If you are into bread baking....

The article showed up in my inbox this morning and thought I would share it as well as a little story of my own.  I have a special connection to Chef Reinhart, the subject of the article. I used to have my own farm in NC and was the organic veggie vendor at a posh downtown farmer's market. It was for the tenants in the high dollar condos in downtown Charlotte, NC.   It was also adjacent to Johnson and Wales, the prestigious culinary school.  One market day, I was located next to the demo booth for that week (a chef from J&W always came and did a demo at this venue) and the Chef that day was making a delicious Italian Bread Salad using my organic heirloom tomatoes. Since we had a lot of time to kill, I started up a conversation with the demo'ing chef.  He said he was using day old bread from one of his classes for his recipe.  I commented that while I loved the idea of making my own bread, I was terrible at it. (I can make a souffle rise like a champ but not so much with yeasty breads...). He asked me some questions and made some suggestions about what I might could do differently to have more success and we had a great time talking about food and heirloom veggies, etc.  After his demo was over, he packed up and left. Later that afternoon, he brought me a copy of a book.  Written and signed by him with a note about our day.  It was Chef Reinhart, whom I had no idea who he was at the time.  I treasure this as one of my favorite "foodie" moments...a private lesson from a world class chef, all without me having a clue.

Anyway, if you are a Local Harvest user, you can probably get this deal. If you, you can still check into Craftsy and what they offer.  Enjoy!!!
~Suzanne


"Dear LocalHarvest Community,
I'm an occasional bread baker and until now have always stuck to a basic sandwich loaf. A friend of mine is a more adventurous bread baker and she swears by Peter Reinhart's books, so when our friends at Craftsy offered to let me take their online class Artisan Bread Baking with Peter Reinhart, I was very curious. Within moments of settling into the videos, I knew this class was going to help me improve my breadmaking immeasurably. Peter Reinhart is a master.
Overall, the thing I appreciated most about this class was how it demystified a sometimes intimidating craft. Peter teaches students how to think about bread making, step by step. The instruction goes well beyond learning how to follow a bread recipe, to really understanding how bread works. After that, Peter shares many of his favorite recipes for a wide variety of breads including baguettes, focaccia, marbled rye and chocolate babka. This class is so packed with information that I know I'll be going back to the videos and class materials again and again. One thing I noticed about this Craftsy class in particular is that there is a lively online discussion among students and the instructor, which adds to the learning. I feel confident that both beginning and experienced breadmakers will be pleased with what they take away from the course. The people you share your homemade bread with will be pleased too!
Fall is a great time to learn to make artisan breads. What could be better on a crisp Autumn night than a big bowl of soup and a loaf of crusty homemade bread? To learn to make great bread, enroll in Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread Baking. By enrolling, you will receive lifetime access to this class and enjoy the flexibility of watching online or through Craftsy's mobile app. Craftsy is offering LocalHarvest users a special price on this class of $14.99 - that's *63*% off for you. Enroll! You'll be glad you did.

Happy baking!
Kerry

Kerry Glendening
Community Coordinator
LocalHarvest

IT IS OFFICIALLY FALL!!!

Fall officially arrived at 1:22 PDT this morning!  For some unexplained reason, I woke up at exactly 1:22.  I guess my circadian clock wanted to remind me of how much I had been looking forward to this season!

I posted this passage on my FB page this morning and I think it is so good I am sharing again.  I can just picture my agrarian ancestors when I read this. And I like the idea of those relationships with neighbors. 

So commence the feasting!!!

"The harvest is a time of thanks, and also a time of balance -- after all, there are equal hours of daylight and darkness. While we celebrate the gifts of the earth, we also accept that the soil is dying. We have food to eat, but the crops are brown and going dormant. Warmth is behind us, cold lies ahead."

"Early agricultural societies understood the importance of hospitality -- it was crucial to develop a relationship with your neighbors, because they might be the ones to help you when your family ran out of food. Many people, particularly in rural villages, celebrated the harvest with great deals of feasting, drinking, and eating. After all, the grain had been made into bread, beer and wine had been made, and the cattle were brought down from the summer pastures for the coming winter."

~Suzanne