Articles – Page 38

Sourdough starter

In Blog on July 13, 2011

I’M besotted with baking at the moment, so over the coming weeks, I’ll write a couple of posts about my sourdough and me.

Today, I’ll start – where else? – with the starter. If you’d like a soundtrack, I suggest The Loaf, by Darren Hanlon.

For those of you who haven’t come across the makings of sourdough before, the starter – otherwise known as the culture, plant or mother dough – is a kind of wild, bubbling, gurgling yeast. It’s the thing that makes the dough rise and contains the bacteria that make it sour. To my understanding of yeast, what happens is this: as the mix ferments, the yeast eats the sugars in the flour and releases carbon dioxide, which leavens the dough.

You can make your own starter in a week, by fermenting flour and water. I have a beautiful book called The Handmade Loaf, by Dan Lepard, in which he suggests adding raisins and yoghurt to the recipe.

But if you’ve got a liking for narrative – or convenience – I suggest you prevail on a friend for a portion of their culture. To keep it alive, you must feed it regularly with fresh flour and water (or you can store it for a while in the fridge or freezer and revive it later). This bakery in San Franscisco has been using the same “mother dough” since 1849.

While I was away hitch-hiking last year, my old starter died. I discovered the jar recently, toppled over under our kitchen bench. When I peered at the jar’s congealed innards, it I realised that both of us – the culture and I – were petrified.

Its death was apt. Over the last few years, I had made a number of half-hearted attempts at baking bread, but gave up, not really knowing what I was doing.

But then I fell in love with Les Bartlett’s small bakery near Maleny on the Sunshine Coast. There I met Penny, a fellow Melbournian, who was staying there to learn Les’s craft. Earlier this year I saw Penny again and she brought me a sample of his sourdough plant. For most of this year, I’ve been baking twice a week. I am only beginning to learn.

This is what my jar looked like the other day:

Last week, I was talking with a good friend whose grandmother died recently. He was driving to visit her one morning, when he received a call saying she’d passed away. While we talked, I began to think about my family.

Two years ago my grandparents on my mother’s side died within a week of each other. At that time I gained solace from the wisdom of another friend, Daniela from Argentina.

Daniela is the person who first showed me how to bake bread, while I stayed for weeks at her remote camping ground – Ecocamping Ñorquinco – on the edge of a lake, in a national park, in northern Patagonia. Here she is by the lake, with bread for morning tea:

She told me that while she did not believe in an afterlife, she knew that her relatives, generation upon generation, lived on through her and through her children: not only in their minds – for memories rarely surpass a few generations – but also in their bodies. Her ancestors lived on, physically, through her.

I find this profound; it seems both soulful and scientifically valid. I think of generations stretching back in time, each of us given our substance by those before us, even as we must make our days, minds and bodies our own.

Sourdough is like that. Whenever I open my jar of culture to begin a new batch, I call upon a living portion of the past. The mother loaf goes back to Les, and maybe beyond. Its family tree extends through all those with whom he’s shared it, and on and on, in turn.

Choir hits a high note in Europe

In Culture, The Age on July 13, 2011

CALEB Foster-McLachlan could barely contain his excitement yesterday, the eve of his departure for the ancient cathedrals of Europe where he will perform with the Australian Children’s Choir.

”I’m so excited I can’t get to sleep at night any more. I just want to go,” the 17-year-old said.

Foster-McLachlan, who has high-functioning autism, said he tends to worry too much: ”I get stressed about expectations and results a lot of the time. Sometimes I think I’m going from one stressful thing to another.”

That made his first night in the choir after his successful audition particularly nerve-racking. ”It was very scary at first,” he says. ”I was so nervous my voice wobbled and the conductor commented that I sounded like a pregnant turkey being strangled.

”But I learnt quickly and the last comment I had from him was a few months ago – he said I had too much of a cheeky grin, which was off-putting from a distance!”

The choir’s tour of Europe has been two years in the planning. For just over three weeks, 50 children – aged from 10 to 18 – will sing in several cities across Germany, Austria and England.

The schedule culminates with a performance at Canterbury Cathedral, where the group will take part in the International Children’s Choir Festival, singing with young choristers from six countries.

Choir director and conductor Andrew Wailes says he has been able to organise for the ensemble to perform in some remarkable venues – places far removed, and not just geographically, from the children’s normal base in Mitcham.

