Sourdough Starter - Part 1

To make sourdough bread you need a chef. I'm not talking about a professional cook, but one of those would be nice too. The chef is a fully active sourdough starter (the mother culture) that you use to make your sourdough bread. A healthy starter is filled with wild yeast and lactic-acid producing bacteria and will smell fruity, yeasty, sour and a bit like alcohol. The chef can last a long time if it's being fed on a regular basis. I feed mine once a week and keep it at the back of fridge. It's almost a year old and going strong.

To make a chef you need three things: flour, water and time.  Flour contains natural yeast. With time and consistent feeding (by adding more flour and water) the natural yeast in the flour will multiply and become active. This is the theory...

Until last week I had never made my own sourdough starter. I received my chef from the lady who taught the sourdough course. I wanted to find out just how easy is was to make a sourdough starter from scratch so I tried to make my own starter this week.

First, I checked online and was bombarded by sourdough starter recipes. In the end I opted to do a starter with a 1:1 ratio of flour and water.

Here is what I did:

Day 1: I added 50g water and 50g all purpose flour to a mason jar, mixed it and covered the jar with a lid.

Day 2: 24 hours later bubbles were present in the mixture. I added another 50 g water and 50g flour, mixed it well, and scrapped down the sides. At this point my starter was rising and getting nice and bubbly.

Day 3: Fail! The mixture wasn't rising and smelled foul. I threw it away.

I did this process twice and threw away two starters before checking online to find out why my starter was smelling bad on the third day. I came across these insightful articles: The Pineapple Juice Solution Part 1 and Part 2. Here is a summary of both articles.

Basically, my starter was taken over by some not so nice bacteria. Had I persevered the yeast would have eventually become active and beat out the bacteria. So, I'm going to try the pineapple juice method described in the links above. The thought is that adding pineapple juice to the starter for the first few days it lowers the pH enough to inhibit the nasty bacteria from taking over and allow the yeast to become active.

I will post more my experience with this technique in part 2.

Yarn Along: Down Again

A couple weeks ago I had a run in with mastitis. It took me down fast, but it didn't last long (thanks to hot compresses and frequent nursing). I thought everything was A-OK until I started noticing the same symptoms again last night. Today I've felt miserable. Luckily Monkey spent last night at his grandparents so I was able to rest. Or at least rest as much as a mom can with a toddler and newborn.

I have made some progress on my knitting projects. The blue romper from last week is almost complete. I need to weave in the ends and attach a couple buttons. Unfortunately my yarn needle seems to have disappeared.

I just started on a Pembroke Vest for Monkey which has already been frogged twice. Knitting while enduring mastitis might not be the best idea.

 

Visit Ginny and see what others are working on this week.

GM Alphalpha

Genetically modified (GM) alphalpha is not legal in Canada, but our government is considering the legalization of Monsanto’s GM herbicide tolerant (Roundup Ready) alfalfa for commercial use. Most Canadians don't even realize they're eating foods containing GM ingredients. If GM alphalpha is introduced not only will this product find itself into more of the food that we eat but it will also contaminate farmers' fields across Canada.

 

Take a stance against against GM alphalpha! Cban has made it very easy to email the minister of agriculture and agri-food by filling out this form.

Making Sourdough Bread

A year ago I took a course on making sourdough bread. We learned about natural leaven, flour, water and the magical thing that happens when you mix them together. Initially, I was very enthusiastic about making sourdough bread. I couldn't wait to get home and make my first batch. Unfortunately, I made some mistakes along the way and my bread was ending up dense and flat. Eventually I got frustrated (and pregnant) so I gave up.

My mother and sister, who also took the course, encouraged me to try again and gave me a few tips. I figured out where I was going wrong - too much water and too much rising. I tried to make sourdough bread again and was finally successful. My bread rose and tasted amazing.

Since then making sourdough bread has been the only thing that I have done consistently in the last six months, even in these last few weeks of newborn mayhem I've (somehow) managed to get it done. I make my sourdough bread on Thursdays. The process actually begins Tuesday evening. I take out my chef (mother culture) from the fridge and begin my starter. I feed the starter three times before making the bread dough. Making sourdough bread takes a whole day. The dough rises a total of four times before being baked but the whole process is worth it. Sourdough bread is delicious and healthy.

I'm no expert at making sourdough bread but I want to share with you what I have discovered in the last year. So over the next couple weeks I'll go over the process I use for making sourdough bread and share with you my favourite sourdough bread resources.

