Bread to Preserve the Harvest

By Joe Cowan

Director of Operations

 

Once the weather starts to cool off at night and in the morning I like to get back into making bread and freezing one or two loaves per batch as one way to extend the harvest. Fall is the season of abundance and has always been celebrated for that reason. One great way to help extend the harvest if you don’t have an extensive array of equipment is to use bread as a medium for saving food. For example, baked and dried squash is an amazing treat to have mid-winter. If you don’t have a decent dehydrator, which can be expensive, there are alternatives available to have squash much later in the winter. Incorporating your favorite fall foods into a loaf of bread and then saving them for later can be a great solution. Playing around with different combinations of grains, fruits, cereals, and more is not only fun but you can stumble on some incredibly delicious combinations. Below is one example I tried recently.

 

Ingredients

1 sourdough bread recipe for 2 loaves found in "Getting Started with Sourdough Bread Part 1." And, "Turn off the news and bake some bread! Part 2."

200g pre-cooked Savannah Red Rice

200g baked Honeynut squash

1 tsp Dr. Cowan’s Garden Carrot Powder

 

Directions

  • In a medium bowl, mix the squash, rice, and powders together.
  • After the first turn during bulk fermentation, add the mixed ingredients and turn the dough over the top. Continue folding every half hour until shaping step.
  • Shape and bake as usual per directions.