Feeding My Passion

Until about 4 or 5 years ago, I was intimidated by yeast breads. The yeast thing seemed so precise or arbitrary, or both, whatever. So I avoided them. Well Mark Lahey’s famous (and famously easy) no-knead bread recipe, faithfully published by Mark Bittman of the NY Times, completely changed that for me.

When I can time the loooooooong first rise correctly so I don’t have to handle it in the middle of the night or when I’m out, it always turns out stunningly well, except for that time I smoked up a house. But that’s another story. Here’s my latest loaf, and it tastes even better than it looks.

California’s Central Valley, the world’s most productive farmland, has been experiencing a drought the last few years, getting 4-5 inches of rain less a year than is typical. This doesn’t seem like a big dip, unless you already know it only gets about 13 inches in a good year.

While Lake Yosemite is a recreational destination for many in Merced, its main job is to be a reservoir for local farms. As the water line on this tower clearly illustrates, the water level has been much higher in the past. Fortunately this Winter, the only season it rains in the valley, has been relatively wet, and locals hope rain levels will be back to normal.

While Lake Yosemite is a recreational destination for many in Merced, its main job is to be a reservoir for local farms. As the water line on this tower clearly illustrates, the water level has been much higher in the past. Fortunately this Winter, the only season it rains in the valley, has been relatively wet, and locals hope rain levels will be back to normal.