Yarn Along: Baby Blue

All the pink and purple baby clothes have been put away, including the cutest little pink Easter dress and purple romper I had knit. I've learned a little lesson: don't guess the sex of my baby. I've guessed wrong the last two times. Little Teddy, being a boy, has a completely different wardrobe than the little girl I was convinced we were having. His clothes are more green, blue and covered in dinosaurs and pirates.

So I've started to knit him a Small Things Romper in Cascade 220 Superwash baby blue. No sooner did I begin knitting did I realize that a size three months won't fit him long. There seems to be a trend among my boys to gain weight quickly.

As for reading, I recently picked up House at Riverton by Kate Morton and have making some progress in the last few days. I've also been reading the last five issues of Alphabet Glue from Bird and Little yBird. These e-magazines have great seasonal booklists and activities for children that enjoy books. I've already picked out an Easter project and made a list of books to pick up during our next visit to the library. Right now all five past issues of Alphabet Glue are discounted 25% until the end of this week.

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along.

Happy Birthday Sweetpea!

Our little Sweetpea just turned two. We had a simple celebration with family and ate the most delicious chocolate cake.

Sweetpea received some beautiful gifts from her grandparents.

And a pink teddy bear from her soon-to-be uncle and his family.

Seven Quick Takes

--- 1 ---

It surprises me that people are so interested in a newborn's sleep habits. I get asked, repeatedly throughout the day, how Teddy is sleeping. I respond to these inquiries by saying "he sleeps like a newborn" which means he sleeps for nice stretches during the day but wakes up every hour or two at night. Typical newborn, tired mama, thank you for asking.

--- 2 ---

Teddy got his first bath last night. Yes, we waited almost two weeks to bathe him. We believe in conserving water over here. Alright, that's not the real reason. I just didn't have the motivation to do it until he started smelling like curdled milk and pee. He was born in a water birthing tub so technically that makes last night's bath his second.

--- 3 ---

I've been giving some thought to Meg's recent post No Such Thing as Bad Weather over at Sew Liberated. Living up North there is a lot of what many would consider to be "bad" weather. We have plenty of snow, ice, hail and below freezing temperatures. But it's true that there is no such thing as bad weather - only bad outdoor clothing. This winter we invested in some good quality snow gear for our children from MEC. Even if it was below -20C (-4F) Monkey would come inside sweating. Outdoor play is much more pleasant when you can be warm and dry. Now that the snow is melting it's time to see what kind of water proof gear I have tucked away for puddle splashing.

--- 4 ---

Monkey has discovered games. Dominoes, checkers, go fish, crib (simplified with dice) and The Kids of Carcassonne have been played repeatedly over the last few weeks. The moment I wake up Monkey begs me to play a game with him. This is pretty significant. Usually the first thing he asks for in the morning is food. Do your children have any favourite (offline) games?

--- 5 ---

Slow and steady wins the race. My dad is training for his first Iron Man marathon. I think he's a bit crazy, but we are quite similar so I have to be careful what I say. While I don't foresee an Iron Man in my near future, I would like to start running again. But before running, I should start walking around a little bit more. I haven't gone for good walk in quite some time.

--- 6 ---

The must be something about the third baby. Maybe it's less of a novelty when your third baby is born but I have noticed that people seem a little less eager to help out. Now, don't get me wrong, I am blessed to have some wonderful friends and family who have gone out of their way to bring delicious meals over and entertain my little ones. To them I am very very grateful. However, I wonder if other moms have noticed this too - that the more children they have the less help people offer. Any thoughts?

--- 7 ---

I'm itching to visit a yarn shop. It has been too long. I'm hoping to get there sometime this weekend and pick out some noro yarn for a couple cute projects that I picked out from Knit Noro.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Yarn Along: Life with a Newborn

Our little Teddy is already eleven days old. It's been a time of joy and adjustment for our little family. I've been forcing myself to slow down and relax. I won't deny that this has been a struggle for me at times. I like to keep busy otherwise I find myself wallowing in anxiety. It's one of those thorns in my life.

Our little Teddy is a sweet little guy but he has his moments.

My knitting has been slow but steady. My hands and wrists have been a bit sore since the end of my pregnancy so I have been trying not to aggravate things by knitting too much. I have one sleeve left to knit on Seetpea's coat and then a couple buttons to hunt down. It's almost done and I'm really happy with how it has turned out.

I just purchased Nourishing Traditions and it's been slowly making its way from the amazon.ca box to my bedside. The only book I've been reading, somewhat faithfully, has been A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms. I can't say enough how much I'm enjoying this book right now.

