Author Archives: William Rubel

Bread in Italy circa 1894

I was searching Google Books for information on military bread ovens in the 19th century, a process my girlfriend refers to as “wooden cowing,” and came across this sketch regarding bread in Italy circa 1894. It was written by Olive… Read more

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A Simple Military Clay Oven circa 1895

Armies march on their stomachs. Historically, this often meant that armies marched with their bakeries. Military field manuals are a source of information in simple impromptu oven construction. The simplest oven is the item 496: An oven may be excavated… Read more

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Building a Mud Oven with Soil/Concrete

The ovens demonstrated here are based on designs from the Jewish Moroccan community in Israel. They were built at the Jewish Moroccan Museum and Archive for Living Culture at Moshav Sedot Micah, a village in the center of Israel.  There… Read more

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The Dislike for the Sour Taste in Bread (1903)

LEAVEN is nothing more nor less than flour and water, stirred together and kept in a warm place until fermentation commences. Every time the baker makes bread, a certain quantity should be kept back in an earthen pot for the… Read more

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Hearth Cooking at Plimoth Plantation

What you see here is a woman cooking in an iron pot over a fire. It is hard to see, but the iron pot is hanging over the fire from an iron hook. The woman in the photograph is… Read more

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Reimer Seeds

This is  a very interesting company. Their seed offering is vast. Whatever you choose to look at you will find that refreshingly there are real choices. My first test of a site is usually to check the artichoke offering and… Read more

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Making Tortillas from Nixtamal

Bear with this grainy video. It is shot in low light with a simple camera. The video documents two women making tortillas on a clay griddle (a comal) fired with branches from masa (dough) that is prepared from nixtamal (whole… Read more

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Sand Hill Preservation Center

This is a family-run farm dedicated to preserving rare poultry and vegetables. Orders are accepted by post only, and credit cards are not accepted. You will not believe the breadth of Sand Hill’s offerings, many of which are rare. For… Read more

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Underwood Gardens

I have recently revisited Underwood Gardens. On this review I’d like to point out their focus on what they term “Extreme Gardening“. These are plants selected for deep continental climates where there are wide extremes in temperature, both hot and… Read more

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How much amanita muscaria is safe to eat?

Detoxified Fly Agaric
How much Amanita muscaria to is safe to eat? When you detoxify the “Fly Amanita” by leaching out the water soluble toxins by  parboiling thinly sliced mushrooms in plentiful  water for at least ten, and preferably fifteen… Read more

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