Chickens!

Posted on May 28, 2012 by mike

After hemming and hawing for a couple of seasons we finally decided to get some chickens! We plan on eating their tasty eggs and composting their nitrogen rich poop for the garden. Nevada picked up some chicks over Labor Day weekend in Issaquah and we housed them in the garage under a heat lamp. She purchased a Golden Sex Link and 2 Americana’s. They were all super cute and chirpy and then would get a tuckered out and fall over sleeping.

Heat lamps don’t make for the best pictures…

Lights out. Poorly framed shot of Fea, Megatron, & Goldie

Once the days cleared up we introduced them to the garden under strict supervision of the cats.

Mr. Rosewater & chicks

Goldie, Megatron, & Fea getting the tasty bits about the grapevine.

Mr. Rosewater was completely indifferent to the chicks, all the cats were. They’d come around their crate to investigate the chirps, but they didn’t seem to show any predatory interest in them. I had thought they were going to be inciting play things for the cats, but that wasn’t the case.

Then one day Jasper and The Hunger were watching them peck about and Megatron decided it was time for a flight. She stretched out her wings, started flapping, and flew for a meter or so. The cats looked at each other in disbelief, but quickly returned to their leisurely pursuits

Jasper

The Hunger

The chicks were growing quick and were going to eventually need something more permanent than the cardboard box. We got to work building them a coop. We used, 2×3’s, some reclaimed siding, hardware cloth, and corrugated tin. We just sorta threw it together from some sketches we had. We wanted to build a coop that we could tuck behind the garage where they’d get winter sun. The tin roof was replaced with one of UV resistant clear plastic so they could get what little sun we have in the PNW and stay sheltered from the rain.

How it started

How it finished

Fancy door

Nesting boxes

The project came together over the course of a week while N was in India. Once it was compete I had to get it behind the garage. We had started with the idea of building a chicken tractor, a portable coop that you can move about the yard. No way was thing was in the portable category. Once it was all together, I was unsure I could even move it by myself. Luckily, we had the tractor wheels. So, I bolted them on, built some ramps, and set it up behind the garage.

Cleared the arbor

Parked

For security from chicken pestering pests, I laid a hardware cloth skirt around the edge [a choice I’d later regret]. It extended about a foot out from the sides of the coop. I held it in place with yard/garden staples. Looks good. No? The yard quickly grew up through the cloth I was pleased.

Against the garage

Finished? Yes. Secure? Maybe.

The chicks were still to young for the coop and needed the warmth of the heat lamp for the cold nights. We were still dipping into the low 40s some nights. However, our friends who keeps a bit more livestock than we do had a hen that had gone broody and they were looking for a place she could nest. They asked us if we’d keep her in out coop till she hatched her clutch of eggs. Sure! We candled the eggs and spoiled Broody Hen on quality kitchen scrap. Mostly though, she’d just sit on her clutch.

Broody Hen

She hatched 4 of the 5 eggs

Once our chicks were pullets, we returned Broody and her chicks and moved our birds into the coop. My poor choice for securing the perimeter from vermin came back to me one day in July. We were gardening and the chickens started to making a fuss. Nevada saw a rat run up into the hen house from inside the enclosed run. I had a little panic thinking how we, I, was going to have to kill this intruder. As I was rattling off ways we could dispatch it, she suggested we simply let it go. Great Idea! We opened the hatch and shooed it out with a sturdy branch. We then upgraded the perimeter. We moved the coop and dug a 1′ deep trench slightly smaller than its footprint. We then laid more hardware cloth in the trench and up the sides overlapping the original cloth that was left in place. We then set the coop back into place and packed soil under low spots until there was contact all around. The weight of the hen house keeps that side grounded. We hammered stakes on the gate side and screwed the coop in place. This configuration seems more secure and we haven’t had any more issues with chicken foes.

Keep out!

Goldie, Megatron, & Fea

Egg machines!

