Time.

The one thing I usually do not have enough of is time. The positive thing for me about lock down was that I did have some.

I used a lot of it on my garden, splitting plants that haven't been divided for years, growing lots of herbs that I had been intending to grow for years, and sometimes taking time to sit, drink in the sunshine, and just look around me.

I also found the time to look at some of the wonderful videos that different bakers have produced to share their methods of making bread.

I watched the Food geek with his meticulous quest to produce the perfect sour doughs, and began to use his bread calculator I watched middle eastern bakers to study their methods, and I stumbled upon Proof an American artisan bakery that generously shares a lot of clues on how to produce bread for his shop and markets.

It has been possible for me to produce quite a lot of bread over the year, because I managed to find enough people who liked to have bread from me on a regular basis, as well as producing a batch every week for Roots larder

All of this has made it possible for me to try out new methods. I have now switched largely to stretch and fold methods

Invested in a large fridge for retarding doughs, to make the best use of my time, and a stack of Really useful boxes which work well for holding the dough.

I discovered that it really is worth using Rice flour for shaping and retarding the dough, and have had time to play with scoring loaves.

With all of these methods I am finding that my bread has really developed.

Now that we seem to be coming out of lockdown I am just beginning to get used to making for markets again.

This Sunday - 16th May, I will be heading off for the Castle Artisan market at Newcastle

I have a couple of days clear now to stock up for the market and intend to have fun with it. There will be a range of sour doughs, and lots of other breads, with seeds, oats, cheese, olives, Fruit breads and buns, Kringles, Also hoping to do some vegetable tarts.

Hope to see you there.