Sweetpea has been doing more reading than me these days.

To see what others are knitting and reading this week visit Ginny's Yarn Along.

GE Foods: Farewell Cheerios

After reading Slow Death by a Rubber Duck I got rid of my Teflon cookware, vinyl shower curtain and most of our bath and body products. I became more weary of "green washing" and started buying organic produce that made it on of the EWG dirty dozen list. It's amazing what a book can do!

I'm also a fan of documentaries. I've recently watched a bunch on water, pollution, birth and most recently one on genetically engineered food called Life Running Out of Control (it's available on netflix.ca). I haven't given much thought about genetically engineered foods but after viewing this documentary I came to realize how much of an issue it really is.

In Canada, there is no obligation to label foods that have been genetically engineered or contains modified ingredients. This is because our government believes that there are no risks to consuming genetically engineered (GE) foods, despite the fact that GE foods are fairly new and that no long term studies have been done to assess the risks of eating these foods. Many other countries worldwide, including Europe, Australia, Japan and China, have mandatory labeling for GE foods but not Canada. Strange isn't it?

There are a variety of reasons why foods are being GE. Money is a big player. But, even if there are no long term health risks to eating GE foods there are still a lot of problems with them. The loss of biodiversity and the risk of living pollution are just a couple problems with introducing GE crops onto our land. One notable case is that of Monsanto versus Schmeiser, a Saskachewan farmer that was sued by Monsanto for having their GE canola crop of his field because is was blown there from a neighbour's field.

Most of us have been eating GE foods without even knowing it. In Canada, almost all corn, soy, canola and sugar beet are from GE crop (cban). The scary thing is these ingredients are found in so many store bought products, from Ketchup to Raisin Bran. Greenpeace has a great GE food shopping guide that lists common grocery items that have GE products and those that don't. CBAN also has a Quick Guide to GM Foods.

So now I look at my Raisin Bran suspiciously and my canola oil with trepidation. I'm sure they are GE or have some GE products in them. I'm considering a phase out of GE foods from our home starting with cereal and canola oil. Hmmmm...

Babymoon

We are enjoying our babymoon with Teddy right now. Taking in his newborn noises and snuggles. Marveling at his littleness and sweetness.

Monkey is proud to have a baby brother. He pointed out during dinner last night that there are now five people in our family. Sweetpea seems a little confused by the arrival of a baby and holds her ears when he cries.

My Husband still chuckles at the fact that our little Teddy is a boy and not a girl like I had expected.

A Home Birth Story

Over the last couple weeks I experienced clusters of early labour contractions. They would build up for a couple hours and then vanish completely for a day or two. I had been warned that this is very common for third and fourth babies, but that when I finally go into labour it would be fast. My last labour and delivery was very quick. I expected this one to be fast as well, but not faster... which it was!

On Saturday morning, March 3rd, I met my midwife at the hospital for a Non-Stress Test. A standard, non-intrusive, test for pregnant moms that are past their "due date" by a week. Everything was looking fine. The midwife checked my cervix and performed a stretch and sweep. Since my cervix was favourable (3cm dilated and 90% effaced) she told me that I could drink the cocktail if I wanted. The cocktail is a combination of verbena oil, castor oil, almond butter and fruit nectar. I'm all for letting little ones come when they decide to but at 41 weeks pregnant I was willing to try sometime to get things going.

I returned home at 1100 and told my husband I wanted the washer and dryer hooked up. They had been disconnected throughout the week during our basement renovations. At 1130 I took the cocktail and set about making chocolate chips cookies and putting ribs into the slow cooker. If I did go into labour at least there'd been some food ready to eat. An hour went by and I started feeling hot and nauseous, but no contractions. I tried to drink and eat a little and my husband took out some summer maternity clothes for me to wear. It was such a beautiful sunny day outside. A perfect day for having a baby.

The Birth Tub

At 1310, the first contractions started. They were the same that I had been experiencing on and off the last couple weeks. I called my doula and then my midwife but told them not to come yet. I told them to come when my husband called back, which he did at 1400. My sister came to pick up Sweetpea shortly after that. Monkey had already been picked up by his grandparents the night before. I wasn't sure where my little ones would be during the birth but I'm glad, in hindsight, that they weren't home for this time.

