Farm Notes
Thursday is our most productive days here at the farm. On Thursdays, my friend and fellow farmer/trained cook/teacher Erin joins me and together we work on the bulk of the farm tasks for the week – from building beds to weeding, planting, trellising, pest management, chicken wrangling, etc etc! Today we tackled a big item on my to-do list… weeding + mulching the apple orchard. Last December, we planted 15 different apple trees from Century Farm Orchards, which are all old Southern + disease resistant varieties that grow well in our climate. I’m still very new to growing fruit trees, but I’m grateful to have several neighbors who are well-versed in caring for fruit trees in the South, so I have I feeling I’ll be leaning on them quite a bit these first few years.
Over the winter we (and by we, I mean ME) let the weeds around the apples get a bit out of control (see photos below), so today we went to town removing the grass/weeds and laying down new mulch. It’s amazing how much better the trees look, and I know they are much happier now that they don’t have to compete with all that plant matter to get nutrients from the soil. Now, if only we can keep them looking this way…
Kitchen Notes
Today was an exciting day in the kitchen, as we tested out our new pizza oven attachment that fits on our outdoor smoker grill. I’d say overall, it was a success, though the bottoms of the pizzas got pretty burnt (even though they were only in the oven for 2-3 minutes each). Looking forward to doing some more recipe testing in the coming months so we can perfect our recipe + method… y’all know I love my pizza! ;)
In the meantime, I’m happy to share my homemade pizza dough recipe with y’all:
HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH
Makes 1 very large pizza or two 12” pizzas
INGREDIENTS
3 cups (375 grams) all-purpose flour
Slightly heaped ⅛ teaspoon (Overnight), ¼ (All-Day) or 1/2 teaspoon (Part-Day) instant or active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons sea or kosher salt
1 1/3 cup room temperature water
PREPARATION
In a very large bowl, mix all ingredients with a spoon. The dough will be craggy and rough; this is fine! Cover bowl with plastic and keep at room temperature for approximately 22 (for Overnight schedule), 12 (for All-Day schedule) or 6 (for Part-Day schedule) hours, or until the dough has more than doubled. This takes longer in a chilly room and less in a very warm one, but don’t fret too much over this, as the dough is generally forgiving of a loosened schedule.
About 30 minutes before the dough is ready, heat the oven to its highest temperature – usually 550F. Put a baking tray in the oven *upside down* while the oven heats up. If you have a pizza stone, use that instead.
Tear off a sheet of parchment the same size as your pizza stone/baking tray, and sprinkle it with cornmeal.
Flour your counter very well. Scrape dough out of the bowl onto a floured counter; in the time it has risen it should change from that craggy rough ball to something very loose, soft, sticky and stretchy. Flour the top of the dough, and divide dough in half (or more pieces, if you’re making smaller pizzas). Form them into ball-like shapes. Use floured fingers to press and nudge dough into a roughly round or rectangular shape. Pick up the dough and circle it around your fists, letting the gravity gently stretch the dough.
Land the dough on your prepared sheet of parchment paper. Add desired fixings and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating if it’s baking unevenly, until the top is blistered and the crust is golden.
Do ahead option: Once risen and formed into ball-like shapes, the dough can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Today’s Stats
Low temp: 30F
High temp: 47F
Sunrise: 7:27am
Sunset: 5:16pm
Moon phase: Waning Gibbous
Additional notes: Frost in the AM, cold and cloudy most of the day.