MaryJane Butters - Wild Bread : flour + water + air

Wild
Bread

Flour + Water + Air

MaryJane Butters

Owner of the 1890
Historic Barron Flour Mill

Wild Bread

Flour + Water + Air

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2018 MaryJane Butters

Photographs 2018 MaryJane Butters except for historical photos.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

Gibbs Smith

P.O. Box 667

Layton, Utah 84041

Orders: 1.800.835.4993

www.gibbs-smith.com

ISBN: 978-1-4236-4819-2

This book is a tribute to
the three generations of men and women who,
by industry and thrift, built and ran the historic
1890 four-story Barron Flour Mill that is
now under my care and ownership.

Moses Barron, 18291905, grain miller

Joseph Barron Sr., 18661955, grain miller

Joseph Barron Jr., 19092000, grain miller

MaryJane Butters, 1953, grain miller/organic farmer/dairy owner

Joseph Barron Jr.

"Bread deals with living things, with giving life, with growth, with the seed, the grain that nurtures us. Its not coincidence that we say bread is the staff of life."

Lionel Poilne

Millers Joseph Barron Jr. and MaryJane Butters,1997.

When I first launched my idea for wild-yeast Bread the MaryJane Way in 2008 for my magazine, I never dreamed readers would respond with such rise! What I didnt know back then was that once they brought my idea into their kitchens, Id end up with some 2,000 incredibly useful comments and questions on my chatroom.

I have a question. I live in Texas, and right now the weather is jumping up and down (lows in 30s, highs in 60s70s). Will that affect my starter? I live in an older house (very drafty) and my stove is right by the back door, so I cant leave it in the kitchen area. Maybe a bedroom on the south side of the house might work (away from windows)???

And the reader who answered her...

SUCCESS! ! I got it right! Yaaaaaay! This is what I did: I followed all the directions exactly as MaryJane said in her magazine. The first rise was ho-hum and about six hours long. For the second rise, I put it in a casserole dish and put it on a heating pad (like for back pain) with a damp towel over it and let it rise until it truly was doubled in bulk, which took about six hours. The lack of moisture in the air and cooler temperatures really do make wintertime bread making a little trickier.

Anyway, I popped it in the oven, and PERFECTION!

All THAT led to THIS. A book.

What I know now is that I can take my idea for a simple, olde-world starter (mother) and turn it into a formula to satisfy most every personality type on Earth. I can break bread with white flour only eaters (in honor of my Wonder-Bread-only, I might die tomorrow father-in-law, who lived to age 98), and I can offer bread to above it all, uncompromising purists by serving up a lofty loaf using 100 percent heirloom grains. And I can bake a loaf of bread that rises to the rafters for those who believe its best to sprout their grains first. I can serve up a soft, skyward loaf of I cant believe this is gluten-free rice or quinoa-only bread for those who are gluten free. And for those needing instant gratification, my pancakes, waffles, muffins, panbread bites, and even chocolate cake satisfy that I want something sourdough now urge.

Welcome and come on in. Have I got a bread for you!

PREFACE

I was born to crave and love good flour, bred to love bread, destined to fall for Joseph Barron Jr., the town miller, and eventually take over stewardship of his familys legacy one that started two generations prior, back in 1862 in Barronvale, Pennsylvania, with Moses Barron, his grandfather.

For the three years we worked together milling grains (19951998), Joseph Barron Jr., in his late 80s, started to wear out, but he was still bending right to the floor to grab 50-pound sacks of flour and hoist them up onto his right shoulder. (His posture was impeccably straight and erect.) But it tugged at my heartstrings to see how they weighed down his small and diminishing frame. Maybe it was that left-handed, loving bottom pat he always gave the sack once it settled onto his shoulder. Maybe it was the way he taught me to test for gluten (protein) by slowly chewing on a mouthful of hard red winter-wheat berries: The more it resembled bubble gum after 15 minutes of chewing, the higher the gluten content. Good for bread, then, hed say. My bakers will love it. And they did.

After Joseph lost his beloved wife, Ethel, the local women who loved his flour returned the favor, coming almost daily to bring him their little creationsa bit of extra, no big deal. But I knew they were vying for his approval, something hard to come by. I brought him baked goods, too. But when Joseph put his Old Mill up for sale, I baked up a plan that involved a state-funded rural rehabilitation loan. Sifting through dozens of prospective buyers as carefully as he sifted different kinds of grain, in the end he announced, I think youll do.

Calendars that pre-date World War I still decorate the office walls inside the old four-story mill, above the original typewriter and safe.

Joseph Jr. got a deferment during World War II to continue the important work of providing food to civilians.

Barron Flour Mill

MoscowPullman Daily News, Oct. 3 & 4, 1998: Nick Ogle, MaryJane Butters, and Joseph Barron pose outside the Oakesdale Mill for a family photo of sorts. Barron has passed the tradition of milling on to Butters and Ogle. The two will continue serving small farmers and their organic crops in the same style Barron did years ago. Scenes from both the new and old mill are rich with history. From Barrons honor-system sign, to yesteryears tools lit by beaming sunlight, both mills and millers have tales to tell and flour to make.