Goldie started laying first in October while my mom was visiting!. She lays a brown egg. Megatron started laying her green eggs a couple of weeks later. Fea began laying a pinkish light brown eggs in November. We usually get 3 eggs a day! That’s a lot! We can’t eat ’em that fast, but we’re trying. The taste is truly incredible and their yolks are deep gold. The chickens love cruising around the yard and get pretty noisy when they’ve been in the coop for extended periods of time. They’re digging machines and are going to town on the worm and grub population. Slugs wont be an issue this season. However, they leave a destructive wake as they forage for goodies. We had to put a fence around our garlic bed and have the onions covered with crates. We’ll have to get more fencing once we start planting for the 2013 season.

Megatron, Goldie, & Fea taking a dusty

Mike & Megatron

Goldie foraging in the rain

Fea laying an egg

The updated coop. Food and water now hang in the run. We insulated the water bucket with the mylar covered bubble wrap to keep it from freezing in the winter. The new roof lets in plenty of sun and keeps the run dry on soggy days. The cloth around the perimeter is completely covered in earth.

Arbor Spring 2012

Posted on March 29, 2012 by mike

We had added 3 rows and 2 beds to the backyard and have been gardening for a few seasons now. The backyard had these decorative cedars flanking the steps up to the garden. We didn’t care for them. Pictured below in the snow from January 2012.

We had a bit of snow that stuck around for a few days causing the city to completely shut down. Fun. Jasper enjoyed playing in the snow and would run around in circles diving for perceived threats just below the surface.

Fun times!

Back to the cedars. We didn’t care for them and they didn’t serve any purpose other that to be groomed into cubes and hide the occasional napping cat. We wanted to grow grapes which do well in the PNW and decided to build an arbor for them. What better place for an arbor than over the steps?

We cut down them down, dug up their roots, refilled the holes with soil, tamped it down, measured for the arbor post holes, and dug holes for the arbor posts. We were talked into buying some copper paint wood preservative for the 3′ of the cedar 4×4’s that would be in cement. This stuff is suppose to prevent rot, we’ll see. We painted a few coats on as we would like this thing to last as long as possible and the dude at the lumber yard said… Back to work. We dug out the post holes and measured everything again and set the 4x4s in place

Jasper inspects a post hole

Fits!

Both posts in!

We got everything nice and level after some fussing about. Once it was, we nailed in some support members and poured the cement. You can see a bit of the copper paint on the posts above the cement [pic above]. We let the cement set up and began construction on the arbor top. We cut and sealed all the remaining pieces of cedar with several coats of wood sealer/preservative and left them to dry in the sun.

Drying the pieces

Once the pieces were dry, we put the rest of the arbor together. We used cedar throughout and it came together rather nicely. We were very pleased with our choice. We had purchased an Einset & Glenora plant and once the arbor was complete, we quickly dug them new homes at the arbor’s base. The Einset looked like it was going to produce fruit, but the insects harvested the premature grapes before we realized we had an insect problem. We’ll see how they preform this season.

Finished!

Bud on the vine

North Cascades October 2011

Posted on October 20, 2011 by mike

Nevada is having a terrific time!

In October we returned to remove the cameras. The forecast was for snow. Trace amounts and warmer temps and rain prior to our trip. I believe when I last checked NOAA the forecast was for light snow and rain low of 28 high of 32. Seemed fine, cold, but fine we were packed for cold weather. We started walking in and it quickly began snowing. We were 1500′ and 3mi shy of our camp. On the way in we passed a couple headed out early. They told us there was some snow on the ground in the basin where we were headed. We past two more parties on their way out. One was a solo ultralight hiker who was unprepared to sleep on snow. He was forfeiting a larger trip to the weather. We next past a couple of photographers who were leaving because they wanted blue sky and sun. The weather was getting worse now, but by tomorrow it would clear up into a spectacular day.

View of Windy from trail head.

