Well, I’m finished with all those peaches. I made some ginger peach muffins and froze the rest. It took three nights of being up past midnight, peeling and chopping to get them all away for winter. And I have to admit that at the end of the third night, I was starting to ask myself, “Is this really worth it?”
Today I made sprouted grain bread. As I was grinding my sprouted wheat, kneading the bread and cleaning up all the equipment, I asked myself that same question.
While being vegan doesn’t mean that you have to make your own bread or process your own food, for me it is an extension of being an environmentalist and as such, it’s important to me to eat food that is whole, local and real. But I’m also a normal person, a mom and soon to be going back to work. So where do I draw the line?
I think that the most important questions to ask myself are, “Do I really want to and enjoy this?” Life’s too short be a martyr in the kitchen, or anywhere else. I personally enjoy baking as long as I have the time.
After that, I think I need to ask myself, “What is the alternative?” In the case of the bread, I usually buy Silver Hills Organic Sprouted breads. More and more often lately, I’ve been looking up the websites of the products that I buy a lot, trying to learn more about how they’re made and the impact they may have.
Silver Hills looks like a decent company and I don’t mind supporting them, but their website doesn’t say where the bread is made or where their ingredients are sourced from, something I’ve been thinking a lot more about.
When I baked bread today the flour was from a town about 45 minutes south of my home as were the wheat kernels. The other ingredients were from further afield, but all in all, making the bread myself seems to be more local and use less fossil fuels.
The third thing I thought about was cost, and when I figured it all out, making my own bread costs about half of buying it in the store.
So on balance, I think it is worth it. Even more, I think it’s worth it to ask these questions, to pay attention to our food, how it’s made and where it comes from.
If you’re interested in making your own whole grain bread, my bread bible is Peter Reinhart’s, Whole Grain Breads. The method is a bit complicated at first, but the bread is so amazingly delicious that it’s worth the effort – I guess that’s a forth factor, taste!
I love that book. I use it for my own bread, but you have to be prepared, hey? No last minute bread. I wanted to ask if there was a reason you didn't peel the peaches by using the hot water/cold water plunge method? I think it's way easier.
ReplyDeleteI bow down to Jen. Three nights?
ReplyDeleteThe peaches were so tasty this year I was tempted to freeze some but we ended up eating them all. You say you froze them. Did you prepare them for freezing beyond peeling and slicing to prevent discoloration? Or do I need to be concerned about that at all? Complete fresh fruit freezing novice here.
Thanks for the comments. The bread does take planning, but not too much time, so it balances out.
ReplyDeleteInteresting questions about the peach freezing. I didn't blanch them because of the sheer volume, I wasn't sure how to do it efficiently and have a tendency to burn myself so thought it would be easier to just peel them.
I looked for Ascorbic acid (aka vitamin C) powder to prevent discoloration, but couldn't find any so just froze them on parchment paper on cookie trays and then put them in ziploc bags. Some discoloured and some didn't, I think perhaps the ones that were really ripe, but I don't really mind as I'll be using them for baking and smoothies, so the colour will not really matter.