{"id":1047,"date":"2012-07-19T19:22:45","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T23:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/2012\/07\/19\/the-farmer-across-the-road\/"},"modified":"2012-07-19T19:22:45","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T23:22:45","slug":"the-farmer-across-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/the-farmer-across-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"The Farmer Across the Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Note from Peter: \u00a0I’ve been corresponding recently with a fascinating guy name Bruce Vetter, a retired motorcycle builder who is now a passionate whole grain bread baker. I asked him if he’d be willing to share some of his unique personal story with our viewers and he sent me this photo essay. I’m hoping he’ll keep sending us contributions like this — he represents a rare breed of good old fashioned non-conformists who make life interesting for everyone around them. Enjoy!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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When I was 14 I began to lead my life with a process of continual learning. \u00a0I’ve always had great passion for whatever I may be learning and being 68 now I have a lifetime of learning under my belt. \u00a0These last 2-3 years I’ve turned my attention to learning to bake whole wheat bread, which is far more difficult than I expected. \u00a0I have 6 grand children and I want them to understand that processed food is not normal. \u00a0I want them to know there is a better way to eat.<\/p>\n

My goal is to bake 100% whole wheat bread that would be the bread of choice of my entire family. \u00a0Using store bought whole wheat flour was a convenient option but I wanted more control over the type of wheat used, the methods of farming and processing, and the length of storage before I get it.<\/p>\n

Initially I started ordering winter hard white and red wheat berries from Idaho, shipped in on pallets. The wheat was packaged for the long term in 6 gallon buckets. \u00a0I also needed to be able to grind my own grain in large volume while limiting the amount of heat imparted to the flour.<\/p>\n

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The above 2 grinding mills operate either independently, or, the top one delivers it\u2019s coarse product through the maroon conduit to the lower mill for final milling. \u00a0This limits and controls the amount of heat delivered to the final flour. \u00a0Each mill will produce 6-8 lbs of flour per hour. \u00a0(shown with belt guards removed)<\/p>\n

The farmer across the road grows wheat and I asked him if I could purchase a full grain wagon. This amounted to 200 bushels (the product of 5 acres) weighing 14,000 lbs. \u00a0The cost was $0.10\/pound or $1,400. \u00a0It was a lot of wheat and I was excited. \u00a0I wanted to get my grain from as close to the grower as possible. \u00a0The wheat from Idaho, by the way, cost $0.75\/lb counting shipping.<\/p>\n

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I have \u00a0several local friends that think like me, so we shared this wheat by packaging it in my shop purged with Nitrogen and sealed in Mylar bags with Oxygen absorbers all within 5-6 gallon plastic buckets. \u00a0In total we packed 344 buckets of wheat .<\/p>\n

To test if there is sufficient Nitrogen, we use a flame over the bag. \u00a0If the flame goes out we have enough Nitrogen and the bag is sealed.<\/p>\n

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Counting everything but my labor, the cost of a bucket full of wheat is 8-9 dollars. \u00a0This is 1\/3 of what I kept, the rest being distributed among other local home bakers. \u00a0Each bucket will take me 1-2 weeks to use up, from baking bread to rolling wheat for cereal and pancakes.<\/p>\n

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Until I read Peter’s book “Whole Grain Breads” every loaf I would bake was like a dense brick. \u00a0Using his pre-fermenting process of soakers and bigas, now it looks the way proper bread should look: And the flavor and taste is my families favorite.<\/p>\n

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My grand children are being taught what\u2019s required to bake the loaf of bread they eat for dinner. They grind the grain too and when they do I call them my \u201cGrain Children\u201d.<\/p>\n

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I bake bread in a wood burning oven during the winters and a gas oven when the weather is warm. \u00a0I store about 13 cords of sawmill sawed deciduous wood, mostly oak measuring 6″ X 8″, stored in 40 large stackable wire metal baskets; each basket holds 800-1,000 lbs of wood with a volume of 1\/3 cord. \u00a0Each basket is color coded with a tag delineating the harvest date so I can better judge the seasoning. \u00a0I have found that from when it is green until it is seasoned the wood will loose 17% of it’s mass through moisture loss. \u00a0 I like this method of storage because the wood continues to air dry, does not rot, and with a forklift I can “plug” a basket into a slot right next to my stove just like an audio cassette. \u00a0I have limited handling, the biggest chore involving heating\/cooking with wood. During the coldest weather a full basket will last 7-9 days.<\/p>\n

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During the winter months my wood oven is hot 24 hours a day 7 days a week, but is only big enough for a single loaf at a time. \u00a0I’m planning to make an earthen\/clay outdoor wood fired oven capable of baking 4 loaves of whole wheat bread at a time. \u00a0I’m really excited.<\/p>\n

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All this work and effort just to create this? \u00a0One may ask if it’s worth it and to that I can only respond with an emphatic old guy “YES”.<\/p>\n

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By the way, I buy corn from this same farmer too. \u00a0In this case I just drive into his field and he fills me up. \u00a0My family is also fond of cornbread but that’s another story. \u00a0(This image is not staged or altered, Farmer Tom can really do this.)<\/p>\n

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Note from Peter: \u00a0I’ve been corresponding recently with a fascinating guy name Bruce Vetter, a retired motorcycle builder who is now a passionate whole grain bread baker. I asked him if he’d be willing to share some of his unique personal story with our viewers and he sent me this photo essay. I’m hoping he’ll keep sending us contributions like this — he represents a rare breed of good old…Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":1034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c45-guest-bloggers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Farmer Across the Road - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/the-farmer-across-the-road\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Farmer Across the Road - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Note from Peter: \u00a0I’ve been corresponding recently with a fascinating guy name Bruce Vetter, a retired motorcycle builder who is now a passionate whole grain bread baker. 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