However, the weather they were evading was becoming heavy snow and all three parties seemed like rational folks who had decided it was in their best interest to get out. It was that thought that began to scare me. Were we making a bad decision? Nevada was fine with the snow storm we were walking into. We had all the gear we needed. We talk for a while. I let her know that I was fine leaving the cameras in for the winter and heading back to town for a room. She reassured me that we were prepared for snow. We ended up eating some trail mix and moving on to camp.

We got to camp and set up the the lunar duo just as it began to snow.

Right after we set the tent up it really started coming down.

So, we got into the tent and played cards.

Once the snow let up, Nevada made us a snow sherpa. He stayed at camp drinking tea.

We chose the first camp we saw in the basin and set up quick. Just as we did the snow picked up again. The temps were in the high 20’s and we were both cold. For dinner we had tortellinis in a spicy herbed broth. We cooked it on our new stove and pot-stand. We were getting suspicious that our old (10yr?) Don Johnson photon stove wasn’t preforming as well as it use to. So we built a new one. We chose Scott Henderson’s open chimney design. It seems to work fine. It takes longer (1’40”) to boil, but we’ve got plenty of time in the woods and we’re talking like two more minutes. I like the open top design which aides in filling it with fuel and in warmer conditions it works without a primer pan (we needed the primer pan in the snow). We also built a pot-stand out of titanium bicycle spokes. Fancy. It’s really cool as it folds flat for storage in our cook pot taking up less space.

The new stove and stand atop kitchen rock. It’s burning and you can see the alcohol is boiling in the stove. We needed to prime the pan to get it started in the freezing weather though.

After dinner we retreated to the tent and tried to sleep. It was a cold night. We have Big Agnes inflatable insulated pads. We love these dearly. They’re much heavier than our Z-rests, but so much more comfortable. We really can’t knock the extra weight as we love the comfort they afford. That said, they preformed poorly on the snow. I was cold in my 35° bag. N was comfy in her 15° bag, but could feel the cold ground coming through the Big Agnes. At some point in the middle of the night I got out and fetched the butt pads (old Z-rest cut into seats for sitting) and stuffed them under the Big Agnes. That helped along with all the layers we had on and we made it through the night.

The next day some the sun came out and lit up some larches up the slope from our camp. We made breakfast and headed out to retrieve the cameras. The weather stayed clear and we made good time to the cameras.

Sun or no, it got cold. Let’s hear it for layers and warm blood!

Getting ready to go cross country for the cameras.

Well as you know (spoiler alert from September) Camera one took no shots as it was turned off. We found it fairly quick as it had only been five weeks since we’d been here. When we felt close we flipped on the gps and found them right away. Walking on the snow in the morning was easy. It softened up by afternoon and was more of a trudge back to camp. We got back and packed up camp and headed back to town and stayed in a hotel and dried out our gear. The Lunar Duo is a great lightweight (39 oz) single wall. Being a single wall it has a bit of condensation. Usually not a problem if we can keep the vestibule open (warmer calm nights), but this night it just froze. Likewise, our Marmot down bags had a bit of condensation from our heads being tucked in all night. Regardless, we dried out and drove back to home the next day.

Here’s the highlights from camera two.

Balding bear? Mange? Almost looks like plugs eh?

Bear head

Coyote on the move at night.

Snowy knoll

North Cascades September 2011

Posted on September 20, 2011 by mike

In September, we returned with fresh batteries, SD cards, and a kite. The plan was to change out the batteries & SD cards, summit some peeks, and fly the kite. We hiked in and found a sweet spot with a seating area for cooking and star gazing.

We loved this camp. Very nice views of the basin and a built in seat. We called it throne camp as that seat had a very royal feel to it and what a view.

Here is a shot looking to the east with Horseshoe and Windy.

And another looking to the south east. We’ll be on top of that high peak (Windy) on the left in two days.

The grasshoppers really liked our camp!

