In researching a bit about the difference between plague and pandemic, as I was inspired to do by today's writing prompt, I learned that one of the more common words associated with our pandemic - quarantine - has its origin in the Black Plague. Quarantine is derived from the Italian quarantena, the "forty days" a ship would have to wait in harbor before anyone could come ashore, in order to help prevent the spread of that plague. Plague. Pandemic. The first can be a cause of the second, but not the other way around. While we have been suffering through a global pandemic - a viral epidemic that, in this case, spread world-wide - we have not been dealing with one of the three known types of plague, which are all bacterial in nature, to say nothing of a plague of blood, frogs, flies, gnats, locusts, hail, or any of the other Biblical plagues visited on Egypt.
With the speed of the modern world, the "forty day" waiting period has been reduced to a quarter of that for our current pandemic; some saying even less time in "self-quarantine" is necessary. Still others completely deny the disease is anything more than just a "bad cold." That said, we live in a much more "global" society than did our 14th Century ancestors, so while we haven't lost sixty percent of our population most of us probably either know someone, or know of someone, who died or who had someone they love die due to this pandemic. It's still a lot to take in.
There are many things I miss due to "social distancing", like going out to restaurants or gatherings of friends, and especially viewing or participating (as an actor) in live theater. As much as I've binge watched Netflix, it's just not the same. But there are other things I've come to be thankful for, from the noticeably quieter roadways and perceptibly cleaner air to the freedom to work from home most days, having proven by fire what I knew to be true all along: given a good internet connection and 98% of my job in I.T. can be done from anywhere.
And working from home helped me to have the time to discover the one thing that, above all, for which I am most grateful: Homemade sourdough bread. I wrote in another post about my love of cooking and baking. I've made homemade cinnamon rolls, and different types of yeast breads. I've baked cheesecakes and souffles without thinking twice. But for whatever reason, I was always intimidated by sourdough. Maybe I was put off by reading The La Brea Bakery Cookbook with its overly complicated method of creating a sourdough starter, maybe my own inner critic, maybe some combination. But when I heard about the national sourdough craze that had started during the pandemic, I thought I'd take another look at it.
Thankfully I found the "Feasting At Home" website which made it sound all too easy - and it almost was! I invested in the minimal equipment - a digital kitchen scale, a Weck jar, a Dutch oven, and some good parchment paper, and after only two failed attempts I had a viable starter growing, and not too long thereafter my first loaf, fresh out of the oven! It was all I could do to let it cool properly before slicing into it! For a while I took a photo of every loaf right after it came out of the oven, posting it to Instagram for my half-dozen followers to salivate over. Now over two years in, I've stopped doing that and have lost track of how many loaves I've baked. But I did just pull another loaf from the oven this morning, and I fed my second starter this afternoon in preparation for baking another loaf this Sunday. It's a habit now, and one I know I will continue, as in trying times or good, it feeds my body and my soul.
— Zachary
With the speed of the modern world, the "forty day" waiting period has been reduced to a quarter of that for our current pandemic; some saying even less time in "self-quarantine" is necessary. Still others completely deny the disease is anything more than just a "bad cold." That said, we live in a much more "global" society than did our 14th Century ancestors, so while we haven't lost sixty percent of our population most of us probably either know someone, or know of someone, who died or who had someone they love die due to this pandemic. It's still a lot to take in.
There are many things I miss due to "social distancing", like going out to restaurants or gatherings of friends, and especially viewing or participating (as an actor) in live theater. As much as I've binge watched Netflix, it's just not the same. But there are other things I've come to be thankful for, from the noticeably quieter roadways and perceptibly cleaner air to the freedom to work from home most days, having proven by fire what I knew to be true all along: given a good internet connection and 98% of my job in I.T. can be done from anywhere.
And working from home helped me to have the time to discover the one thing that, above all, for which I am most grateful: Homemade sourdough bread. I wrote in another post about my love of cooking and baking. I've made homemade cinnamon rolls, and different types of yeast breads. I've baked cheesecakes and souffles without thinking twice. But for whatever reason, I was always intimidated by sourdough. Maybe I was put off by reading The La Brea Bakery Cookbook with its overly complicated method of creating a sourdough starter, maybe my own inner critic, maybe some combination. But when I heard about the national sourdough craze that had started during the pandemic, I thought I'd take another look at it.
Thankfully I found the "Feasting At Home" website which made it sound all too easy - and it almost was! I invested in the minimal equipment - a digital kitchen scale, a Weck jar, a Dutch oven, and some good parchment paper, and after only two failed attempts I had a viable starter growing, and not too long thereafter my first loaf, fresh out of the oven! It was all I could do to let it cool properly before slicing into it! For a while I took a photo of every loaf right after it came out of the oven, posting it to Instagram for my half-dozen followers to salivate over. Now over two years in, I've stopped doing that and have lost track of how many loaves I've baked. But I did just pull another loaf from the oven this morning, and I fed my second starter this afternoon in preparation for baking another loaf this Sunday. It's a habit now, and one I know I will continue, as in trying times or good, it feeds my body and my soul.
— Zachary
Fantastic! I really like the way you write about sourdough. It's a love story! (Macoff)
ReplyDelete"it feeds my body and my soul" is perfect. As Macoff says, "...a love story."
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me, too, of my decades old experience when I was raising children. So frequently I would start the dishwasher and one child or another would show up with a used fork or bowl. I learned that, instead of going all "wtf" [not those words, of course] I could say, "Oh! Look! Sourdough starter for the next load." I've noticed lately that my son and daughter who are housemates use that "sourdough" reference. Blessings abound.