In My Kitchen June, looking back on May 2025

Happy June first! I will just come right out and say it, I am not sorry May is over...we were without water for six days, I did use some of the month developing a sourdough recipe, and finally after 8 failures, (yep 8!) I have a recipe to post! Welcome to In My Kitchen June, looking back at May 2025 as we join Sherry for her monthly gathering, In My Kitchen!

Let's just start with the water shall we? 

May brought us water issues when a lightening strike on our little water pumping station, took out the main pump. And from there like dominos, the pumps began to fail from the pumping station closest to our house on through to the stations a couple of neighborhoods directly around us. Resulting in no water, for six days. I hate to say it, but we were lucky! One of the other neighborhoods, went about nine days before all the repairs were made. When it was all said and done, I feel that no power is so much easier to live with, than no water. 

Of course with no water, recipe development is non-existent. 

And our meals took on a sadly familiar routine of outdoor grilled meat, a microwaved russet or sweet potato and some raw vegetables on the side. But more importantly I had been working on a Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread, and that also took a back seat to the water. Our community as a whole was very kind and helpful during this time. But after six days many were ready to attend the monthly water board meeting...

I worked in the garden, a lot! And processed what I could from the garden. 

Fortunately it rained almost every other day, which kept the garden going. But laundry was on hold, even the little laundromat in town was out of water. We dug up another plot of land and began sifting compost to complete another garden bed for corn. We spent a lot of time being organized and keeping food, dishes and ourselves in working order with no water. Bottle water was brought in, tankers of water for livestock, and a shower trailer set up in the closest area that still had water. I decided to write about being prepared when there is no water for my ongoing monthly series titled Homestead Sunday, you can see that post here:  When the Water Dries Up, for Homestead Sunday #8. 

Small but mighty! Our garlic harvest from 225. Chopped for freezing.

And I completed a ton of updates, 114 blog posts were updated! 

Now keep in mind, I wasn't cooking that much and definitely not baking. With no water for washing dishes. And just like each blog post update in the past, some of these were as simple as sizing a photo. But a few others, were as complicated as restructuring the whole post, because while the recipe is great, the story or dialog that originally went along with it, was not! Before and after the drought, I worked on a recipe for Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread. I went through a lot of milled whole wheat flour, and on that 8th failed loaf, even the hens were tired of bread baking, LOL! 

Two jars of Naturally Fermented Pickles. 

When the water dried up, so did my enthusiasm for sourdough. 

I even told my daughter, that I was going to let my starter go, what with eight failures and all. And then one night after the water had been repaired and we were all caught up in the garden, and with the laundry and general yard work, I could not sleep. I laid there thinking of what I had done, and repeated, and that I needed a whole new but different train of thought if I was going to bake with sourdough. And right then it came to me, build a recipe based on all the research I had been doing, so I did!

Picked and froze the ripe blueberries each day!

I wrote my ideas down, but as measurements, and I started baking. 

And it turned out good, really good actually! I sat down at the keyboard and documented the journey I have been on for decades trying to bake with sourdough. It was fun to write, as the bread I had baked successfully was cooling on the counter! I cut that first slice, which is always the crust, and buttered it while still warm! And unlike the previous eight, it was chewy, soft and delicious! In celebration I posted My Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread Journey. And began writing up a post with the actual recipe and instructions...

And we celebrated the grandson's fourth birthday! 

It seems a lot changed in May. The baby is no longer a baby, he is a boy of four. The birds are not getting to the blueberries before I do. I can and will be making Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread, fulfilling a personal goal several decades old. And we got through the drought, without any damage to property, animals or the garden. But honestly, I am glad it is now June!

#wholefoodingredients

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