Saturday

Good morning and welcome to a dull, breezy, damp Saturday morning.  According to the forecast, we should have had storms to enliven our evening/night but, apart from a few rumbles, nothing major made its presence felt.  Or rather, I should say that I heard nothing else.  Once the old hearing aids are out at night, I think I need a nuclear explosion to wake me.  I've totally slept through enough interesting weather to know that!

Yesterday was hot and humid, especially in the afternoon.  At least the sun stayed out: lunchtime was rather dull and gloomy and I thought the rain was arriving but it cheered up again.  It did make for an uncomfortable day though.  As soon as I got home I had a bath which helped a lot.  I had to wash my hair anyway because the lovely Sharon arrived to do Beth's and my hair.  That also made me feel much more human again!

Before setting off for home I popped over to Morrison's for a few bits and bobs (yes, I bought more than I should have bought) and, to my delight, saw that Morrison's is selling fresh yeast in little cubes.  One cube seems to do 1 K of flour so that's neat!  They're in packs of four so I will need to freeze them (after partitioning them into halves to wrap in parchment).  I know from past experience that thawed yeast goes all runny so I must remember to unwrap it while frozen and pop it into the container I will use to activate it.
OK, so it will make my bread more expensive.  Four cubes for 50p, each cube will do two bakings for me, that means the yeast is about 6p per 500g loaf.  I think Breadline can absorb that!

At present there are two loaves in the oven, made with the yeast.  One is a large flat loaf and the other is a wee cottage loaf made with the left over dough.  The dough had a lovely feel, look and smell and it rose and proved a real treat.  It's so long since I used fresh yeast that I am ridiculously excited!

In the Golden Olden Days, when the children were little, we lived between Forest Hill and Sydenham.  Along Dartmouth Road there opened a 'health food shop' called, if I recall correctly, Provender.  It was small but brilliant.  Bins of dry foods of all kinds that you could scoop into bags so you could have as much or as little as you wanted, a machine that made peanut butter to order, a wide range of herbs and spices for that time  . . . and fresh yeast!  I used that shop often, it was brilliant, uncommercial, great value and the lady who ran it was lovely!  I missed it for a long time after we moved.  I wonder if it is still there - I must google.  Hang on . . .  no, sadly, it isn't there any more.  I suppose it is hardly surprising - it was a very long time ago.

Anyway - fresh yeast - yay!

I'd better stop here because the bread is smelling rather good and needs checking and also I have a day of wall to wall work and MUST get started.  And I need another coffee!

Have an enjoyable day.