As I was making bread the other day, I thought about my first few batches and how difficult this brand new world seemed to be. At the time I was also trying to really master cooking on a wood stove, while overcoming the challenges of living with no power and frozen water pipes….oh to be young again. Of course now I have a wonderful mixer to aid in my bread making, but back in the good ol’ days all I had was my wooden spoon. 

Those first difficult batched of bread quickly turned into a staple weekly ritual of bread making that often times fed us breakfast, snacks, and lunch throughout the hard winter months in our cabin.
Now bread making isn’t done so that I get eight loaves at a time, but only two at a time. During the winter I still raise my bread in the warming oven of my wood-burning cook stove, but I am also able to rest the bread bowl in the closet by the heat exchanger on days that the stove isn’t on (like in the summer). 

So my bread making has evolved to meet my needs and to utilize my latest gadgets, much as bread making has evolved over the many centuries that mark the story of bread. Its interesting to look back at the growth and I hope that it can be an encouragement for those who are currently at the beginnings of their growth, with dough all over the place and a baby sitting in the flour bin.