I can’t remember a time when my garden has still been producing in the middle of October. Granted, there’s not much left, but enough to have me thinking about what to do with all of the basil and hot peppers just waiting out there. I have everything ready for pesto after stocking up on walnuts and olive oil. We love it on pizza as an alternative to tomato sauce, or as an easy dinner tossed with pasta and some fresh veggies.

One of the things that is still growing out back is rosemary. When I transplanted it this spring, it can’t have been more than about 2 inches tall. It has taken all summer and through the fall to get big, but now it looks great! I’ll use some of that, along with chopped garlic, to adorn the sourdough focaccia for you this week. Focaccia is one of the most versatile breads I make. We eat it just as it is, or slice it for sandwiches. We dip it in olive oil or eat it alongside a big salad. We’ve made pizzas from focaccia, or top it with grated cheese and broil it for just a few minutes. It’s light and airy, and substantial enough to keep you full. If you haven’t tried it you won’t want to miss this version that’s amped up with garlic and rosemary.

I have the honor of contributing a basket this weekend for a fundraiser for the Early Pregnancy Loss Association. This non-profit supports women and families experiencing miscarriage, providing help in physical as well as spiritual and emotional ways. If you’re attending the banquet, you can bid on a few of my freshly baked items as well as a month-long subscription. There *might* be sourdough cinnamon rolls in the basket, so get your tickets if you haven’t already! If you’re not attending but would like to donate, you can find more information at miscarriagecare.com.

Available weekly is my house sourdough loaf. I mill four different grains just before mixing, and they each add a different bit of flavor to this bread. This is a fantastic bread to have in the freezer for those nights when you don’t have anything ready for dinner. It makes a killer grilled cheese sandwich, a BLT, or buttered toast to go with eggs. (Breakfast for dinner is a regular occurrence at our house). An easy way to freeze and thaw a loaf like this is to slice it before freezing, then just pull out as many slices at a time as you need.

Orders are open now until Tuesday, or until sold out, and can be placed at hillsdalehearth.com for pickup on Thursday, October 17th. Please choose either Hillsdale College (Kendall 413) or my home in Hillsdale as your pickup location. Payment is by cash, check, or cashapp, or by credit card when you order.

This week I’m making a nostalgic food, one that always reminds me of our time in Germany. We spent five years living there while Jonathan worked on his doctorate. We lived in a quaint university town in southern Germany for half of that time, then moved to Berlin for the remainder of those years. In both places there were bakeries (yes, plural) just around the corner from our apartment. Saturday mornings would often find us on a walk to one of the local bakeries to enjoy a delicious German breakfast of fresh rolls, meats and cheeses, jams and Nutella. We would sit and watch the world go by as we leisurely ate roll after roll. *sigh* Pretzels were also ubiquitous at every bakery. The southern Germans made them softer, somehow, than the Berliners, and sliced and smeared them with good butter. I would often pick one up as I biked into work, savoring it for a snack later in the day.

Those days may be behind us, but I’m bringing the taste and scents of those bakeries to Hillsdale this week. Soft sourdough German-style pretzels are the bake of the week. I make them in the traditional way, with long fermentation and a dip in a lye bath before sprinkling with pretzel salt and baking. These are really best on the day they’re made, but could also be frozen to enjoy later, if they even make it home!

Always available is my house sourdough loaf. I’m still using triticale in the grain mix and have also added back in red wheat, white wheat, and spelt. It’s a great combination and the loaves are full of fiber and nutrients, both from the freshly milled flour and the long, slow fermentation I use with all my sourdough breads.

Sourdough soft pretzels and house loaves are available to order now until Tuesday, or until sold out. Orders can be picked up on Thursday, October 10th either at Hillsdale College (Kendall 413) or at my home in Hillsdale. Please indicate your pickup location when you order. 

Payment is by cash, check, and cashapp when you pick up, or by credit card when you order. If you are paying by cash, please note that there is not always someone available to make change for your order!

A new month is almost upon us and it’s a glorious time of year. The trees seem late in their color change and the warm weather has given us the feel of a few more weeks of summer. This week we’ve been enjoying the fair; it’s fun to see all of the creative skills that people have and demonstrate!

