Jeremy Cherfas

Malagasy special, both flavours. (Taken last week, I should add.)

Malagasy special, both flavours. (Taken last week, I should add.)

Sizzling slowly for supper.

Sizzling slowly for supper.

They go in ... They come out 20% maize flour sourdough

They go in ...
They come out
20% maize flour sourdough

Season of mists and mellow still lifes.

Latest episode is a chat with @thesugarchef about her life in pastry and the sheer joy of a silky-smooth custard. Plus, the mystery appeal of vanilla ice cream. Link in bio. Oh, and that photo may like a fancy omelette, but it is actually Charmaine's grapefruit panna cotta, with semolina and olive oil cake, wild red juniper and grapefruit marmalade, citrus crumble and fennel chips. I wish I could tell you what it tastes like.

Lost in "research" when I should be editing audio with @sugarchef for tomorrow's treat of a show.

Slices up nice too.

Working on a new bread with kalonji, straight out of the oven after an overnight cold rise. But how to describe the taste of kalonji?

Nice enough spot to spend a couple of hours reading between appointments.

Such a great place to visit in the damp.

The first image I ever uploaded to Flickr: February 2004

The first image I ever uploaded to Flickr: February 2004

I have no idea.

Why not?

Lots of work and messy, but definitely worthwhile.

Nürnberger lebkuchen

Nürnberger lebkuchen

Why yes that is a fox. Out and about in broad daylight. With quite a crowd of admirers.

I don’t see any home brewers around, but they must be somewhere nearby.

Keeping out of mischief.

Latest episode of the podcast now up, talking about food, power, pubs and politics in Ireland. http://ow.ly/U8zm30mdTik

Black pepper rye, just waiting for some peanut butter. Or smoked salmon. Or stracchino.

Links.

Production line.

I just love the way whole rye kicks my starter into a higher gear.

Fleeting pleasures.

SRO at the Mary Beard lecture.

Golden raisin bread. Natural leaven, 25% wholemeal, about 70% hydration. A definite keeper.

Just like old times.

Roll on winter.

Well, that was good. @jomo23 @clinklucy

Just off to do the grocery shopping.

Avoiding hidden shoals on my afternoon stroll.

A new leaf.

Who thought this was a good idea? What did these plants do to deserve such ill treatment? And, most pressing of all, who would pay good money to have one in their home?

It's about time. That thing I promised a few days back, about time and the business of baking bread, is now published. My basic argument is that cheap bread devalues good bread and good bakers. "If a loaf of pap is available for pennies, how are we to justify an adequate reward for the baker who needs time and space to produce a different kind of loaf? It is the existence of cheap bread that makes a desire for something better into an elitist, privileged foodie pursuit." http://ow.ly/q5DH30lLVr2

Impossible to pick just one image from today’s soul-recharging trip to Edinburgh Botanics, but I forced myself. Will curate properly on a bigger screen.

Mission accomplished.

So many naked ladies.

A whale of a hedge for @nicolakidsbooks

Getting ready for live stream

Kicking off at #foodcommunicationconf

An institution long before I first came here 45 years ago.

Edinburgh I am in you.

After the rain.

Our Daily Bread 31 - Winding Down http://ow.ly/qyup30lBumt What more is there to say? Plenty, of course, but not this time. This is the final episode of this run of Our Daily Bread. I say that as if there will be another, but all I'm really doing is leaving the door slightly ajar. I've had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I hope you have too. For a final thought, I cannot do better than Elizabeth David, from her meticulous chapter on The Cost of Baking Your Own Bread in English Bread and Yeast Cookery. After going through nutrition, prices and all that she writes: "So much for price comparisons. Long before you've finished doing the sums you realise that what counts is the value of decent bread to you and to the people you are responsible for feeding, and what that is, it's up to us to work out for ourselves."

Brutti ma buoni.

Our Daily Bread 30 - A Perennial Dream http://ow.ly/8pcy30lB5vW Wheat is an annual plant; it dies after setting seed. Each year, the farmer has to prepare the land, sow seed, fertilise and protect the plants. When the ground is bare, between crops, wind and water can erode the soil. The shallow root systems of annual plants fail to exploit the resources of the soil and do little to improve it. So although wheat feeds us, it does so at considerable cost to the environment. It isn't sustainable. What if wheat were perennial? Photo by Jerry D. Glover; annual wheat on the left, Kernza™ on the right.