Mother Earth News, Reenvisioned

MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Natural Bee Keeping in Your Back Yard p.12 Basic Breads p.34

Natural Care for Winter Skin & Hair p.60

October/November2020 motherearthnews.com

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER

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MOTHER EARTH NEWS

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News from Mother

Finding a Fresh Perspective On a recent evening, Joanna (my wife and farm partner) and I found ourselves with a rare bit of free time, so we loaded up a small picnic into our utility vehicle and went to look for new calves, and to study what the sheep were selecting and in which pasture they were selecting it. With our building site located at the northwest corner of our home farm, we generally look over the place while leaning on either the south or east gates. We recognize all the tree groves, swales, rises, and dips in the pastures and meadows.

We know where the other gates and ponds are, even theones we can’t see.

That evening, we found the cattle and calves to the southeast, and then spotted the sheep deep in our most eastern pasture. We parked at the top of a rise facing west and watched while replenishing our own calories. Rather than studying what the sheep were selecting, we marveled at how different the place looked from that point of reference and how unrecognizable it was in many ways. Sure, we’d been here before, but never to observe for any length of time. The details we noticed from that angle changed our thoughts on where to construct the next phase of our cross fences, and how to move the animals through the various paddocks those fences will form.

Issue Editors Lead Editor Allison Sarkesian Assistant Lead Editor Haley Casey Editorial Group Editorial Director Oscar H. Will III Group Editor, Rural Lifestyles Rebecca Martin Group Editor, Wellness & Gardening Jean Denney Group Editor, Collectibles Landon Hall Senior Managing Editor Caitlin Wilson Managing Editor Traci Smith Senior Copy Editor Amanda Sorell

See you in December,

Convergent Media Brenda Escalante; BEscalante@OgdenPubs.com Art Direction and Press Assistant group Art director Matthew T. Stallbaumer Pre-Press Kirsten Martinez Web & Digital Content Web Content Manager Tonya Olson Display Advertising 800-678-5779; AdInfo@OgdenPubs.com

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A few years ago, we discovered an infestation of an aggressive weed in one of the south pastures. This particular plant is virtually impossible to eradicate, and no chemical, burn strategy, or grazing method would lick it. Tillage might help; mowing, chemicals, and grazing might help. But what to do? Our initial perspective on the issue led to mild despair—and then we read that the weed made nutritious and highly palatable hay. Our conceptual perspective has since changed, and with this fresh perspective, we now see the “problem” as an interesting management issue.

As we hay it off each year, the stand overall weakens, and the animals graze the regrowth into late fall. Our cattle and sheep both eagerly devour the young vegetative growth in spring, summer, and fall, and the hay in winter—and the donkeys and mules do too!

Customer Care 800-234-3368; CustomerSer vice@OgdenPubs.com

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Hank

OGDEN PUBLICATIONS | Founders John and Jane Shuttleworth Publisher Bill Uhler Editorial Director Oscar H. Will III Director of Circulation & Marketing Cherilyn Olmsted Director of Newsstand & Production Bob Cucciniello Director of Sales Bob Legault Group Art Director Carolyn Lang Director of Events & Business Development Andrew Perkins Director of Information Technology Tim Swietek Director of Finance & Accounting Ross Hammond Mother Earth News (ISSN 0027-1535) October/November 2020, Issue Number 302 is published bimonthly by Ogden Publications, Inc., 1503 S.W. 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609-1265.

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER

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38 CONTENTS

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5 News from Mother Finding a fresh perspective

6 Dear Mother Letters from international fans a long lost

12 Them That's Doin' Catch up with authors and staff

19 Manipulate Your Microclimate Shrug off those Zone limitations

readers.

Updates on forest schools, organic produce

What you need to know to get started

47 Rendering and Cooking with Animal Fats Add flavor to your food and skill to your reper-

24 Earth-Moving Equipment 8 Green Gazette: Natural Learning

38 Natural Bee Keeping in Your Backyard

toire by rendering animal fats at home

Load up on versatile machinery to doze your daunting projects.

scores, and more

54 Dutch Oven Delight An annual gathering of cooks from across the

30 Natural Care for Winter Skin & Hair Create hydrating homemade beauty products

nation is keeping the time-honored techniques of camp Dutch ovens alive and well

58 Cover Crops on Urban farms City farmers have adapted cover cropping to suit unique challenges

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51 96

62 Drawing from Nature

72 Basic Breads

Fashion a quill pen that's perfect for dipping in

Practical knowledge about the ingredients,

homemade ink

methods and tools to get the loaf you want

Market Farming 51 A market for Meat Birds

66 Ask Our Experts Advice on herbal gummies, wattle and daub

96 Photos from the Field Reader-Submitted photos

Ge the most band for your cluck: Turn raising poultry into a community-supported agriculture venture

construction and growing mushrooms

62 The pitchfork Pulpit: Useful Failures

70 Homestead Hacks: Chick Inn Coop Turn and old play set into a paradise for your

Pitfalls and slip-ups can be instructive teachers

backyard flock

when you're learning how to operate a profitable business

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Natural Beekeeping in Your Backyard

by M.E.A. McNeil

Photo by Danika Perkinson

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MOTHER EARTH NEWS

NATURAL BEEKEEPING IN YOUR BACKYARD

tick-like honeybee parasite. At about the same time, much tinier terrors called tracheal mites began ravaging hives throughout the country.

To save their bees from these and other pests, many beekeepers turned to chemical controls, which worked for a while. Then two things happened: many populations of varroa mites became resistant to the two main pesticides used to control them, and entomologists discovered that feeding bees fatty patties made of sugar and shortening suppressed tracheal mites to tolerable levels.

