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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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Natural Cheesemaking: How to Make and Use Your Own Cheese Cultures
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What is a Cheese Culture? A cheese culture (or starter culture) is helpful bacteria that convert the lactose in milk into lactic acid. This process can also be called acidification, ripening, or just plain ‘culturing’. Some of these cultures are already present in raw milk, but for more faster and more reliable culturing, we will usually add something to the milk to ensure it develops the best kinds of flavours. In industrial cheesemaking, these cultures come in packets from a…
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Sourdough Timelines: Same Day vs Overnight vs Pre-Ferment (Levain) Schedules for Any Kitchen
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If you’re new to sourdough, you may be wondering which baking timeline makes the best bread. The answer is “it depends”. It depends on your schedule, your goals, your lifestyle, and the temperatures in your kitchen. At the end of the day, baking needs to fit in with your life, not the other way around. In this post I’ll discuss all the different considerations that go into different sourdough timelines, and why I use different schedules at different times of…
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How to Make Mozzarella Cheese at Home Without Citric Acid or Microwaves (Easy Vinegar Method)
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The difference between fast mozzarella and traditional mozzarella In this recipe I’ll be talking about fast mozzarella, which is a simple way to make stretchy and delicious pizza cheese at home. Traditional mozzarella is even more delicious, but involves slowly culturing the cheese until it reaches the right acidity, and the timeframe for this can be a bit slow and tricky to work with. With fast mozzarella, the milk is acidified by adding some kind of acid (vinegar, in the…
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How to Make a Sourdough Starter from Scratch with Fresh Milled Flour (100% Whole Grain)
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Here is my tried and tested method for creating a sourdough starter from scratch which is perfect for sourdough beginners, and for anyone interested in whole grain fresh milled flour. You can use fresh milled flour from your own grain mill, or organic 100% whole grain flour of any kind. For the best chances of success, choose whole grain rye flour for making your first sourdough starter from scratch – if you don’t like rye bread, once your starter is…
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Blog reflections and future directions
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The history of this blog I started The Nourishing Hearthfire ten years ago. Our youngest child at the time had started eating solid foods, we were in the process of buying land after what seemed like a lifetime of dreaming about it, and a whole new world was opening up for us. I had many ideas and photos, a stash of recipes and posts drafted up, with the idea of creating a place of my own on the internet to…
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Introducing my Floury Friday email list, plus a free sourdough discard eBook for you
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The last three times that I’ve finished writing a book, I’ve been really motivated towards my writing my next one, sometimes concurrently putting the finishing touches on the last book while excitedly mapping out and researching the next one. This time it’s a bit different. I have some possible ideas for new books, but nothing that is really shouting out to me as something I need to work on right away. At the same time, I feel like I want…
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Understanding Phytic Acid in Sourdough and Whole Grains
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Phytic acid in sourdough and whole grains I’ve been getting some questions about the phytic acid in whole grains and sourdough, and thought it would be a good idea to go into detail about how this works, and why you don’t need to be alarmed about it. Along with a bunch of good stuff that is not in refined flours, phytic acid is present in whole grains. If phytic acid is not broken down by the phytase enzyme by soaking,…
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Creating a Whole Grain Sourdough Book for The Rest of Us: Sourdough Without Fail
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Creating a sourdough book for the rest of us: A 100% Whole Grain Sourdough Book with easy recipes and practical design In some ways I’m grateful for the haphazard way I started with sourdough. I had previously been baking with yeast and had never found any recipes that really suited me, so I’d figured out my own. Switching over to sourdough, I took the same approach. I made some terrible loaves to begin with, but eventually figured out how to…
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How much time does it really take to make bread from scratch with whole grains and fresh milled flour?
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How to make fresh milled flour sourdough bread from scratch The time involved in making bread from scratch can be divided into hands-on time and hands-off time. Some bakers might use a lot of hands-on time, kneading a lot to develop strength in the dough. Other bakers might use a no-knead approach and use more hands-off time, with just a couple of minutes of hands-on time. You don’t need to knead your bread at all. The purpose of kneading is…
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Getting started with bread baking on a budget
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Frugal strategies for budget-friendly baking Be adaptableDon’t get fixated on baking with this or that heritage grain. Look at which grains and flours are most affordable where you live, and work with that. Wheat gets a lot of negative attention, but wheat can be a nourishing food for many people if it is organic and made into sourdough bread. Buy in bulkBuying directly from farmers and distributors in large bags can bring a lot of savings. Buying a 20 to…
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The power of bread: how homemade bread can transform your life for the better
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If you eat bread, the quality of bread you are putting on the table could be contributing to your health, or slowly making you sick. The best way to have healthy bread on the table is to make it yourself. It can be overwhelming to get started, but it doesn’t have to be. Many years ago when my husband and I were working on a farm on the other side of the world, I made a list of things I…
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Reflections on homesteading and self sufficiency, and our journey over the past two years
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Around two years ago I wrote a big update about what we were up to, and our plans for homesteading and self sufficiency over the next year or so. There have been so many changes and reflections since then, so here is an update some changes here, and on our progress with self reliance and growing food on old logging land. Changes New babyBorn in April 2024. She is beautiful and healthy and loves homemade cheese. No hay, no cowEvery…
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