I think I'd find it more useful if the cake was to be made weekly - that's a project for another occasion. I did however modify the Herman recipe to use a standard sourdough discard and it turned out pretty good! It's just a bit fragile, so maybe could do with beating well to toughen it up a bit perhaps. Or if anyone has a suggestion to make it less crumbly, I'll try that next time.
sourdough Herman-like cake
I used all my starter (1:1 flour/water) 380g and added 1 egg, about 75g melted butter, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, a dollop of vanilla essence, 2 finely chopped cooking apples, 2 handfuls sultanas (sorry I didn't measure!) 200g flour and 150g sugar. Then mixed it all up and poured into 2 loaf tins. Baked for about 45 minutes at about 190 degrees Celsius, till risen golden brown and firm to touch.
Next time I may use slightly less sugar, a bit of spice and sprinkle a little rapadura or demerara sugar on the top. Other dried fruit and nuts could be added
Inspired to make a start repairing some old netting to protect my blueberries this year. I'm pretty happy with how it is going so far.
the first hole underway
There are a lot of holes.... I dug this out of the ground a few years ago, and there were roots growing through it, and I think the spade went through too before I realised what I'd found.
I picked my spots to make my stands, to preserve in certain areas at least something of the sense of a farm, of what a farm is, what it provides. I did my best to keep the areas nearest the house – the yard and even a stretch that could honestly be called a lawn – neat and mowed. I put in a vegetable garden closer to the house than the big garden had been.
An 11th century farmer wouldn't have wasted his time (and space) on a lawn! Maybe a meadow for winter feed though. It is definitely easier with company.
A graduate scientist turned automotive engineer, currently running a small shop and growing plants on Skye: turning a sheep field into a food forest.