If you’d like to benefit your garden and community and offer a treat to your taste buds, consider trying your hand at natural beekeeping in your own backyard. As honeybees gather pollen and nectar to make 50 pounds or more of pure, wild honey per hive, they pollinate crops nearby—and up to four miles away. This pollination is essential for good yields for some flowering crops. Best of all, honeybees require only simple management once the hives are up

and running. Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture Magazine, says that keeping bees takes “more effort than for your cat, but less than your dog.”

But can you achieve natural beekeeping?

For the first time in 20 years, the answer is yes. Until the mid-1980s, some beekeepers avoided using chemicals inside beehives, but then a quarantine violation led to the importation of the varroa mite, a devastating 6

In addition, products that utilize the mite-minimizing properties of essential oils (such as thymol-based Api-Life Var and spearmint and lemongrass Honey-B-Healthy) can effectively suppress mites in small apiaries. Dusting with powdered sugar is another technique used to knock down mites. Combined with routine hive maintenance and using bees bred to clean out compromised cells, new natural techniques can eliminate the need for chemical controls.

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Photo by Matthew Henry

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GETTING STARTED The general rhythm of bee life involves making and storing honey in wax combs from spring to fall, and then feeding on the stored supply in winter. Bees make honey from nectar. First, foraging bees collect nectar from flowers and store this sugary fluid in their “honey stomach.”

They transform the nectar into honey by repeatedly passing it back and forth, which helps evaporate most of the water and adds enzymes. Strong hives make more honey than they need, so good beekeeping involves doing everything you can to keep the colony healthy, and taking out just the right amount of honey without depriving the bees of an ample winter supply.

Honeybees reproduce rapidly as the weather warms in summer, so spring is the best time to set up a new hive. As you wait for winter to end, spend some

You will be working with highly organized insects, so a working knowledge of bee behavior is helpful—and fascinating.

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time with a good book on natural beekeeping (See “Resources,” section). You will be working with highly organized insects, so a working knowledge of bee behavior is helpful—and fascinating. You might look for a local beekeeper to help guide you through your first season. Your local extension service may be able to suggest someone (or offer a beekeeping course), or you can find a beekeeping club at Bee Culture.

If you live in the city, also check to make sure local regulations do not prohibit beekeeping. In most areas, beekeeping falls under generalized nuisance laws, and two hives are highly unlikely to become a nuisance. Even so, Dallas-area beekeeper John Caldieri suggests that suburban beekeepers do two things: Install a 6-foot tall panel of privacy fencing near hives to raise the bees’ flight paths above head level as they come and go, and share jars of honey with your closest neighbors.

On your side of the fence, locate hives where the bees will have an open flight path.

Ideally, morning sun should warm the hives, which should be in a place where they will seldom be disturbed by human activities.

If there is no pond or stream nearby, you will also need to provide a pool, birdbath or tub of water within 40 feet of the hives.

Photo by Danika Perkinson

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NATURAL BEEKEEPING IN YOUR BACKYARD

Photo by Annie Spratt

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GEARING UP The basic equipment you’ll need to get started is listed below.

In general, you’ll need: Boxes (the hives).

Frames with wax foundation. The foundation usually has a pattern imprinted on it that matches the pattern of wax cells that bees create as they make the comb that they fill with honey, pollen and their brood, or larvae.

A bee suit, or other protective clothing.

A smoker and a few hand tools.

It’s best to pass up all-inclusive pre-built beginner kits that come with a plastic foundation. Bees build better on pure beeswax.

Most beekeepers order pre-cut hive and frame components, which are quick and easy to assemble with glue and nails.

You can also build your own hive boxes.

Vermont beekeeper Mike Palmer buys scrap wood and makes boxes, bottom boards and lids for about a dollar each.

Building plans for boxes and frames are available at Bee Source.

White is the traditional color to paint the outside of boxes; light colors help keep the hives from overheating in hot summer weather. Use any non-lead-based paint or a natural sealant, such as Auro.

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12,000 BEES, PLEASE You can buy worker bees (and an egg-laying queen for each hive) by mail. The best time to start beekeeping is after the last hard freeze in the spring, so you’ll want to have them delivered then. As you shop, choose queen bees from regional sources that have been bred for “hygienic behavior”—a genetic trait that leads to workers with superior talents for cleaning out larvae with disease or mites. For each hive, you will need 3 pounds of bees with a queen— that’s about 12,000 bees! The post office will never be more eager to see you come in than on the day when your order arrives.

Once you have some experience, you can add new hives by taking in swarms, or groups of worker bees with an older queen that will leave a mature colony to start a new one.

Many people don’t want large swarms of

The post office will never be more eager to see you come in than on the day when your order arrives.

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bees to find a new home on their property, so if you’re interested in picking up these “free bees,” just add your name to the local police and fire department lists of beekeepers willing to collect swarms, and before long the phone will ring for “the bee lady” or “the bee guy.” Because swarms have an old queen, most beekeepers replace her with a stronger queen soon after the colony is settled in its new hive.

HOW NOT TO GET STUNG You will need to look inside the hive from time to time to see what’s going on, sometimes to feed your bees sugar water to supplement lean nectar supplies, and certainly to harvest some honey in late summer. Hiving and feeding your bees can feel complicated and scary at first, so suit up completely in a zipper-sealed bee suit until you feel comfortable and confident (many experienced beekeepers suit up, too).

When working with the hives, take your time and practice slow, fluid movements, which are least likely to upset the bees.

You will calm the bees by first using a smoker to puff pine-needle or leaf smoke in and around the hives (it masks the bees’ alarm pheromone), but even calm bees will crawl around on their keeper. Fortunately, calm bees seldom sting.