With our camp all set up and the insects having a party we made some dinner. We’re still dehydrating veggies at home and packing them in to make these tasty meals. The recipies we currently have in rotation are a modified Knorr pasta roma recipe, tortellini with a broth, and a bean with chips or tortillas. Lunches have been baguettes or bagels with cheese and fresh veggies and TJ’s baked tofu. Yummy. Granola and powdered milk is the usual breakfast. We brought some Kashi oatmeal this trip and found it rather offensive. Surprising, as their cereals are so good. We bring trail mixes or homemade granola bars for snacks and some kind of chocolate for desert.

This is a capaliene pasta with knorr mix, roasted red pepper, tomatoes, mushrooms, parmesan cheese, green onions, and spices!

Refried beans with green onions, tomato, and cilantro sitting in its cozy atop our trash.

Don’t forget the hot sauce! Notice the tortilla warmer Nevada made. Under the gloves and pot rag. It’s a foil pouch that rests atop the cook pot and warms the tortillas perfectly.

The next day we hiked to our cameras once we got fairly close we turned on the gps to aide our way. Within minutes it was obvious how folks get lost with these things. As I walked with the unit I realized that I was no longer paying any attention to my surroundings. Just stared at the arrow telling me 150′ more this way then swinging and telling me 415′ that way. Confusing? Yes. We felt like we were headed the right direction, but were we? The gps seemed unsure of itself, but we could tell from the peaks we could see that we were in the right area. Eventually the gps got some confidence and took us right to the first camera. Which had some amazing pictures of black bears checking out the tree we baited. No grizzles though.

Loving that musky smell!

Me too!

Sadly, one of the straps securing the camera to the tree had snapped. So the next 1000 or so shots look like this (grasses blowing in the wind).

We changed out the batteries and set the camera back up with an improvised strap and headed off to camera two hoping we’d have better shots on this camera when we return in October.

Spoiler alert! The camera was turned off when we returned. We are both super confident that we turned it on after we changed to batteries. Hmm… Broken strap, camera turned off, some folks might speculate about Elves or a Yeti. Some folks.

Oh well, on to camera two. Armed again with the indecisive gps we headed down the shoulder toward the creek and found the knoll without any problem. It had some really nice shots of bears, deer, moose, and coyotes.

Cinnamon black bear checking out the lures. It’s standing about 9′ tall.

Black bear doing to same thing the day prior.

These deer prefer the camera. They’re actually looking up the slope.

Moose!

Coyote cruising thru the knoll. Headed to the creek?

We think that’s the same black cinnamon black bear from camera one. The black bear may be the one we will encounter tomorrow on our way to summit Windy peak. It appears the deer find the camera more interesting than the lure as we get a lot of deer shots like this. We saw another coyote on the shoulder of a mountain near our camp.

We changed out the batteries and indulged on a baugette with a soft cheese, baked tofu, tomatoes, onions, and fresh basil. Quite a yummy treat! We got our selves cleaned up and hiked back to camp.

Nevada decided we needed to pack in our kite. A couple of the mountain tops in this area have a shelf on them and peaks are generally windy places to begin with. So, what better place to fly a kite.

Nevada on Arnold trying to get the kite aloft.

Success! Nevada fly’s with fly.

Mike’s turn on Arnold.

View south from Arnold

Mike had better luck getting the kite aloft at camp

Any success we had with the kite was short lived. The wind would either change direction or stop. We had a lot of fun at our camp. Tomorrow we hike on to summit Windy peak. We set off early and made good time hiking in the cooler predawn hours. Nevada was leading the way when she spotted a black bear cub. Our noise spooked the cub and its mother. We suspect it was the same black bear from the camera. Regardless, we made a lot of noise and stopped for a long lunch. We made it to the peak in the early afternoon and stashed our packs and made our way to the top. We’ve been on Windy before and the views are amazing.

Where’s Mike?

Bugs love it on peaks. This one was covered in ladybugs and bees.

