Dear Breadfriends (1/7/2014). Man it's cold! Looking for tasters!
Hello Dear Breadfriends! Man! Is it ever cold out there. Our geese insist on bathing, despite the cold, but the water is freezing even before it rolls all the way off their backs, leaving them looking pocked and unkempt. They would be horrified to hear that I was telling you this... OK.. on another subject! We are looking for some help. Yes. What kind of help? We need BREAD TASTERS! What? Yes! BREAD TASTERS! I am serious. Here's what's up: next week, from the 17th to the 19th, we'll be hosting a team of very distinguished bakers from around the Northeast. We'll all be here at the bakery to do a series of test-bakes using flour made from different varieties of heirloom organic wheat. The bakery will be crammed! We've got bakers, a few spectators, agronomists, millers, soil scientists... the whole crowd all seeing what we can do with these flours. Once we've worked with the flours and tested them, we'll be taking the winners and growing them out in test plots to see how they fare in our tough climate. Those that do well will be re-seeded and finally distributed. It's a long-term project to revive our once vibrant Northeast wheat crops. We're proud do be part of it! But I hear you cry: HOW are we going to TEST them? And WHAT ABOUT TASTING? Well, a big part of this test is about taste. So we're going to need TASTERS! The job of BREAD TASTER will require participation on Saturday and Sunday, six hours each day. The first day will be TRAINING: you will be screened and trained as a pro taster (cool!). The second day will be.. TASTING! I've never done this kind of thing myself, so I can't tell you much about the details, but it does sound like fun. To me, anyway. The action will not be happening at the bakery; it will be at Cornell. Now, this is a lot of work, and there is some small compensation. But it's not a lot. You'll get $25 added to your crustfund. I know this is not much, but I hope you'll consider participating despite the small recompense. Grant funds for organic grain research are hard to find, and when they do come along we've got to stretch them. It seems unlikely to us that Monsanto is going to be supporting this kind of project. OK.. so let's say you'd like to give it a shot. What to do? Easy! Just send an email to LIZ CLARK (her email is liz.clark@gimmecoffee.com) and tell her you'd like to play. She'll take care of the rest. And... we're getting there! Oven's getting warmer! Warmer! Nice word, that. Thank you!! Stef