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THE SWEETEST HARVEST You can harvest your honey with the beeswax comb intact (comb honey), or you can use a hot knife to cut the caps from the comb and remove the honey. Extracting the honey and returning the empty comb to the hive is easiest on the bees (they ingest 6 pounds of honey to make 1 pound of wax).

Electric extractors quickly spin the honey from combs using centrifugal force, but they are expensive. Bee clubs often share an electric extractor, and sometimes organize honey harvesting parties.

Photo by Tanja Rohn

As frames are replaced, you will harvest more bounty from your bees in the form of beeswax for candles, soaps and lotion.

Should you decide to sell some of your honey, you will find that prices are significantly higher for local, raw honey.

Some people buy it for health reasons, including to relieve allergies, although proof that it works depends on anecdotal evidence.

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Photo by Juan Alexis Mora

KEEPING YOUR BEEHIVES HEALTHY It is always wise to set hives up off the ground on bricks or concrete block, especially in areas where fire ants or hive beetles may stage an invasion. In addition, many beekeepers like to have a screened bottom board and an access slot in the back of the hive’s bottom box big enough to slip in a thick piece of cardboard. If the bees have varroa mites, you can catch about 15 percent of them by using pieces of paper coated with cooking oil or petroleum jelly (the mites that fall off the bees’ bodies get stuck and can’t crawl back up). The slot also comes in handy should you opt to “fumigate” hives with essential oils or other natural pest-control products.

But the most important component of a healthy beehive is you. It will take little effort on your part to bond with your bees, which begins the day you slip your new caged queen into the hive, dump in her ready workforce of bees, and hope they

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like her well enough to chew through the sugar plug on her little cage to set her free. Or, you may begin with a smaller “nuc,” or nuclear colony, which consists of a laying queen and the first of her brood.

After one week, check new hives to make sure the queen is laying, and then let the bees work in peace. As long as you see bees coming and going from the hive with bulging pouches of pollen on their legs, assume that all is well. The first young bees will begin hatching within a month.

In a hive’s first year, it is best to leave most of the honey for the bees, and harvest only a few frames in late summer. Then, after life in the hive settles down again, you can let the original queen stay on, or you can replace her. Many beekeepers replace their queens every August, because young queens lay more eggs than older ones. If you simply let nature take its course, the workers will raise a new queen when the old one begins to fail, by feeding a special food—royal jelly—to selected larvae.

As fascinating as they are productive, bees bring rewards far beyond honey. As a beekeeper, you get the pleasant respite of working with your hives, and the bees spread their pollinating benefits and put delicious honey on your table.

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In a hive’s first year, it is best to leave most of the honey for the bees, and harvest only a few frames in late summer.

BEEKEEPING SUPPLIES Beekeeping does involve some initial expenses. Here’s a list of what you will need to start two hives. The cost can be divided into one-time startup expenses for hive components (about $350) and other equipment (about $150). If you get everything new it comes to about $500 for two hives, plus bees and shipping. You can cut costs by starting with swarms instead of purchasing bees. (For more about purchasing bees, see “12,000 Bees Please,” above.) You also can buy some equipment secondhand, although you should not buy used hive and frame components, and especially not used comb, because of the threat of spreading mites and disease.

Before you order any equipment, you will need to decide whether you want liquid or comb honey. (See “The Sweetest Harvest,” above.)

HIVES, FRAMES AND FOUNDATIONS Two hives, commercial grade: This is a one-time expense of about $200. It includes these parts of the boxes: four hive bodies (boxes); six 6 5∕8-inch honey supers (boxes), two reversible bottom boards, two telescoping covers with inner covers, two queen excluders, two top feeders, two screened bottom boards, and two entrance reducers.

Frames and foundations: These will need to be gradually replaced every three years or so, and cost about $150 total.

That estimated cost includes commercial frames and foundation sheets. Be sure to get the correct size frames for your supers. Also, if you decide to make liquid honey, you’ll need to order crimp wired foundation sheets. For comb honey, order thin, unwired foundation.

SUPPLIERS Betterbee, Greenwich N.Y.; 800-632-3379

OTHER BASIC EQUIPMENT One-time expense, $150 and up: Zipper veil bee suit and helmet

Mann Lake, Hackensack, Minn.; 800-880-7694

Boot bands

Western Bee Supplies, Polson, Mont.; 800-548-8440

Gloves, plastic-coated canvas 7-inch stainless steel smoker with shield Hive tool Frame grips

Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, Moravian Falls, N.C.; 800-233-7929 Dadant & Sons, Hamilton Ill.; 888-922-1293

GloryBee Foods, Eugene, Ore.; 800-456-7923 You also can purchase pre-assembled frames for 60 cents each from:

Bee brush Spur embedder for wiring frames Embedding wire Bees, and Other Expenses 3 pounds of bees, plus queen, $55 to $80, plus shipping 1 gallon exterior latex paint or Auro natural stain Outdoor wood glue Cinder blocks or wood for a base 14

Rudy Swartzentruber 271 Johnson Rd Rensselaer Falls, NY 13680

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SAVE THE BEES? Honeybees have been in the headlines recently, and the news isn’t good.

Many people are now worried about the loss of large numbers of bees, a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Honeybees play an important role in pollinating many fruits and vegetables, so this news is as alarming for agriculture as it is for beekeeping.

The latest research indicates that a variety of factors are probably responsible for dying honeybees including a virus, problems with mites and other factors that weaken the immunity of the bees. However, we’re also hearing reports that while large commercial beekeeping operations are suffering, many home beekeepers are having fewer problems. For beekeepers, following the suggestions elsewhere in this article, such as avoiding secondhand equipment, and taking other steps toavoid mites, are sensible pre-cautions. For more news on bees and CCD, visit our colony collapse disease updates.