Full can on the peak

That can was left on the peak by the Mountaineers. They have cans on a lot of peaks here in Washington. We took all the old notes out and left some fresh note paper with our log entry. We packed out the old notes and brought them to their headquarters here in Seattle. We were really excited about this as we had understood that they used these notes to record usage data on the backcountry. No such luck. They archive them at the Suzzallo library at the University of Washington Seattle. Oh well, we had a note in there form 2009 that is now in the archives. Good times!

Hello!

North Cascades July 2011

Posted on July 20, 2011 by mike

We spent this summer and fall volunteering with Conservation Northwest again. Like last year, we placed remote cameras in the Northern Cascades near the Canadian border. In July we hiked into an area where we’ve backpacked many times, really lovely county with numerous peaks in the 8000′ range. All of which are readily accessible from the 7000′ basin where we camp. We spent the first day hiking in and taking pictures of scat and fungus. We then made it to the basin where we intended on camping and found a sweet spot with some shelter from the morning sun and nice log to function as the kitchen.

Shooting stars

The hike into the basin has looked like this since the Tripod Complex fire of 2006. This shot is from 2009

Looking west at Windy the burn was devastating.

And the forest is recovering

The next day we did some off trail bushwhacking we found two real good looking locations for the cameras. They were are at least one mile from a marked trail, near a game trail, food source, and water source. One was right along a game trail near a large strawberry patch. At this location we placed the larger and heavier Leaf River camera and baited a downed log with game lures. We then hiked on and found a small knoll with another game trail near a berry patch. Here we set up the lighter Bushnell camera and baited the target tree with the lures. We recorded the data and set our location on the Garmin GPS unit they lent us.

Canine scat chuck full of bones and fur

Bear scat chuck full of scat

Fungus

More of this bright orange fungus. Slime mold perhaps?

We were using two lures. One specifically for bear, it has a nice musky smell to it and we both found it rather acceptable to the nose. The other lure was for wolf and smelled like skunk with fresh cracked pepper corn. Not very pleasant. These and the cameras were provided to us along with instructions from CNW. We were super careful with these lures and pack them in small nalgine containers, bring surgical gloves along, a supply of ziplock baggies, and good ol’Dr Bronner’s soap. We also use these awesome odor-proof bags from ALOK. We bought them to use with our Ursack bear bag and absolutely love them. We had all the lures bottled and in at least four if not five heavy duty freezer ziplock baggies. Nevada and the cats could smell them the instant I brought them in the house. So, I then put them into their designated odor-proof bag and the smell was gone. Really cool and a testament to all the hype on their packaging.

One, two, two lures.

Bushnell on the knoll

Regardless of our ability to keep the odors at bay I inevitability got some on my jacket. Bummer. We finished baiting the second tree and hiked on to a stream and washed out the lure from my jacket. Sadly, it was the unpleasant wolf lure and even worse we could still smell it after multiple washings with Dr. Bonner’s (not as awesome as we thought) soap. The Jacket spent the night by itself. The next day we hiked back out. This was a quick trip as we were returning again in September to change batteries and SD cards. Then in October we’ll retrieve the cameras before winter sets in.

bear cam pics!

Posted on December 14, 2009 by mike

Hooray! We got our cameras out of the woods. We hiked back in the last weekend in September and the beautiful shades of gray brought a constant stream of rain to keep us nice and wet. We didn’t think (read prepare) we would encounter heavier rains and subsequently wore our trail runners… Wet muddy feet kept us moving and changing our socks frequently. We hiked in to a sweet spot we camped at last time near Birch Mountain. We came in late and made some tasty food by headlamp light.

We’re still dehydrating tomato’s and cilantro for bean and chip bowls. This trip we experimented with instant mashed potato’s with freeze dried peas and corn (mmm). Likewise, we had an amazing pasta bowl. We make a broth with dehydrated tomato, roasted red pepper, garlic, and basil. This with some olive oil, salt, and Parmesan cheese this was fantastic and a new favorite.

