It’s been a hot summer here on the High Plains, like much of the Wild West this year. Summertime’s been fun but we’re getting excited with the promise of the season change and cooler weather. We love to bake and it’s not as pleasant in the Summertime as the other seasons. The oven heats up the cottage by several degrees which is nice when it’s cool outside but not when it’s hot. So we use the oven as little as possible in the Summer.
With Autumn on the horizon, I’m beginning to fantasize about creating wonderful baked delicacies. We ordered a grain mill the other day, so we can custom grind our own fresh flour. We’ve been sprouting various beans and grains for our salads and sandwiches. We’re looking forward to trying our hand at milling sprouted grain.
One of the problems with eating seeds and grains, is that Mother Nature not only packs these nutritional marvels full of protein, starch, fat and enzymes. She provides them with a defense system to keep the birds, animals and humans from munching on them; so they can germinate in the Spring. Those defenses or anti-nutrients make grains very difficult for humans to digest and get all of the nutrition they contain.
“There is not a thing that is more positive than bread.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Sprouting is the magical key that opens the treasure chest of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants that Mother Nature stores in her little powerhouses. The beauty and magic in these minuscule seeds are locked away there specifically for this purpose; to burst forth, to sprout, to grow, to become. To manifest the ever expanding spiral of life in the Great Wide World or something like that.
Not only does sprouting make the nutrition in grains more bio-available, it’s a lot friendlier to the digestive system; having prebiotic properties. But even more important, it just tastes better. It caramelizes better too, making for a prettier loaf of Bread. I’m getting pretty excited just thinking about it.
