 there are two Hebrew words used to describe “biblical leaven:” chametz (dough) from one of the 5 grains that has been allowed to “ferment” and create yeast, from which bread may be baked, and s’or =the standalone ingredient usually defined as “yeast.”

Heatwave in Australia....

At 47 degrees in Australia, it was so hot for a week that Koalas were asking people for water. It's never been seen before.


















One went to a house to try and hide from the heat and get a bit of shade. Here's what happened when the owner gave him something to drink.


First the little hand went in......














Then a little tongue













but this I think, seemed a more acceptable solution....















He seems quite pleased to me, don't you think?

Until one has loved an animal, a part of their soul remains unawakened.

Experimenting in the Kitchen with Sour Dough

'Sourdough bread is bread made without added yeast.' Or so I am assured by an article on Sourdough Baking - The Basics by S John Ross.

He continues....

'By making a 'starter' in which wild yeast can grow, the sourdough baker can raise bread naturally, as mankind did for thousands and thousands of years...'

Actually, in truth, the only reason I want to 'grow' some sourdough is so that I can burn it rather than eat the finished product. Now see the thing is No1 son and soon to be Daughter No2 have intimated that they would like to come to our Pesach event and I will confess to having a little problem. Not with them coming but rather in trying to explain to these two wonderful lovelies the rather complicated story of Passover.

After giving the matter much thought I think that probably the best and easiest way is by showing/doing rather than just telling.

And of course everyone knows that the best way to start Pesach is by burning leaven. What better way of beginning the proceedings than by burning the leaven that the Hebrews, which I discovered last year, see here, would have been so familiar with?


External Links

Sourdough Baking by S John Ross

Be Kind to your Grains - Sally Fallon and Mary G Enig PhD

Sourdough Starter - How to Make a Sourdough Starter


Internal Links

Previously - notes/thoughts on Pesach (Passover)

Kreativ Blogger Award

Robyn over at pOcOyAyo tagged me on Friday just gone and as promised I've spent the last few days thinking up some weird and wonderful and little known facts about me....


1. I am entitled to put the letters: FIQPS, FInstAM(Dip), FInstAM(AdvDip), DSA(DI). These letters are longer than my name.

2. It took me ages to learn how to ring the changes to Plain Bob Minor. I am not a campanologist, but a Church Bell Ringer. The heaviest bell I have rung weighed over 1 tonne.

3. I loath spiders just about as much as I loath beards. I nearly crashed the car one day on the school run (full of my two plus two extras) because a tiny spider decided to launch itself from my driving mirror into my lap.

My son later that day wrote a report that said 'Nothing unusual happened over the weekend'....

Like Wot! I crash the car every day?!!

4. I am writing a Children's Book and am doing the artwork to go with the words.

5. I was an end-user tester for a large blue chip company who were installing their first customer interface web site. It was my job to find the flaws before the customers did. I 'broke' this multi-million pound user website. Several times. It took hundreds of technical man-hours to find a fixes.



Now, I get to nominate a few friends I believe who are worthy of this Kreativ Blogger award. What a difficult choice I am faced with today! So I have selected just three of the many blogs that I read that I haven't yet had the opportunity to give a Blog Award to... I hope you enjoy their experiences as much as I.

Friends, copy the little Kreativ Blogger award badge to your blog, list your five random things and your top blog award nominees and pass it on.



Creative Jewish Mom who makes me feel lazy, yet continues to inspire me daily with projects to cheer up my little sitting room.

Jerusalem Wanderings whose trials and tribulations, humour in the face of great adversity make me laugh out loud and tug at my heart strings.

The last one to be specifically nominated is a new blogger Danny A Fluker Jnr. His blog Reflections, stands out amongst us a blog worthy of our time, not least for his honesty and quiet dignity.