My midwife arrived at 1415 and I was pretty happy between my contractions but they were getting closer, every 2-3 minutes apart. My doula showed up 15 minutes after. Everything was getting set up. The water birth tub was almost filled. I was sitting on the couch breathing deeply through my contractions. My doula pressed on some pressure points and my husband rolled a tennis ball on my lower back. I still felt good during the breaks but by 1500 (3:00pm) the breaks were getting shorter and I started moaning my way through them. From this point onward time gets fuzzy.

My doula suggested sitting on the toilet backwards if I was serious about getting things going. I got on the toilet, had about four contractions there, cursed the toilet for making things so intense and my husband for taking a picture of me there, and then realized my body was pushing. My midwife suggested getting into the water tub if I wanted to have the baby there so somehow I managed to hobble over.

Labour isn't all rainbows and kittens and butterflies.

The warm water felt fabulous until the next contraction came. This one was so intense. I screamed. I pushed. I moaned. They told me to flip onto my back. I did. The next contraction came and I pushed and screamed. I could reach and feel the baby's head coming down. The amniotic sac was bulging out too. Another contraction came, it was so intense and the baby's head was born. I felt no burning from the crowning. The contraction stopped but my midwife told me to push. I tried but the baby wouldn't budge. I was told to stand up and my husband pulled me up from the pool. I pushed and my midwife pulled and out slipped our baby. I was in the birthing pool 7 minutes prior to delivering the baby, it was 1527 (3:27pm).

My husband noticed that it was a boy and started to laugh. I had been so sure that it was a girl that I knit the baby a purple romper and a pink Easter dress.

Sigh of relief!

He was a little blue and gurgly because he had come out so fast but after some encouragement and a bit of free flow oxygen he became nice and pink. The second attendant arrived 5 minutes after he was born. I was shell shocked but so relieved. We spent some time in the birthing tub before my husband cut the cord and our little guy was examined. The placenta came next. I don't like this part, because of the bleeding, but everything was fine, if not a bit messy.

It took me a good couple hours to start feeling somewhat normal again. Everything was so quick and intense. After the birth I snuggled our little guy on the couch and ate a chocolate chip cookie. Everyone else took care of cleaning and tying up loose ends.

My husband calling family to make the announcement.

I am very happy that I was able to have a home birth and that everything unfolded so perfectly. I didn't miss the hospital one bit and can easily say that this has been my most positive birth experience so far. I'm so grateful to my Husband, midwife and doula for their wisdom and support and to God for blessing us with the beautiful gift our second son.

8lbs 3 ounces, our little Teddy.

Our New Baby

Finally I have some exciting news to share!

Yesterday, I gave birth to our beautiful baby boy. I'll share more about his birth in a few days. For now, here's a picture.

Seven Quick Takes

--- 1 ---

Yes, I'm still pregnant. Tomorrow I'll be 41 weeks pregnant. I really don't have much else to say other than I'm not surprised.

--- 2 ---

Miffy is becoming one of my daughter's favorite storybook characters. The books, which are originally Dutch, are very simple and pleasing for little ones to look at. The trouble is they don't seem easy to find. Amazon.ca has several hardcover Miffy books in stock and three board books available for pre-order, but many of the books are out of stock or take several weeks to ship. I've been checking out other places too like bookcloseouts.ca and ebay.ca with some luck. Any other suggestions for where to look?

--- 3 ---

There's been a lot of reading, drawing, painting and playing with play dough these days. Yesterday, we made caterpillars which involved painting a strip of egg carton. Nothing fancy. Today I might bring in a bin of snow. We haven't been getting out much. I'm far too uncomfortable and tired. So any simple activity that makes my children happy makes me happy too.

--- 4 ---

Today is the day that my son was baptized (four years ago). We'll be inviting his godparents over for dinner so that they can spend some special time with him. It's important to us that the godparents of our children play an active role in their lives so we're always looking for special ways to make this happen.

--- 5 ---

I am a fan of Dr. Ray Guarendi. His down to earth approach to raising children is a breath of fresh air a midst all the "expert" parenting advice bombarding us every day. I been taking the time to re-read Discipline that Lasts a Lifetime and catch myself laughing aloud while reading some of his funny comments about raising kids.

--- 6 ---

Would you take a four-year-old to the symphony? My husband suggested bringing our son to a symphony sometime in the near future.

--- 7 ---

After finishing the first and second season of Downton Abbey I feel a little lost. I enjoy watching something in the evening while I knit but there doesn't seem to be anything of interest to me right now. Over the last few months I've gone through a documentary phase, a Bollywood phase and even a Korean drama phase, but now what? Last night I settled for an episode of Heartland.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!