As October rolls in it’s time for a new month of breads. Fall flavors are one of my love languages and this month is one you don’t want to miss! Here’s the lineup for the next five Thursdays:

October 3: Oat porridge sourdough – this bread is like comfort in loaf form. So good for everything from toast to sandwiches to a thick slab next to a bowl of soup.

October 10: Sourdough soft pretzels – these are a crowd favorite and always take me back to our years in Germany. 

October 17: Sourdough focaccia with garlic & rosemary – classic focaccia flavors, a slab of this is just the thing for a great sandwich.

October 24: Chocolate, walnut, and flax sourdough – this is a new bread for me and it’s packed with nutrition in addition to great flavor pairings.

October 31: Pumpkin cinnamon scones – October wouldn’t be complete without something pumpkin flavored. These are tender and just sweet enough without being cloying. 

For subscribers this month I’ll also make you shareable-sized apple hand pie with apples from a local orchard.

Subscriptions are available for both house sourdough loaves and for the bakes of the week, as noted above. You can choose one or the other, or order both to ensure that you receive all the varieties this month. If you’re going to be out of town one Thursday, it’s a great time to gift a loaf of bread to a friend – someone else can pick up bread on your behalf. 

If you’re just looking for baked goods now and then, you can also order week by week. Orders open on Fridays and close on Tuesday evenings, or when I sell out. This week, oat porridge sourdough and my house sourdough are available to order now for pickup on Thursday afternoon, October 3rd. When you order, you can choose to pick up at Hillsdale College or at my home in Hillsdale. 

Payment is by cash, check, or cashapp, or by credit card when you order. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or special requests. I am so very grateful to be your local baker!

We’re headed into fair week – it’s our first time participating and it’s been a learning curve for all of us. Projects are all mostly wrapped up, and the kids are excited to bring their hard work to the fair this weekend. If you’ve never been, it’ll be a happening place next week!

As we head into fall, despite the summer weather, I like to bake with traditional fall flavors. Apples are the first food that come to mind, and caramel apples are such a joy. Since I’m a baker and not a candy maker, I’m taking those flavors and infusing them into scones this week. Caramel bits, fresh apple, and a slightly sweet scone make for a delightful breakfast or coffee break. I make these by hand with flour and butter and everything else that makes scones delicious. 

This last week I made salsa with our garden peppers and tomatoes. My husband is a big fan of spicy foods, so I added a few mystery spicy peppers that I picked up at the college plant sale. Well. I’ve succeeded in making a salsa that he can barely eat! Good thing I have six quarts of it in the basement  🙂 

We’ve been going through bread like crazy lately. Our chickens are laying prolifically right now, but without toast no one really wants eggs for breakfast. I’ve recently taught one of my daughters to make a basic all-purpose sourdough sandwich loaf, which works well for lunches and for toast in the mornings. She makes three loaves on the weekend, and we enjoy that along with whatever other breads I’m making! My house sourdough is also available this week, with a great mix of freshly-milled grains in every loaf.

If you subscribed in September, this is the last week of your subscription. October subscriptions will open next Friday, September 27th, and stay open through the weekend or until sold out. Stay tuned for October’s menu next week! If you like fall flavors like I do, you’re going to love it.

Orders are open now and will remain open until Tuesday or until I’m sold out. This past week I closed orders on Sunday, so be sure to order early if you want house sourdough or caramel apple scones!

This week you’re in for one of my favorites: sourdough baguettes. These are so, so versatile – they’re perfect for bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and basil, for serving alongside charcuterie (easy dinner!), to go with a fried egg for breakfast, and really anything else you can think of. I’ll be freezing some of these to have on hand when the weather turns cool and we’re enjoying more soup for dinner. If baguettes have ever left you underwhelmed, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with these. The natural leavening, or sourdough, adds nutritional value but also this depth of flavor that simply can’t be manufactured. I make all of my breads by hand, paying close attention to my sourdough starter and the fermentation of each batch of dough. All of my sourdough breads are at least a 2-day process – time is what gives bread great flavor, and is also what helps the body digest this kind of bread more easily.

