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Tuesday, May 19, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
TRASH TALK
No Yeast In The Store? No Problem
GRETCHEN STADLER
Getting
creative in
a difficult
period
While all of us are challenged by
stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19,
many folks are diving in wholeheartedly
and fi nding creative activities to keep
themselves busy, help out our commu-
nity and continue their dedication to
waste reduction.
Teresa Walker has sewn over 100
masks (and counting!) for local individu-
als. Friends from as far as Pennsylvania
and Texas have raided their sewing
supplies and donated fabric, elastic and
sewing machine needles so she could
offer her homemade masks for free. Her
priority now is to send masks to the
Navajo Nation at Four Corners where
medical supplies are scarce and elders
are especially at risk. Ann Mehaffy’s
sewing machine has also been whirring
away: “These days it feels like a cross
between homesteading and helping the
war effort,” she said.
Other folks are busy starting victory
gardens. Growing your own vegetables
reduces a lot of waste and increases your
self-suffi ciency. Since night tempera-
tures still can fall below freezing, many
are planting seeds and tending their
starts in the kitchen.
See Creative/Page 2B
BETWEEN
THE ROWS
WENDY SCHMIDT
Willows
and water
features
Nothing is more peaceful and sooth-
ing in the landscape than a water
feature with a pond, a small waterfall
and some riffl es and a weeping willow
tree. It brings back the iconic scene on
the blue willow dinnerware, but without
the sad love story gone wrong.
Willows aren’t the nice trees they look
to be. Their wood is weak, they steal
water from all other plants in the area,
and as a yard tree they are not well-
behaved. They shed leaves summer and
fall almost into January, and their long,
narrow leaves are hard to rake.
However, there are times and places
that a weeping willow makes a beauti-
ful specimen tree.
Conservation folks use other varieties
of willows to hold the banks of streams
against erosion.
Because of the salicylic acid contained
in the willow, a sprig of it is often used
in fl oral bouquets to make them last
longer.
My dad used to slide the bark off of
fresh willow branches and make each of
us a whistle. As much as I tried to copy
what he did, I never got a whistle that
worked.
Garden chores
• Trellis peas and stake or cage your
tomatoes
• Pile mulch over the root zone of
your potatoes
• As the soil warms, begin to apply
mulch to perennial beds and tomatoes
• Topdress roses with composted
manure
• Deadhead bulbs and spring-fl ower-
ing perennials as blossoms fade
• Thin seedlings to proper spacing
before plants crowd each other
• Mid- to late May is the latest date to
start pumpkins in time for Halloween.
Dreamstime/TNS
Once it has hit its bread-making stride, sourdough starter can be stored in the refrigerator, untouched, for a few months.
S WEET S OURDOUGH
By Rick Nelson
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Would-be bread bakers, you’re not mis-
taken. The spike in demand for fl our and
yeast that you’re witnessing in supermarkets
is real.
“At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis,
people worried about staying at home, and
so they stocked up, a lot,” said Mike Oase,
chief operating offi cer of Kowalski’s Markets,
which has 11 Twin Cities locations. “People
bought everything in sight. It was bigger than
a Christmas week.”
Oase said that fl our supply lines are re-
turning to normal. “And yeast will be back in
stock in the next few weeks,” he said.
The phenomenon of empty baking-aisle
shelves did not go unnoticed at America’s Test
Kitchen, the Boston-based publisher of Cook’s
Illustrated and Cook’s Country magazines.
The diffi culty of fi nding yeast at the
supermarket came up during an online staff
meeting. That’s when senior editor Andrew
Janjigian — known to his fellow staffers as
“the Bread Guy” and/or “the Bread Whis-
perer” — offered a solution.
“It’s the perfect opportunity to start a sour-
dough starter,” he said.
He’d tackled the subject in Cook’s Illus-
trated about four years ago, but that formula
called for two pounds of fl our.
“Given how little fl our there is out there
right now, I decided to try it on a much
smaller scale, and see how it works,” it said.
Turns out, it works just fi ne. Janjigian be-
gan to document the process on his Instagram
account (@wordloaf), and the experiment
— which he dubbed #quarantiny-starter —
went viral. “Or, as I like to say, ‘fungal,’?” he
said with a laugh, mentioning that yeast is a
fungus.
