As you can’t have helped noticing it was my 70th birthday on 17 February. As well as being taken out to lunch by Sue, she also gave me a big wad of dosh to buy my first DSLR (Canon 100D) + the complete oevre of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Then there was the matter […]

The Wreckage – all that was left the following day. The day before the wreckage was my 70th Birthday Party otherwise know as Bethesdabrunchin’. That’s the trouble with bakers – you invite a load of them from all round the country for a Sunday afternoon and bugger me if they don’t all turn up. It […]

2K of Lurve …

“Best bread I ever had!” enthuses Trudie, my newest customer. Well, to be honest, it’s the only bread she’s ever had: And she can’t actually speak yet. But I predict her first words will include “Micks” and “Sour” and “Dough”. Well, “Bethesdabakers Naturally Leavened Bread” is too much to expect at that age. It’s quite […]

Someone, can’t remember who, recently posted a vid of a baker demonstrating shaping a square loaf. Well I’m attracted to simple things so I had to have a go. Not sure it will catch on …

Nina’s Bread with Dark Beer & Spelt fresh from the oven 10 minutes ago. This is my original baked at the first Bethesdabakin’ weekend August 2007. Baked in Rick’s amazing, not just built in a day, but fired and churning out bread and pizza for the masses in a day, oven. Some good friendships made […]

Think it’s a bit early to plant out the rye?

I’m going to blow my own TRUMPet (just for a change!). It’s February 2017 and my photo is on display on the Bread Bakers Guild of America calendar all month. In two weeks time on the 17th I shall be 70 years of age. The microbakery is in its 10th year. We’ve had 10 years […]

My latest profile picture on Facebook got a surprising number of “likes”. Perhaps people are staring to take pity on me as I approach my 70th birthday. My amazing Mom is 95 and has lost most of her sight. It’s not at all straightforward what she can and cannot see; it’s not like seeing through […]

Because I developed my own approach to baking a lot of years ago, I often get more out of non-specialist bread books where I adapt ideas to my own methods than I do out of this year’s must-have pukka baking manual. And some bread books by famous bakers, such as Eric Kayser’s acclaimed Larousse Book […]