—Mother

M.E.A. McNeil is a writer and illustrator, and lives on a certified organic farm in San Anselmo, Calif., where she has kept bees for 20 years. She earned the designation Master from The University of Nebraska. Visit her Web site, Mythos Books and Art.

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NATURAL BEEKEEPING IN YOUR BACKYARD

RESOURCES BEEKEEPING BOOKS The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum The Beekeeper’s Handbook by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile The Hive and the Honey Bee edited by Joe Graham A Book of Bees by Sue Hubbell BEE JOURNALS American Bee Journal Bee Culture (Bee clubs often have subscription discount certificates.)

Grit's Guide to Backyard Bees and Honey

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BASIC BREADS

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER

By Carol Taylor

A comprehensive guide to preparing dough and baking bread

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BASIC BREADS

Bread pervades our language and literature, a metaphor for physical and spiritual sustenance.

STAFF OF LIFE Bread pervades our language and our literature. A metaphor for physical and spiritual sustenance.

We petition for our daily bread, live not by bread alone, break bread together.

(The word companion derives from the Latin companio, “one who shares bread.”)

The satirist Juvenal lamented that his fellow Romans cared only for “bread and circuses,” a concern we still share: A modern man who is short of bread could use a little dough to see him through.

And substance preceded the image.

Ten-thousand years ago, the domestication of wild grasses made the domestication of humanity possible. Freed from the necessity to roam constantly in search of food, humans could settle down and invent civili‑ zation. Heroic images of fur-clad, spear wielding hunters notwithstanding, we soon fed ourselves primarily on grains.

Before bread, grain was dried on hot rocks or boiled into a paste or gruel. By the late Stone Age, flat breads were common.

(Remnants endure: Mexican tortillas, Chinese pancakes, Indian chapaties.) The Egyptians began making leavened bread about 4000 B.C., probably when a neglected gruel, contaminated by wild airborne yeasts, fermented and rose. With characteristic virtuosity, the Greeks became master bakers who served up 62 varieties.

Both Greeks and Romans preferred white bread, the food of the upper classes; slaves and servants ate the dark. Since extra labor was required to refine dark flour into light, it was more expensive and thus a mark of status. Europe followed the classic tradition. For centuries, coarse, hard rye bread was the daily fare of peasants—often secondhand, at that. The masters ate their dinners served up on rock-hard slabs of bread, called trenchers. When they’d eaten their meat and gravy, they fed the soppingtrenchers to the servants and the dogs.

Dark bread continued to get bad press until the Reverend Sylvester Graham, 19th-century reformer and grump, began a campaign to popularize whole grains.

They were healthy, he nagged; they alleviated a wide range of digestive problems.

Besides, zflour was tantamount to “putting asunder what God has joined together.”

(Whole-wheat flour is often called graham flour, in the good reverend’s honor; graham crackers are another namesake.)

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With the publication in 1974—a mere hundred years later—of an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, touting the benefits of dietary fiber, the res­‑ pectability of wholegrain bread was assured.

During the Industrial Revolution, baking bread became less of a private enterprise and more of a commercial one. Even so, packaged bread was not plentiful in grocery stores until 1930; and until the beginning of World War II, 50% of the baked goods consumed were produced at home. Now 95% are store-bought.

In the 1970s and 1980s homemade bread has enjoyed a minor renaissance. Lured by an honest, unadulterated loaf, by the fragrance and taste of perfectly fresh bread, by the sensuous pleasure of working the dough, by the pride of accomplishment, by the sense of participating in an art as old as humanity itself—more and more of us are doing it ourselves.

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BASIC BREAD The simplest loaf contains just flour, water, yeast and salt. Almost always, the flour is made from wheat. Alone among cereals, wheat contains substantial amounts of gluten—long, sprawling molecules of protein that, with the addition of water and handling, mesh into an elastic network that can stretch and expand, permitting the loaf to rise. Other grains—rye, oats, corn,

millet—may be added for flavor, texture, and nutrients. But if we are to have leavened bread, we must have wheat. (Rye has only traces of gluten; used alone, it will produce a loaf hard enough to break a peasant’s tooth.

Other grains have none. Bioengineers hope to be able to transfer gluten’s genetic codes into corn, millet, and sorghum, a development that would revo­lutionize bread making.)

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Yeasts are fungi, one-celled plants—160 species of them. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae are particularly useful to brewers and bakers. In an anaerobic environment, like bread dough, they metabolize starches and sugars, giving off carbon dioxide and alcohol as by-products. As the bubbles of CO increase and expand, they stretch the ² gluten, and the loaf rises.

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Photo by Kim Cruickshanks

Since the Pharaohs, bakers have transformed flour and yeast into bread by the same ritual.

Making the dough. All the ingredients (except part of the flour) are combined and beaten, by hand or (these days) by machine, to mix the dough and start developing the gluten.

Kneading. Pummeling the dough, stretching and folding it, disperses the yeast, develops the gluten, and evaporates the alcohol. At this stage, the remaining flour is worked into the dough.

Rising. While the dough sits in a warm place, the yeast multiplies and produces carbon dioxide, and the dough rises.

Then it’s deflated and allowed to rise either once or twice more.

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Baking. In a hot oven, the yeast dies and the elastic gluten solidifies, now able to support all other ingredients—the character of which will govern the taste and texture of the bread.

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The market supports a greater variety of white flour, since most bread, whether commercial or homemade, is light.

BREAD INGREDIENTS FLOUR Three principal types of wheat dominate the 600 million acres planted to the crop worldwide. Hard wheat has a hard kernel and ample protein, including gluten.

It is made into bread flour. Soft wheat, with little gluten, is milled into pastry and cake flours (pastries are toughened and ruined by gluten). Durum wheat is so hard that it isn’t even good for bread, which must have some elasticity; it becomes pasta.