To date, he’s playing a kind of sourdough
Pied Piper to about 600 fellow bakers, follow-
ing along from as far away as Australia and
Malaysia. “The list of names that people are
calling their starters is really good,” he said
with a laugh. They include Clint Yeastwood,
Courtney Loave, Carrie Breadshaw, Bread
Astaire, Holly Doughlightly and Quentin
Quarantino, and no, Janjigian hasn’t chris-
tened his.
Because Janjigian has so many bakers fol-
lowing along in real time, he has fi elded a lot
of questions. Here he is on ...
• Flour: “Ideally, you want to start with a
mix of white with whole wheat or rye, because
that extra nutrition will make things hap-
pen faster,” he said. “But I’ve done it using
only all-purpose. It has to be wheat fl our and
unbleached. The organisms that you get in
sourdough don’t come from the air or from
your hands. It’s from the fl our itself. Ideally,
it would be organic fl our so that there are
no fungicides, and you’d be using fi ltered or
bottled water for that same reason.
But this experiment is showing that it can
work without ideal conditions.” Note: Once
you’ve hit the twice-a-day refreshing period,
switch to using white fl our only. The starter
no longer requires the nutrients in whole
grain fl ours.
• Temperature: “The ideal temperature for
sourdough is 78 degrees; that’s when both
bacteria and yeast are happiest,” he said.
“Too much higher, and it will kill all that,
and too much lower and it slows everything
down.” If it’s too cool, he suggests placing the
container in an insulated cooler or freezer
bag, or an unheated oven (“Don’t forget it’s in
there, and turn on the oven,” he said), or near
a light bulb or a working appliance. “Some-
thing to keep the chill away,” he said. “The
only way to screw it up is to get it so warm as
to encourage mold. That’s about 90 degrees
or higher.”
See Sourdough/Page 3B
DALGONA COFFEE
Quarantine fad drives instant coffee sales
for themselves the experience they enjoy in
restaurants and cafes,” said Philipp Navratil,
A popular quarantine fad to whip up a
Global Head of Beverage Strategic Business
foamy beverage at home is helping drive sales
Units at Nestle. “Dalgona coffee is just one
of instant coffee.
example of the global trends we see in the cof-
The Dalgona coffee sensation has fl ooded
fee category.”
social media as people forced into isolation
That’s as instant coffee is adapted for mak-
attempt to make the creamy and energizing
ing recipes in a convenient way, which could
concoction. The recipe is simple: Whisk equal
lead to a sustained increase in demand, he
parts of instant coffee, sugar and hot water
said.
until they turn into a frothy whip, then spoon
Instant coffee imports by South Korea,
over iced milk. Google Trends show searches
where Dalgona coffee was popularized, surged
for Dalgona coffee accelerated sharply from
65% in March to $8.5 million from a year ago,
early March onward.
according to Fitch Solutions. Given South
Initial data point to a “massive rise” in de-
Korea eventually turned out to be one of the
mand for instant coffee, far higher than before
countries less severely affected by Covid-19,
the pandemic, said Jonny Forsyth, associate
other nations could see a similar, or even
director for food and drink at market research
larger increase in instant sales, said Consumer
company Mintel. Consumers in lockdown
and Retail Analyst Taohai Lin. Korea has a
began stockpiling instant coffee to give them
sugar confection called Dalgona from which
energy and psychological comfort, while the
the name is derived.
Dreamstime/TNS
product’s affordability makes it recession-
Still, the instant coffee boom could fi zzle as
The Dalgona coffee sensation has
resistant, he said.
lockdowns ease across the world and consum-
fl ooded social media as people forced
Nestle SA, the world’s largest food and
ers seek alternative ways to get their caffeine
into isolation attempt to make the creamy fi x.
beverage company, says sales of instant cof-
and energizing concoction.
fee increased in most markets as closures of
“Trends tend to move quite quickly, espe-
restaurants and cafes boost home consumption
cially for food where novelty is key, so this
and consumers are “rediscovering” the instant coffee drunk in the world.
demand, as seen in Korea, is likely to be
variety. The company, which recently launched
short-lived,” Lin said. “Of course, if it ‘bucks
a Starbucks premium instant coffee range, also Home Recipes
the trend’ and continues to generate interest,
“Consumers are spending more time at
produces the popular brand Nescafe, which, it
then the uptick in coffee demand will be more
home and trying new recipes, reproducing
says, makes up one out of every seven cups of
pronounced.”
By Anuradha Raghu
Bloomberg News