We allotted time to summit Birch Mountain this trip and were glad we did. It was a nice walk up its flank and on the way we crossed a massive saddle chuck full of Western Larches! These look like yer evergreens, but change their color to gorgeous shades of amber and gold in the fall. It was very nice to see. We made it up the summit to an old fire look-out and met with high winds and heavy sleet. We descended quickly back to the saddle.

We hiked on and retrieved camera #1 and made camp. Preparing for more rain we rigged a sil-nylon mini tarp we bring so we could cook in the tent. This worked out great and we had lots of ventilation for the stove, which was mostly outside.

We had yummy angel hair pasta this night and were pleasantly surprised with the foil bubble wrap insulation we made into pot and bowl cozy’s. It worked well at keeping our meals hot.

Our final day we moved quick as we anticipated more weather. We had a dry breakfast and some coffee then went looking for camera #2. We had high hopes for #2 as we felt it was in a better location for wildlife. The hopes were a result of the data on camera #1 showing that it had only captured 170 some-odd shots as its batteries had died after 2 days.

Camera #2 delivered the goods. 700 plus shots!

Most of them were deer in cute poses. A lot of them were just of our target tree blowing in the wind.

I think the camera must have made a noise as the deer tended to be looking at the camera in numerous shots which only added to the cute factor.

As so, “I’m ready for my close up Ruehlen’s.”

Then, the money shot. Bear cub! We got very excited. Was it a grizzly? Who knew? We didn’t study zoology. We saved the shots to a flash drive and raced home to ask google. It turns out to be a black bear as any bearophile will tell ya, “look at dem ears!” Black bears have small round ears (just like this cub’s) and grizzly’s have tall prominent ears.

This picture had us mostly convinced that we had a grizzly as their name comes from the grizzled hair on their backs. This cub was only molting its coat. Then we caught a glimpse of the deadliest creature you’ll ever encounter in the wild…

The human. With their possessions strapped to their backs they head into the woods in search of recreation and tasty berries to munch upon. If you ever see one be careful, say hello, and wave your hand from side to side. If you’re lucky they will wave back back and share some good tales with you.

Many marmots reside in the North Cascades. This trip we saw a dozen of them. They just hang out on the rocks and watch. I get the feeling that after we pass they get busy creating a scene out of a Beatrix Potter illustration.

Cheers!

M&N

Hiking the North Cascades

Posted on July 24, 2009 by mike

Well, Nevada and I love to get out and take long walks in the mountains. So we’ve began volunteering with Conservation Northwest to help them with their wildlife monitoring project. We were part of a team that was to plant two remote cameras in an undisclosed location to track grizzly bears, wolverines, and wolf packs to name a few. The main focus of the project we are working on is the grizzly bear population in Washington (presently less than 20), but they are tracking all the critters in the Northern Cascades. Our other team member was unable to plant the cameras that we were then going to retrieve this September. Wanting to fulfill our obligation we went out to place the cameras this past weekend (17.7.9). I was a little apprehensive as was Nevada because we were packing lure scents. The fish oil was no biggie, but having a few ounces of bear attractant in my backpack had me worried. We rationalized that other volunteers and hunters do this all the time and we’ve heard no horror stories (yet). Furthermore, we had the lures in multiple ziplock baggies and then placed them in an ‘odor-proof’ bag that we usually we keep our food and other stinky (toothpaste, lip balm, etc…) items in and promptly strung these up a tree once we made camp Friday night.

We retreated into the tent to escape the mosquito invasion and began to hear noises outside. We figured it was one of the many marmots we’d seen on the hike in, but it was a small group of deer. They had come to feed in the tasty green alpine meadow we were camping in. Whilst they were eating one got a rather serious look on its face as if it was concentrating, it then arched its back a bit, lifted its tail as it let out a big’ol fart! We erupted in laughter and scared them off, but their meal was more important and they quickly returned. It seemed they are used to us hairless apes and did not mind our presence in the middle of their salad bar.

