Hello Everyone-Gluten Free Sourdough Starter & Catch Up with Photos

 Good afternoon All,
This has been a rough week since the long weekend. As I mentioned in my Tuesday short post I got hit with an allergy attack that's been bad. The air here is so saturated with high humidity, mid 90's f temperatures, and mold and pollen-so you get the picture.
   Last winter our doctor gave us scripts for antibiotics in case Hubs was on the verge of pneumonia and me a dose of steroids in case I got hit-I waited 3 days cause I don't care what that stuff does to my digestive system and puts my head in a fog sometimes which it has done this time. Better than the alternative-driving to the doctor for these meds or ending up in hospital if I wait too long. 
  Along with major sinus drainage-sore throat-it messes up my asthma.
  So, I am doing the minimum outdoors, catching up with house work, reading and watching the KC Royals baseball games most days ha ha  It's days like this allot of times when I am in a "fog" I do well with projects like my fabric journal. but when it is summer time my florescent light will not turn on-and it is my best light source in that room-I may need to bring that out into the living room one night to work on.

  I have been wanting to try out a new gluten free sourdough starter for me for baking breads etc.  I had picked up MaryJane Butter's latest new book Wild Breads (note if you search elsewhere online you will find better prices for this book)-which is full of recipes for gluten free versions too. She has done allot of research on several different flours with loads of photos and step by step instructions on how to capture the wild yeast in your kitchen to make sourdough-what homemakers used to do.
   A couple years ago I had purchased a packet of gluten free sourdough starter made in France sold by King Arthur Flour and that batch did not work out. I made the mistake of using a gluten free flour baking blend that has starches in it not just a grain. So I am using her tips but using the rest of this starter. I decided to combine organic quinoa flour with organic brown rice flour to make my starter-today with the warmer house-it's working fast. So I will feed it again tonight and tomorrow morning and then bake something with it and save back some starter-fingers crossed this will make me edible gluten free breads.

Before late Saturday evening when the allergy stuff hit I was getting lots done:

Bunny be Gone juice made-recipe from our CJ Kennedy--the wild bunnies snuck into my little fenced garden and ate down all of my just planted melon plants Will get this strained out and use it once the rain storms are out of her again.

Canned up two more batches of beans-this time northern beans for soups and also large lima beans.

My lavender plants-I lost my older ones that were established a couple years back, so bought a new plant last year and another little one this year-was able to harvest some this year

So excited I have two mini bottle greenhouses of indigo dye plants-so far they look good in the garden and bunnies have not eaten them--I am hoping to dye with these later this year i recently found a recipe that is very simple compared to many others-cold water and the blender first-stay tuned for that

lavender drying

Over the long weekend I made us the best batch of biscuits and gravy and after all these years I have learned a new way for perfect over easy eggs--put a lid on and keep an eye on them so the yolks are the way you want them-I always did what my Mom and Grandma did-flip them over and then over again on the plate-I usually break an egg doing that now no broken eggs happy dancing ha ha

I also made pies apple-blackberry first one a regular pie and next one gluten free- of course my crust was horrible-so got the fruit out and dumped the crust.-one of these days

   I am looking into planting the native american sweetgrass-the vanilla variety which has the best aromas. I need to clear a spot good and then let it take over-I am thinking in my original large garden spot-and if it takes over too much we can just mow down some of it.-this was used to freshen up the tipis and bedding, and be braided and dried and then burnt slowly also to freshen a space. It is also for basket making but I am thinking organic saori style weaving and making paper and the flower heads are loved by butterflies-so sounds fun to me.  It is so hot here and everything is growing out of control that I am going to make this a next spring project. If it wasn't so ugly outdoors I would try to clear an area now but I think that is just too much right now.
     I searched all over the web and found the best price on Ebay The roots is the best way to plant this grass not with seed. I am excited to grow and craft with this grass.  Here is the link-the seller is in Kansas and was so friendly and helpful answering all of my questions. He still has a bit left-but he told me to just contact him early next spring when I am ready for it.  More information here and here with photos.

  I also just bought this book Braiding Sweetgrass-the author is Native American, a botanist and scientist and this book had such high reviews on her writing style-like reading poetry how she mixes what plants and nature can do for us and with science.

  I am envisioning a lovely spot filled with aromas and butterflies.

Thanks for dropping by