Whole-wheat flour contains the entire ground-up kernel: the germ, or embryo, rich in oil, vitamins and minerals; the endosperm, or main body of the kernel, filled with starch and protein (including the gluten); and the bran, or hard seed coat. Compared to white flour, which contains only the endosperm—the germ and bran are milled out and sold separately—whole-wheat is rich in flavor, fiber, nutrients and fat. Alas, fat turns rancid quickly. While white flour is virtually imperishable, whole-wheat keeps only about a month at room temperature, or two under refrigeration, before it starts to become bitter. It pays to check the expiration date on supermarket packages,or to question the shopkeeper when buying from bulk bins. The unused portion should be wrapped in an airtight package and stored in the refrigerator.

Because whole-wheat contains heavy, solid particles of bran and germ, it may produce a dense loaf. Thus, many recipes for “wholewheat” bread call fora portion of white flour, additional yeast, or an extra rising.

Whole-wheat pastry flour is milled from whole kernels of soft wheat. With too little gluten for bread, it makes crisp, light biscuits and pastries.

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The market supports a greater variety of white flour, since most bread, whether commercial or homemade, is light. By law, white flour must be enriched with niacin, thiamine, and riboflavin (the B vitamins that got milled out with the germ).

Bread flour is made from hard wheat, rich in protein and gluten; it makes a high, light loaf. Some brands are treated with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or potassium bromate, to make the gluten more elastic and more resistant to overworking by heavy commercial machinery. Over kneading dough—which leads to the collapse of the gluten and the failure of the loaf—is rarely a problem for hand kneaders, who give out long before the gluten does. Food processors, however, can overwork dough in a heartbeat.

All-purpose flour is a blend of high-gluten hard wheats and low-gluten soft ones, produced by large mills to satisfy a wide range of baking needs, from pastries to breads. Like most compromises, it does every thing adequately and nothing superbly. The unbleached variety works well.

Pastry flour is too gluten-poor for bread.

MOTHER EARTH NEWS

YEAST The most common yeast on the market— and the one used in all recipes here—is active dry yeast, universally available in small foil packets of one-fourth ounce each.

Alive but dormant, it has been dehydrated and becomes active when dissolved in warm liquid. Freshness is vital; yeast that’s past its pull date is a license to fail.

FAT Butter, margarine, shortening, oil, lard— in small amounts, all add volume (by lubricating the gluten, making it more elastic), tenderness, flavor, moistness, and richness. Too little fat will produce a dry, coarse loaf; too much, an oily, crumbly one.

SALT Salt-less bread tastes bland and flat.

Although too much damages the yeast and produces a heavy loaf, a little improves the flavor, strengthens the gluten, and regulates fermentation.

SUGAR Sweetening in its various forms (sugar, honey, molasses, maple syrup) contributes flavor, tenderness, moisture, and a rich, brown crust. It also delays staling. In small amounts, sugar increases the activity of yeast, so it’s usually dissolved with the yeast in warm water. But too much upsets the water balance in the yeast cells, at which point fermentation declines sharply. That’s why recipes for sweet doughs often call for extra yeast (and why it’s a bad idea to add more sugar to the dissolving yeast than the directions suggest). Except in very sweet doughs, the choice of sweetener doesn’t affect the flavor.

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LIQUID Although water is the most common liquid, others can be substituted—everything from fruit or vegetable juices to broth or beer. Obviously, flavor varies. Milk makes the texture softer, delays staling, and creates a rich brown crust.

Et cetera. Fruits, nuts, seeds, cheese, vegetables, cornmeal, oats, wheat germ— the list goes on for flavor, character, and fun.

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EQUIPMENT Assuming a kitchen stocked with the usual measuring cups and mixing bowls, only a few extra tools are required.

THERMOMETER Like other living organisms, yeast cares about temperature: too cool, and it will remain dormant; too hot, and it will die.

The most useful thermometer is an instant response one with a metal spike and a gauge that measures from freezing to boiling.

With it you can check the liquid you add to the yeast and the place where the dough rises.

DOUGH BLADE Also called a dough scraper or cutter, this handy tool is a rectangular piece of steel (about 4" x 5") with a wooden handle.

It is useful for kneading dough in the early, sticky stages, for dividing dough, and for scraping dough residue off the kneading surface afterward.

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PANS Bread bakes well in a variety of materials.

Most widely recommended are dark metal loaf pans, which absorb heat readily and produce a uniformly brown crust.

Shiny metal pans reflect heat and produce pale sides and bottom. (If the baked loaf is removed from the pan and returned to the oven for five or 10 minutes, the crust will brown up nicely.) Glass baking pans also work well; lower the heat by 25°F when using them. Recipes are most apt to call for loaf pans that measure 8"x 4" (medium) or 9" x 5" (large). You’ll also need a baking sheet for round peasant loaves.

OVEN THERMOMETER Equally certain are death, taxes, and an inaccurate oven thermostat. Considering the odds, an oven thermometer is a good investment, so that you end up with neither a cinder nor a semi-baked lump of dough.

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BASIC BREADS

Once yeast is heat-killed, nothing will resurrect it.

YEAST PREPARATION Because of yeast’s sensitivity to temperature, all ingredients need to be at room temperature (except, of course, the liquid for dissolving the yeast, which should be warmer). If your whole-wheat flour is stored in the refrigerator, take it out in time to warm up; if you’ve melted butter, let it cool.

MAKING THE DOUGH Although details vary, there are three general methods of adding the yeast to the other ingredients. Directions vary from cookbook to cookbook and, frequently, from recipe to recipe.

Method 1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water (105° to 115°F) with a small amount of sugar, then add the other ingredients.