”It’s mind-blowing just to walk into some of the glorious Gothic cathedrals in Europe and know they are between 500 and 1000 years old,” he says. ”And when you go in there to sing, it’s the most inspirational setting. These spaces were designed all those years ago to make the human voice sound its best.”

Wailes says the tour party is excited and nervous – and that goes for the accompanying adults, too. Last week, he held the final briefing for parents.

”Suddenly one of the kids looked up to me with these forlorn eyes and said, ‘We’ve only got one rehearsal left!’ And I said, ‘Yes, you betcha. I’m acutely aware of that, young man’.”

The choir’s repertoire for the trip comprises 43 songs, including a Latin Mass and a few pieces in German, all learnt since the beginning of the year at twice-weekly rehearsals.

”It’s a huge amount of music for the kids to have prepared in six months, but they’ve got there. We’re ready and raring to go,” Wailes says.

”They’re going to come back different people, with a whole lot of experiences and wonderful memories to inspire them.”

Foster-McLachlan has felt restless for the past two weeks, but this time it’s out of anticipation, not anxiety. He has been daydreaming about walking in German forests, descending upon mediaeval castles and singing in thousand-year-old chapels with gilded walls.

”I could have spent my sleeplessness productively, packing my bag,” he admits, ”but instead I sit there imagining being inside the Canterbury Cathedral or how I’m going to talk with the American choirs we’ll meet.”

The year 11 student’s mother, Brenda McLachlan, says being in the choir has helped him understand the subtleties of communication and socialising in a group – scenarios that can be challenging for autistic people.

”Singing in the choir is calming and therapeutic because at times he can get quite wound up,” she says.

Wailes said the benefits of singing are clear for the young and the old.

”It’s the basic human form of relaxing that doesn’t require gym fees or expensive equipment,” he said. ”When you’re singing, that’s all you think about, you don’t worry about anything else. It’s good for the soul.”

Read this article at The Age online

Bathtub wormfarm benchseat

In Blog on July 11, 2011

ANDY and I ventured north on a sunny Saturday, to hold a UBC workshop at a Permablitz for the Reservoir Neighbourhood House.

We were asked to adapt our previous bathtub wormfarm design into something much lower to the ground, to fit a convenient spot near the kitchen and double as an outdoor bench. We scavenged timber from our own ramshackle stocks, including some gorgeous old hardwood floorboards that Tall English Stephen had earmarked for his own chook shed. He put on a brave face when he found them missing.

Despite the trouble we were in with a miffed Stephen, this was my new all-time favourite Urban Bush-Carpenters workshop. A large group of enthusiastic volunteers did all the work while we watched, imparted wisdom and ate cake. Many of the participants hadn’t had any experience using a saw or a drill, but with a few small pointers and much gusto, we produced a beautiful object.

It is a constant source of wonder to me that we always seem to have just the right amount and right kind of timber on hand, not more or less – but I guess that’s about making do with whatever we’ve got.

I was so excited by the way it looked, that if it were me, I’d be inclined to keep it inside.

We’ve got our next workshop at CERES on this Saturday July 16, at 10 am. We’ll be building bench seats, like this:

If you want to take part, shoot us a message.

Lifetime affordable housing

In Greener Homes on July 10, 2011

Professor Ralph Horne, from RMIT’s Centre for Design, has a warning for new homebuyers: don’t rely on the sticker price.

For the last four years, he’s been working on a project called Lifetime Affordable Housing in Australia. The research was spurred by controversy over the way minimum energy ratings influence the price of housing.

“Some people argue that the regulations make houses more expensive to build and therefore, less affordable – and that they exacerbate an already serious problem in Australian cities,” Professor Horne says.

“So we set out to discover what impact energy bills have on housing affordability. From a household’s perspective, is it better to buy an eight-star house than a five-star house?”

His team analysed over 80 designs from volume builders, modelling changes that raised the ratings as much as possible. Rather than making major alterations to the plans, the researchers upped the standard of the materials, insulation and glazing.

They calculated the cost of stepping each home up from five to six stars, then to seven and eight. Next, they compared those upfront costs with predicted energy savings over time frames ranging from five to 40 years.

