Interesting events. My dear wife played
chauffer back and forth to Maine (from
the DC area) this summer. Last trip
she'd figured out the King Arthur baking
supply store was close to en route, so
they stopped in.

10yo ds was captivated by a video playing
in the store, something like "How to
make sweet yeast bread". Willing to
spend his own $20, it got bought (I
think we subsidized 50%) even tho the
expected result would be another fine
DVD collecting dust.

He wanted that vid to be "it" for our
family movie night movie shortly after
their return, and oddly enough, we all
watched it through; it was really
interesting. (For one thing, the guy
talked/showed about how to work with a
very wet dough and not get terminally
stuck in it.) The next day ds was
ready to go, and so we made a batch.
Then another. Then etc..

Someone thought about selling at the
local organic CSA where his sister
works, and so at this point he sells
out every time and takes several
orders for more. It's been a really
great experience for him, an ego
booster big time (not that he needed
much of that!), and a source for
multidisciplinary hs credit to boot!
Sooner or later he'll figure out his
economics, but right now he's happy
as a non-Scientologist clam selling
his wares at a wopping $0.15 over
cost.

He's also got non-sale orders. For
example, I suggested and he strongly
agreed that baking a loaf for his
new GodSister's (my God daughter :-)
baptism celebration as a present from
him to their family was a great idea.

Also, he got to play with a fellow
Cubscout and his brothers last Saturday.
He packed up flour, recipe, yeast, his
helmet and toy rifle, measuring cups,
Yugio (sp?) cards and poppy seed filling
the night before and couldn't go to
sleep he was so excited (who says
10yos can't be cute?!!). (It was a
roaring success. The four boys, from
about 7yo to about 14yo, held off
destroying their (quite good looking,
and as it turned out, good tasting)
creations until I got there, but then
they were gone in short order.)

It's also neat that his sisters, who
occasionally hijack ventures of their
little brother (and of eachother) when
they're interesting, have helped making
batches but have respected his 'space'.

A lot of "Beautiful Music" going on
in this!

Not that such things can't/don't happen
to non-hsed families, but either hsing
provides more opportunities and encourages
such things better, or the most interesting
(to me) families self-select and become
hsers. __________________________Marty

"Marty Carts" <p.addamiano-carts@att.net> wrote


Sometimes I wonder why I still lulk in here ...... then a post like this one
reminds me!

Thanks' for this Marty.

Marty Carts wrote:

We had a brief but heady couple of months here with excellent organic
Italian bread, but then the baker fell from grace (he apparently got miserly
with his a/c, so the bread went mouldy *really* fast). So when the
temperature drops below 70° I'm going back to my daily baking routine,
putting a 2-lb loaf in the breadmaker at 5 am so the (rest of the) house
wakes up to fresh bread.
(Actually, I slipped in at the back of the local Methodist church on Sunday
to listen to the postlude, and they had a breadmaker at the back of the
knave - I naturally asked, and they said this was their monthly communion
service, and they liked to run the breadmaker so the baking cycle was during
the service, as a full sensory experience.)
I used to have a more elaborate routine, doing a batch of laundry so that
the dryer was running in time to put the dough on top to rise, putting the
dough in bread baskets for the second rising so that it had interesting
patterns, then baking the loaves in the oven - but we found an excellent 2
lb breadmaker at a Red Cross store, the new washer and dryer don't favour
that approach (and the cats jump up to check on anything curious), so ...
But I still dream of milling my own flour, and the wholegrain and flavoured
loaves - cheddar and jalapeno, mint, rosemary and garlic, sundried tomato
and basil - are heavenly. (Mint is particularly refreshing with Indian
recipes, and I'm researching dill to accompany fish.)