Wild Yeast

This is Norwich Sourdough. It was the first sourdough recipe I posted on this blog, and is still one of my most popular recipes. Many people have written to tell me that it was the first sourdough recipe they had success with. This feedback has been wonderfully rewarding for me, but now I am asking for a little bit more in return.

Norwich Sourdough was named in honor of Norwich, Vermont, a lovely small town I had the pleasure of calling home for several years before settling in California. Norwich is also the home of King Arthur Flour, whose Vermont Sourdough bread was the inspiration for Norwich Sourdough.

Now my heart is aching for the people of Vermont, where the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Irene has left thousands of people without their homes and/or their livelihoods. Although the town of Norwich seems to have come through without devastating damage, it will take years for much of the rest of the state to recover, and it makes me cry.

If you have enjoyed Norwich Sourdough, or have learned from or been inspired by anything you have found here on Wild Yeast, I ask you to consider thanking me by making a donation to one of the following organizations assisting in the relief effort in this beautiful state:

Vermont Disaster Relief Fund

Vermont Red Cross

Vermont Foodbank

Made any French bread lately? I’m not talking about a baguette, but about the original French bread — the huge, heavy, country sourdough round known as a miche. With its dense crumb, tangy flavor, and thick, dark, chewy crust, a miche is about as far from a baguette as you can get, and it was the staple bread in France long before the white-flour interloper arrived from Vienna in the mid-19th century.

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Yes, I am delinquent Babe. I have no excuse for being two days late with these wonderful Viennese rolls that our wonderful Viennese Astrid assigned to the Bread Baking Babes this month.

If they don’t look exactly Viennese on the outside, it’s because I chose to apply the “Dutch crunch” topping suggested by Peter Reinhart, from whose book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Astrid selected this recipe. So these little torpedoes are crispy crackly on the outside, soft and fluffy inside, and lightly sweet throughout — a very nice treat for breakfast or tea.

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[Tuesday, August 2, 2011] LUCAS VALLEY: At 7 p.m. a man received a package containing a used pump from his mother-in-law, which was supposed to contain a picture frame. The man did not want to keep the pump.

I don’t know about you, but for me, this item from the Sheriff’s Calls column in the August 4, 2011 issue of The Point Reyes [California] Light leaves just too many questions unanswered. What kind of pump was it? Why did the son-in-law not want to keep it? Was the poor man able to get hold of another picture frame, and what was the fate of the one he was counting on receiving from his mother-in-law? Was this her first offense, or did she have a list as long as your arm of bait-and-switch priors? Did deputies arrest the woman, take care of disposing of the pump, or simply give advice?

And why did the mother-in-law not just send brownies? No one ever calls the sheriff about brownies.

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