Older recipes direct you to let the dissolved yeast sit for five to 10 minutes, until it becomes frothy—a means of “proofing” the yeast, or making certain that it’s still alive.

These days, when yeast is virtually always reliable, this delay is simply unnecessary, unless the pull date has expired or you have some other reason to question the yeast’s viability.

Method 2. Mix the yeast with some of the flour and the other dry ingredients; add hot (120° to 130°F) liquid to form a batter, then add other ingredients.

Method 3. Make a sponge: Combine the yeast, half the flour and other ingredients (except fat and eggs), and let it all ferment for several hours or overnight. Then add the rest of the flour and any other ingredients to form the dough.

Regardless of the method, it is vital to check the temperature of the liquid before you add it to the yeast. Once yeast is heat-killed, nothing will resurrect it.

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KNEADING DOUGH Kneading is like dancing: As long as you’ve got the rhythm, there’s lots of room for individual moves. Do find a work surface that’s the right height. You should be able to extend your arms downward with palms resting flat on the surface. Unless you’re tall, a kitchen counter is too high; you won’t get full power from your arms. Too low a worktable will break your back. Sprinkle the surface lightly with flour, and dump the dough onto it. Dust your hands lightly with flour, and get it on.

Form the dough into a rough ball. Using the heels of your hands, push into the dough, moving it down and away, stretching and flattening it. Then lift the back end and bring it forward, folding the dough in half. Give it a quarter turn, and push it out again. Push, fold, turn—the elements of kneading.

As you knead, add sprinkles of flour as necessary, to make the dough workable.

Try not to overdo it; the dough will become less sticky as you work it, and too much flour will produce a dry, heavy loaf. It’s impossible to specify how much extra flour should be kneaded in, so recipes give a range. Flours absorb varying amounts of water, depending on what type they are, what crop they came from, how they’ve been stored and whether the day is humid or dry.

At first, when the dough is especially sticky, try for a fairly light touch, so your hand doesn’t become stuck. In these early stages,

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a dough blade is helpful; use it to lift, fold and turn the dough. As it begins to firm up, your strokes can become more aggressive.

Kneading isn’t a delicate operation; put your whole body into it. Some apparently rational experts even suggest that you periodically lift up the ball of dough and slam it down on the table, insisting that it will do the dough (and you) a world of good.

When can you stop? The standard estimate is 10 minutes to knead one loaf, but time varies with the flour, the weather and the energy of the baker. Most cooks judge by look and feel.

Well-kneaded dough loses its stickiness (whole-wheat stays tackier) and becomes smooth and shiny. Small blisters sometimes appear on the surface, especially on white dough. Most important, the dough (like the gluten) becomes elastic: It can be stretched into a thin sheet without tearing.

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Photo by Ronaldo de Oliveiria

As you knead, it begins to resist your advances; when you push, it springs back.

THE DOUGH ALSO RISES During rising, the yeast does the work.

All you have to do is provide the right environment for the yeast to multiply and metabolize.

Lightly grease a large mixing bowl—large enough to allow the dough to double in size.

Round the dough into a ball; place it in the bowl and turn it once (to grease the surface lightly, so that it doesn’t form a crust); cover the bowl with plastic wrap, a platter, or a damp towel; and set it in a rising place free of drafts (which will make the dough rise slowly and unevenly), with a temperature of about 80°F. Slightly cooler will slow the rising; slightly warmer will speed it up. Just try to stay in the 80° range. (Whip out your trusty thermometer.)

Good rising places range from the ordinary to the whimsical. Some cooks put their dough in a gas oven; with the door closed, the pilot light supplies just the right warmth. (Make sure to test your oven; many are far too hot.) Others turn their electric oven to 200°F for one minute, turn it off, then insert the dough. A few place it atop a refrigerator or water heater or on a washer or dryer that’s been used recently. Some set it on a heating pad; a few lay it on a water bed. (Where does your cat nap? It’s probably a warm, draft-free place.)

Normally, dough rises until it doubles in bulk, which takes about an hour. To test whether it’s ready, poke two half-inch deep holes in it with your fingers. If the holes start to fill in, more time is needed. If the indentations remain and the dough feels spongy, your time is up.

Now punch the dough down: Double up your fist and push it into the center of the dough (gently or viciously, as your conscience dictates). The dough will collapse as the gas sighs out. Knead for a minute or two to force out the rest.

Most recipes direct you to shape the dough into a loaf and put it in the pan for the final rising (or “proof”). Some call for a second rising in the bowl before the proof (a total of three risings). Whatever the recipe says, you can always opt for that additional rising. There’s plenty of life in the old fungus yet, and the texture will become finer with each rising. Since there is more yeast to do the work, second and third risings take half to two-thirds as long.

Once you decide to let well enough alone, the dough needs to rest for two or three minutes, so the gluten can relax. Then shape the loaf—a process as individual as the bakers who do it. You can simply pat the dough into a roughly loaf-like shape and place it in the pan. Or roll it flat with a rolling pin and then roll it up like a jellyroll. You might pat the dough into an oval, fold each of 26

the long edges into the middle, then fold up the ends. A simple method is to fold the oval in half, pinch the seam tightly to seal it, tuck the ends under, and place it, seam side down, in the pan. For a free-form peasant loaf, just shape the dough into a round, flatten it slightly on top, and set it aside to proof.

The dough is now ready for its final rising. Set it in the same kind of place where it rose before, until it doubles in bulk.

(Try to select your pans so that the kneaded dough doesn’t fill them more than two-thirds full; otherwise, it’s likely to rise more than an inch above the pans—the desirable height.) If your loaf has risen particularly well, and looks as if it’s bursting at the seams, make a few slashes across the top with a very sharp knife or razor blade.

If the loaf continues rising in the oven— a phenomenon known as oven spring, a baker’s joy that occurs when everything has gone absolutely right—the slashes will allow the loaf to expand without tearing.

