25 Nov Week 2- Tues & Wed: Still rainy, first bread bake

Well the rain continues – heavy and frequent. Tuesday morning was a downpour, thwarting most of the farm tasks for the day. Aaron was able to put in some hours weed whacking around the farm, while I primarily took the day off and caught up on freelance work. We all got a glimmer of dry hope when the rain stopped from about 3p all through the night, but a storm moved in early this morning around 6am and did not stop until 1p. The good thing was I was able to make my first loaf of bread today! I had backed up my whole wheat sourdough starter from home by smearing a small amount on a porcelain plate, and letting it dry for 3-4 days. It flaked right off and I brought it to Hawaii in a ziplock and light-blocking outer bag.

I took a couple pieces of the starter – wanting to keep some backed up in case it all failed or molded or got buggy in the process of baking – and started the feeding the process from scratch (adding flour + water every 12-ish hours as it starts to bubble + rise on its own in a jar). After about 4-5 days I had enough starter to attempt a loaf – and since we’re not doing sandwiches as much I did a cinnamon raison loaf — Aaron’s current preference! It was my first time using a non-cast iron pan, and definitely the smallest oven possible… but it technically worked! I’m SO GLAD we brought our mesh produce bags along, because the large one was the perfect shield for all the bugs smelling the sugar & yeast. I was able to let the loaf rise in the pan, secured tightly in the bag. I started with a super small loaf to make sure it wouldn’t rise above the pan (there’s about 0.5″ between the pan & the oven ceiling).

turned out so great!

Wednesdays are our heavy planting day – I did 728 pods in 6.5 trays. It’s a tedious task but I also listened to about 7 podcast episodes!

Aaron (and fellow volunteer Kristin) sprayed the compost tea across basically every bed, though conditions were not ideal with the rain largely washing it away. The tea can only aerate for about 24 hours so it was time to spread it regardless of the weather. Aaron also did some some weeding in the afternoon when the rain subsided, and after that my trays were finished, we transplanted 2 trays of arugula and burdock seedlings into our 4th keiki (baby) bed. Long but fulfilling day!