On Saturday we had examined our maps and chose two locations around undisclosed peak and undisclosed drainage to place the cameras. We set off to undisclosed pass and followed a soft shoulder up the drainage. Nevada spotted an animal trail and we followed it until it came to a drop down to the creek. We decided this would be a good spot and planted camera #1

044

045

I then doused the ‘target tree’ with bear attractant and Nevada diligently collected data (Ruehlen’s love data).

043

042

We then broke for lunch and ate some amazing basil, tomato, and soft cheese sandwiches on crusty bread. Amazing lunches are a perk of short trips. We washed those back with some ice cold spring water, reluctantly put back on our socks & shoes, and headed out. From the undisclosed pass Nevada found another trail (a rather nice intrinsic of hers) it was not on either of our maps from ’86 or ’98. We thought it might lead to one of the two peaks we were between, but it just seemed to hug the 6000′ contour and meander through the forest. Nevada spotted another (!) animal trail, I must be looking at the mountains and clouds too much while she enjoys looking at the flowers. Regardless, we followed it a ways and found a nice location and set up camera #2.

067

We then scented the target tree and although the musky bear lure smelled very attractive it did not taste so good… Job done.

064

We planted two cameras and will return in September to retrieve them before my graduate classes begin. We’re looking forward to getting them back to see what critters we captured on film. We’ll post those later. We hiked back and made camp near the gassy meadow, but closer to a ridge and away from the bugs. Exhausted, we ate and hit the down. Nevada was hearing noises similar yet different to the deer eating in the meadow. We awoke to find that the chipmunks had satisfied their sodium fix by eating the straps and grips on my polls! Ugg. I was able to make new non-adjustable (and a few grams lighter) straps. I plan on emailing Leki to see if they’ll send me some replacements as the type I have are not offered for sale. odd?

101

We saw numerous grouse in this area a couple of years ago, but had not seen any this trip. As we were discussing this we came across a momma ruffed grouse and her kiddos feeding on the forest floor. How many babies do you see?

072

Cheers! M&N

092

Pizza!

Posted on July 8, 2009 by mike

So, I feel that Peter Reinhart has the final word on bread recipes. I fell in love with baking when Orion handed me down a copy of the Tassajara Bread Book. Then one year Nevada gave me Crust & Crumb (Reinhart). The recipe I have made and experimented with the most is his Pizza Dough I. This is possibly the best pizza dough that I and many others profess they’ve ever tasted. This pie is so flavorful and has such a beautiful crumb. Some (Orion and Christopher), recently pressed me for information on this recipe and I swear my success comes from the ceramic stone. O’s using a granite tile and I believe Christopher is also, although I may be mistaken and he might be using an unglazed tile (I dunno). Regardless, here’s how Peter and I do it.

0234

The dough. It’s been retarding in the fridge for a few days which really develops the flavors. Likewise, it is made from a starter that had been aging for a day. I like the gallon zipbags as the dough does not dry and you can burp the gas easily enough.

024

This dough is very wet and sticky. The recipe makes enough for about 3 pies. I remove a third and roll it in a pile of flour and let it rest for a while (20′ to an hour).

0012

Rested and ready.

with-oil

Then, I stretch it out by hand and, for lack of technical term, flap it out as you would sand out of your towel at the beach. It is then placed on parchment paper and drizzled with olive oil.

then-sauce-cheese-and-herbs

Next, the sauce, herbs, toppings, and cheese go on.

oven

I preheat the oven to 550° (its max). I plan on doing a cleaning cycle (800°!) for the preheat, but I am a lil’bit scared to try this. I cook on a generic 1/4” stone. The remnants of past stones, a jelly roll pan, and a mini cast iron pan line the oven floor as well. I have cracked a few stones with wet dough recipes.

The result, yummy pie. I love this recipe. I also have Reinhart’s American Pie, but still default to the recipe from Crust &Crumb.

tastier frogs

mike and nevada’s blog thing !