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BAKING BREAD Try not to open the oven door for the first 15 or 20 minutes; you can instantly lose as much as 25% of the heat. Second, rely on your own on-site evaluation of whether it’s actually done.

The top crust should be golden brown.

Now check the bottom: With oven mitts on, turn the loaf out into one of your hands.

When it slides out easily, that’s a good sign; as bread cooks, it shrinks away from the sides of the pan. Tap the bottom crust with a fingernail; the loaf should sound hollow.

A dull, liquid thud says you’re holding uncooked dough. Squeeze the sides. If the bread bounces back, it’s probably done.

If it retains the impressions of your fingers, it’s probably not. If your loaf fails these tests, return it to the pan and the pan to the

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oven for five minutes, then check again. Cool the finished loaf on a wire rack; on a solid surface, escaping steam will condense and produce a soggy bottom.

A really silly piece of advice: Don’t slice the bread until it’s completely cool—that is, for two or three hours. Sure, right. OK, at least wait 30 minutes, if you can, and resign yourself to a soggy texture even then.

(It will improve in a couple of hours.)

A still-warm loaf doesn’t cut so much as it tears—a minuscule consideration when compared to the allure of fresh, warm bread.

Whenever you eat it, don’t wrap the remainder in any airtight way until it’s completely cool; otherwise, the steam will soften the loaf and encourage mold.

SPEEDING IT UP

1. FOOD PROCESSOR A food processor doesn’t provide much in the way of sensuous pleasure, but it’s fast.

Instead of a minimum of 10 minutes for hand kneading, the machine takes about 45 to 60 seconds.

While machines vary (consult the owner’s manual), the general pattern is this: Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Place the dry ingredients in the work bowl, and pulse to blend. Add dissolved yeast; then, with machine running, add other liquid ingredients slowly until the dough forms a solid mass. Process 45 to 60 seconds more.

2. FAST-ACTING YEAST Recently, genetic engineers have developed new strains of yeast that cut the rising time in half (Fleischmann’s RapidRise and Red Star’s Quick-Rise). Since the risings are the most time-consuming part of the process, the savings are significant.

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3. MICROWAVE Few people would find bread baked in a microwave acceptable; the dough forms no crust, and it comes out of the oven the same color as when it went in. But some longtime bakers use these ovens to raise their bread, thus reducing rising time by two-thirds. Consult your manual, but here’s how it generally works: Microwave three cups of water in a one-quart measure until it’s steaming hot.

Cover the bowl of dough with a towel, and put it in the oven next to the water.

Microwave at 10% power (the lowest possible setting) for 18 to 20 minutes. Check the risen dough in the usual way.

When this technique fails, it’s usually because the oven can’t maintain a low enough power. If the microwave can’t be set at 10% if, for example, it registers only low, medium and high—forget it. You’ll end up with an unrisen, semi-baked blob.

Among both expert bakers and devoted eaters, evaluations of these techniques vary widely. Some argue that all three com- promise flavor, texture, and keeping quality; others maintain that the final loaf is every bit as good as a traditional one. Considering the time savings involved, it’s probably worth your while to find out what you think.

Photo by Maria Orlova

Although the actual work of bread making is relatively brief, the risings and baking keep you in or around the house for three hours or more. With occasional help from modern technology, it doesn’t have to take that long.

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Cover Crops on

URBAN FARMS

By Brian Allnutt

Why is cover cropping a one-size-fits-all approach? These city farmers have adapted the practice to suit their unique challenges.

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Jon Miller is a retired union representative for city workers who’s in his second career as an urban farmer in Detroit. Like a lot of growers, he’s excited about the possibilities of cover crops for regenerating soil and reducing his reliance on more cumbersome off-farm inputs, such as compost and fertilizer. However, as Miller says, “This whole field of cover crops doesn’t address urban farming,” and he’s had trouble delivering on the promise of cover crops on his farm.

Cover crops—also known as “green manures”—are plants that aren’t grown for harvest, but instead for a number of other benefits, including fixing nitrogen, controlling weeds, adding organic matter, attracting pollinators, and feeding soil organisms, which, along with plant roots, emit various substances that help bind soil particles together to build good structure. Miller’s primary attempt at using them in his own growing spaces—which are 4,000 and 11,000 square feet in size—involved seeding low-growing white clovers in the pathways between beds. Unfortunately, the clover invaded his planting beds and turned into a weed problem. And yet, compost has been unable to provide the soil improvement he needs on degraded urban soil. “I’ve laid down 20 to 30 yards of it a year,” he says. “But you look a couple years later, and it hardly looks like you put anything down.”

Miller’s predicament—desperately needing to improve his soil, but being unable to incorporate cover crops into a highly intensive system—is common on urban farms. Growers struggle with space constraints, lack of large equipment to efficiently manage covers, and the need to grow crops, such as salad mix and spinach, that aren’t easy to grow with cover crops. However, covers offer obvious

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benefits for urban farmers. Naim Edwards, a Michigan State University researcher beginning a project on urban soils in Detroit, says urban farmers are dealing with compacted soils that contain high levels of debris and low organic matter. There’s also the expense—sometimes thousands of dollars a year—and the logistical difficulty of bringing in compost or manure.

Cover crop management can include irrigating, mowing, weeding plants from areas where they’re not wanted, and then killing and incorporating them into the soil. “For some folks, it’s just too daunting of a mental task to try to coordinate any energy around that,” Edwards says.

“And for others, there’s some skepticism around scale.” Many of these farmers handle complex operations that may also involve a second job. No wonder some decide urban cover crops aren’t worth the trouble and instead call in another load of compost.

