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All blog posts
As you can probably guess, in this category you’ll find every single post from The Nourishing Hearthfire, from the very latest recipes and reflections, to my earliest blog posts, all in one simple category, sorted by date.
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How to make sourdough pasta from fresh milled flour (simple flexible recipe)
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Homemade sourdough pasta A while ago I figured out I could make pasta without needing a pasta machine, and started going a bit crazy for homemade pasta. It’s such an excellent way to turn an abundance of homegrown eggs into a meal that the whole family enjoys. By choosing to make sourdough pasta instead of regular pasta, whole grain pasta gets the benefits of sourdough fermentation, which includes breaking down the phytic acid, making the wheat easier to digest, and…
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Survive the hungry gap: how to be a locavore when the garden and root cellar aren’t feeding you
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What is the hungry gap? And why does it matter to homesteaders? There comes a time of year, every year, when the kale bolts to seed, the stored root vegetables get woody or mushy, and any root vegetables or potatoes that are left in the ground want to grow like mad, putting their food energy into growing new plants instead of feeding us. At this time of year, we can’t stop eating just because the garden has stopped producing. Being…
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Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Boule – easy dutch oven recipe
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Here is a simple recipe for a delicious crusty fresh milled flour sourdough boule baked in a dutch oven. I really like this recipe because it’s simple to measure, there are different options for timing, flours, and shapes, and it simply tastes great! This loaf was a favourite for many of the recipe testing team for Sourdough Without Fail too. Why the dutch oven method works so well for baking bread The dutch oven method is the closest thing we…
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How to Make Hard Cheese (flexible homestead hard cheese recipe)
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The cheese I make the most often doesn’t really have a name. It turns out a different cheese at different times of year, but making it is always the same process. When I’m asked what cheese I’m making, I often just reply “hard cheese”. We are on a homestead, this is a basic staple hard cheese that is easy to make and feeds us, so I’ll call it “homestead hard cheese” for now. Most cheese recipes have exact timings written…
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Soft Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Sandwich Bread (frugal tangzhong method)
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Soft Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Sandwich Bread In this post I’ll be sharing a lovely soft sandwich bread recipe from Sourdough Without Fail that earned these comments from the recipe testing team: “The crust and crumb are as soft as store-bought white bread. I can’t believe whole wheat could turn out bread like this!” And “Agree! It’s amazing. Hands-down my favorite recipe that I’ve tested. The flavor is good and the texture moist and a bit chewy — very satisfying”…
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Light and fluffy fresh milled flour pancakes from sourdough discard
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What makes these fresh milled flour pancakes so good? These honey-sweetened sourdough pancakes are so light, fluffy, and delicious. You might have trouble believing they are 100% whole grain and very healthy! The best pancakes made from fresh milled flour are ones that have the batter soaked or rested. Soaking (or fermenting, in this case) allows the bran in the grain to soften and the gluten to relax, to make a softer, fluffier pancake. By making these pancakes from sourdough…
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How to Make Ricotta Cheese
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In this post I’ll be sharing how to make ricotta from any amount of milk. I make this whole milk ricotta from raw goats milk, but you can use any kind of raw milk, or even pasteurised milk. Ricotta is one of the few cheeses that will still work with pasteurised (UHT) milk. The quality is much better when it’s made with raw milk, but you can use whatever milk you have on hand to make this cheese. Ricotta can…
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Are ancient grains healthier than modern wheat?
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The answer to this question, as it is a lot of the time, is “it depends”. Ancient grains are not always more nutritious than wheat. It all depends on how they are grown, and what the individual growing season has been like. In this post I’ll be going into detail about all aspects of growing, storing, and milling grain that determine whether a particular grain is more nutritious or not. What are ancient grains? Ancient grains are varieties of grain…
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How to Replace White Flour with Fresh Milled Flour in Recipes
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I started baking whole grain bread in 2009. There wasn’t a whole lot of information out there back then. At first I diligently followed a recipe that was mostly white flour, with around 40% whole wheat flour, and made some OK bread, but after a while I wanted to get rid of the white flour completely. I quickly learned that replacing white flour with whole grain flour 1:1 does not yield great bread! Whole grain flours need more hydration, and…
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How to Preserve Blueberries without Sugar
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Blueberries are one of the healthiest fruits, and I think they are also one of the best tasting ones. In this post I’ll be sharing my favourite ways to preserve blueberries to enjoy all through the year. Why preserve blueberries without sugar? Blueberries have an intense taste of their own, and it’s nice to highlight that taste rather than making things overly sweet. For water bath canning purposes, they also have enough acidity of their own to preserve just as…
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Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe (easy no knead method)
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What makes this sourdough sandwich bread recipe different? This soft sourdough sandwich bread recipe from Sourdough Without Fail is made from 100% whole wheat, or with some changes which I’ll discuss below, it also works with ancient grains such as emmer, Khorasan, spelt, and einkorn. This recipe has been tested with fresh milled flour from my grain mill and with regular 100% whole grain flours and it works well with either type of flour. Based on a French style of…
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Light and dark
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Last month the sun sank to its lowest point on the horizon, and this month we are aware of the growing light, the growing sunshine, and the coming growing season. We have very short winter days on our hilly east-facing homestead, and when the sun disappears behind the hills at 2:30pm, it can feel like we live much closer to the Antarctic than we really do. In Europe, the further north one goes, the more importance is placed on winter…
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Recent Posts
- How to make sourdough pasta from fresh milled flour (simple flexible recipe)
- Survive the hungry gap: how to be a locavore when the garden and root cellar aren’t feeding you
- Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Boule – easy dutch oven recipe
- How to Make Hard Cheese (flexible homestead hard cheese recipe)
- Soft Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Sandwich Bread (frugal tangzhong method)
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