“We think the optimal star rating for a house in Melbourne is somewhere between seven and eight stars,” Professor Horne says. “Below that level, householders are worse off: over its lifetime the house will be more unaffordable than if it were built to a higher standard.”

There is a catch, however. The best returns accrue to householders who stay put for the long haul. But while a new house has a lifespan measured in several decades, many people move on within years.

Professor Horne found that when costs are measured over a 40-year time frame, houses that reach eight stars become the most affordable. Based on these results, he argues the case for standards much more stringent than the current six stars.

“When you buy a house, you don’t know how long you’re going to be there. The energy efficiency regulations provide a ‘social payback’ over the lifetime of the building, because they give you the comfort of knowing that if you move, it will be into another eight-star house,” he says.

“We can confidently improve the standards in building regulations without Victorian families being out of pocket. In fact, it would improve the resilience and the ability of those households to pay their bills in the future because those bills will be much smaller.”

Even in the absence of tougher rules, he argues that householders should go beyond the minimum requirements. “For a Victorian family buying a new house they intend to live in, I think a seven-star home is a good place to start. If you go above that, you’ll need to stay there quite a while if you want a private return.”

Professor Horne and his team found that the most flexible designs achieve higher standards most cheaply. Shifting the orientation of a home – to make sure living areas face north – can boost five-star plans by up to a star.

“If you’re building a new dwelling, it is worthwhile pushing your builder to deliver a more energy efficient home. You will save money in the short term and you’ll save even more money in the long term.”

Read this article at The Age online

Greenhouse calculator

In Greener Homes on July 3, 2011

To slow climate change we must know our own impact

IF you want to deflate your household’s black balloons, you should first pinpoint exactly how many there are, says energy efficiency expert Alan Pears.

Last month, the Environment Protection Authority Victoria launched the latest version of its free online Greenhouse Calculator.

The tool, developed by Mr Pears, RMIT’s Centre for Design and Education Services Australia, connects our household habits with their greenhouse repercussions. It covers car use, public transport, flights, heating and cooling, hot water, lighting, appliances, cooking, shopping and waste.

“One of the crucial messages is that there are lots of ways to cut your carbon footprint,” Mr Pears says. “For example, if you can cut your food waste by not letting it go off in the fridge, it would reduce your expenditure on food – and that by itself would make a big difference.

“The idea behind the calculator is that instead of people throwing rocks at each other or feeling disempowered, they can get a sense of what the issues are, with enough sophistication to look at different ways to solve them.”

In a matter of minutes, the calculator’s “quick mode” will give you a good idea of your greenhouse emission profile. It graphs the results against both a typical and a green household, by way of comparison.

You can then delve into the detailed sections to better understand the areas that interest you, or those in which you fare the worst.

The options are astonishingly comprehensive. You can factor in the withered seals on your fridge or the lack of ventilation space behind it, and watch the emissions rise up accordingly. You can examine the effect on your car’s fuel efficiency when you inflate the tyres, schedule regular services or install roof racks.

“It’s very empowering,” Mr Pears says. “You can explore a much wider range of options for cutting your carbon footprint than you can with any other calculator in the world.

“Some behavioural things have much bigger effect than you realise. For example, changing your heating and cooling thermostat by one degree in Melbourne really does make a big difference to your energy use,” he says.

Among other findings likely to surprise, Mr Pears identifies the super-low emissions of public transport and the dazzling inefficiency of halogen downlights. Likewise, a large flat-screen TV might gobble more electricity than the family fridge (unless it’s one of the “amazingly efficient” new 8-star screens).

And although our shopping habits are often overlooked, they account for over one-third of the average household’s carbon footprint. “I think a lot of people will be surprised by how significant food and consumer items are,” he says.

The calculator’s “weekly shopping” section allows users to compare different kinds of meat and all the food groups, as well as drinks, processed goods and other supermarket products.

Mr Pears says there’s a benefit to the online tool beyond its potential to spotlight excess carbon emissions. “In most households people become fixated on certain things. Someone will say, ‘It’s the kids’ computers’, or, ‘My wife does this’, or, ‘My husband does that’.

“But with the calculator you can specify how many showers you have, long they last and the flow rate of the showerhead. It’s a big opportunity to resolve longstanding arguments,” he laughs. “In that way, it’s potentially a household conflict-resolution tool.”

Read this article at The Age online