Andy Chae has both delivered pizzas and washed dishes in addition to running Fisheye Farms with his partner, Amy Eckert, who works a side job as a waitress. Like Miller, they’re trying to use clover in the pathways of their main field, which measures about 7,600 square feet. Using low-growing Dutch or New Zealand white clovers in pathways is an entry point for many growers. These bee-friendly, nitrogen-fixing plants can provide a reservoir of moisture, nitrogen-enriched soil, fungi, and other soil biota that crops can potentially tap into from the surrounding beds.

Farmers can also under-sow them beneath taller plants, such as brassicas and solanums, or simply allow them to invade beds where it’s not a problem.

Originally, Chae and Eckert tried using a mix of clover and ryegrass, but the rye simply lost out to the clover after repeated cuttings. Cutting the clover down with

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“You want plants, and you want roots doing the majorityof the work; you don’t want humans to be adding a lot of inputs.”—Naim Edwards

a weed wacker was also a problem, because it broadcast the trimmings onto the surrounding beds. This addition of nitrogen-rich material could be great for other applications.

However, like many urban farms, Fisheye grows a lot of high-value salad mix that’s in demand at both farmers markets and restaurants. “It does slow down the washing of the salad, because of all the clover in there,” Chae says.

might survive, but he believes in “putting down organic matter that will make weed management easier in the future, even if it doesn’t kill the bindweed.”

The timing of cover crop planting is crucial on urban farms; growers can’t afford to let valuable growing space lie idle under cover for a season.

Undeterred, Fisheye plans to experiment with a narrow reel mower that will drop the clover debris directly back down into the aisles. They’ve also been paying a neighbor to weed the clover out from the beds, which takes about eight hours a year.

Photo by Daniel Fazio

Inside the farm’s hoop house, Chae and Eckert use peas and oats to prepare for spring production. This combination of legumes and grasses is popular, because both plants fix nitrogen and carbon in the soil.

Although cover crops can suppress weeds, Chae and Eckert first put down a black tarp for a year to kill the bindweed growing there. Along with quackgrass, bindweed is one of the most persistent weeds Detroit growers face. The peas and oats will smother the remaining bindweed, enriching what will be a high-production space.

Chae acknowledges that the bindweed

Patrick Crouch, the program manager at Earthworks Urban Farm, Detroit’s first Certified Organic farm, has also struggled with making urban cover crops work.

He tried low-growing white clover for years, even going so far as to allow it to take over beds, where he planted brassicas directly into cover using a bulb planter. He mowed down the cover beforehand, weeded around the transplants for several weeks until they were established, and then let the clover go.

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Photo by Abigail Lynn

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“It worked well for the first season,” Crouch says. “The plants seemed really healthy, and we were reducing our tillage.”

He also hoped the clover would reduce pressure from flea beetles, which he’d read would have difficulty finding the plants if they couldn’t see their silhouettes on the bare ground. However, he experienced a new problem when the farm’s vole population exploded. “The unforeseen consequence was that the constant cover made it so that hawks couldn’t see the voles well enough to hunt them and suppress their level.

I was just seeing tons and tons of damage on crops, such as my overwintering carrots.”

Crouch found a more workable use of cover crops by under-sowing hairy vetch— another nitrogen-fixing legume, and one that produces more organic matter— beneath tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.

He cultivates the soil for several weeks after transplanting, and then broadcasts the vetch by hand, counting on either rain or the moisture from the drip tape to germinate the seed. “And then I pretty well forget about the fact that the hairy vetch is there,” he says. “It does germinate, but it stays really short because it’s too shady.”

In fall, he simply cuts back the solanums without disturbing the soil, and the vetch takes over in the cooler weather. “Come next spring, it starts flowering, at which point I cut it down and incorporate it.”

The timing is crucial. Crouch waits until the hairy vetch is on the verge of flowering and has maxed out its nitrogen-fixing potential before he kills it and incorporates it into the soil. Timing is especially important on urban farms, where growers often work in tight production windows and can’t afford to let a quarter of their growing space lie fallow under cover for a season.

Crouch has also used buckwheat. This plant doesn’t have the big payoffs in nitrogen fixation and organic matter addition that other covers do. But as a fast-growing, heat-tolerant crop, it’s easy to work into breaks in the summer growing schedule.

It also suppresses weeds, traps nitrogen, accumulates phosphorous, and, in Crouch’s estimation, does a good job of breaking up compacted soil—a concern for Detroit’s urban growers. Crouch has used it between spring crops of salad mix and with the farm’s fall garlic planting.

Yet, the promise of cover crops can remain elusive, even for an accomplished farmer, when dealing with weedy soils. “Oftentimes, cover crops are presented as this magical item, and one of the ways in which they’re talked about is this idea of being ‘smother crops,’ ” Crouch says. “And they’ll work on some things, but I certainly don’t think they’ll get the nastiest of the nasties, the quackgrass and the bindweed.” The persistence of perennial weeds such as these has kept him from maintaining permanent 32

covers under some fruit crops, such as grapes and raspberries, where they might be easiest to maintain.

However, cover crops will do things compost and fertilizer can’t: enter into the life of the soil; break up compacted earth; and produce exudates that nourish fungi and in turn build soil structure. “Anytime you’re talking sustainable soil improvement,” Edwards says, for organic farmers, making urban cover crops work could mean fitting them in when and where they’re able.

“For a lot of urban farmers, taking things out of production isn’t a very enticing idea,” Crouch says. “The solution is just to throw more compost down, but that solution, from my experience, isn’t adequate. You’re not really improving overall soil health in the way that you are when you’re utilizing cover crops that are able to really feed that root biome.”

Brian Allnutt is a Detroit-based writer who has covered food justice, urban agriculture, and environmental issues in both Flint and Detroit, Michigan.

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