We’re currently renovating our porch, which had been screened in but needed some tlc. There was water damage on the ceiling and some rotting wood around the windows (which were a strange sort of clear vinyl, I think.) In any case, we’re adding an interior wall and dividing the space into an office for my husband and a more dedicated baking space for me! We’ll let the professionals take care of things like windows and electricity, then we’ll set to work on the interior. It may be some time before it’s finished, but I’ll keep baking throughout the process. If any of you enjoy interior design and would like to give me your best suggestions, I’d love some input!

I’m baking my house sourdough this month with a grain called triticale instead of my usual blend. We’re really enjoying it, and I hope that you are, too! Triticale is high in fiber and protein; my house sourdough packs in 25% of its total flour with freshly-milled triticale. In October I’ll go back to baking with a mix of red wheat, white wheat, and spelt. I’ll find other uses for the triticale going forward!

Orders are open now until Tuesday, September 17th, or until I sell out. House sourdough and sourdough baguettes will be available for pickup on Thursday, September 19th at my home in Hillsdale or at Hillsdale College. Payment is by cash, check, or cashapp, or by credit card when you order online. 

Our garden is in peak tomato season right now and we’re eating them in so many different ways in these weeks. Years ago I read a book where the main character made a tomato sandwich; just white bread, a thick slathering of mayo, and tomato slices. It’s not the sandwich I’d eat all the time, but with fresh tomatoes and homemade bread, it is spectacular! 

This coming week, I’m making sourdough sandwich bread for you! Pain de Mie is it’s official name, which just means white or brown bread with a thin crust. It’s everything that white bread was meant to be, with more flavor and nutrition from the long fermentation of sourdough. This loaf is enriched with butter, milk, and honey, making it extra tender and just a little sweet. If you order a loaf, and you’d like a tomato or two to eat with it, let me know and I’ll set some on the porch when you pick up.

Last night we had zucchini grilled cheese on my house sourdough. I wasn’t sure what the reaction would be, but everyone LOVED it! It’s more work than a regular grilled cheese, unless you already have grated zucchini in the freezer, but well worth the effort. I needed to use up a whopper of a squash and this sandwich was a great way to enjoy it!

Both sourdough sandwich bread and house sourdough with freshly milled flour are available to order now until Tuesday, or until sold out. Pickup is on Thursday afternoon, September 12th either at my home or at Hillsdale College.

It’s almost a new month and all the back-to-school routines are starting to feel less jarring. I enjoy summer and all of the open schedules, but I also enjoy more of a predictable schedule, knowing what to expect each day. Meal planning is a big part of scheduling for our family, thinking through what is happening in the week and how to make sure that healthy and delicious food is on the table each day. As you can imagine, breads play a significant role in what we eat at home! We all enjoy the variety of forms and flavors that sourdough can take – everything from pizza to bagels to sandwich bread and cinnamon rolls.

This month, as I thought about what I’d like to make and what you’d like to eat, making meals easier was one of my considerations. Here’s the September lineup!

September 5-6: Sourdough cinnamon raisin bagels

September 12-13: Sourdough pain de mie sandwich bread

September 19-20: Sourdough baguette

September 26-27: Caramel apple scones

Bagels are an easy breakfast, they’re a filling snack, they’re delicious on their own or toasted! When breakfasts start to get repetitive, these bagels are an easy change. Plus, the additional whole grains from freshly milled flour pack a nutritional punch.

Sandwich bread is an easy reach for lunches, and this sourdough loaf is soft and squishy, perfect for whatever kind of sandwich you’re in the mood for. It’s enriched with milk and butter and benefits from a long fermentation in the fridge.

Baguettes go with everything. Fresh tomatoes and basil for bruschetta, buttered with garlic next to a pasta bowl, sliced for an easy charcuterie dinner, baguettes do it all. This sourdough version has a crispy exterior and a chewy crumb. Making baguettes is a bit finicky but the results are worth the effort! I hope you’ll like these as much as we do.

Caramel apple scones are such a lovely not-too-sweet treat to celebrate apple season! I’ll use the freshest apples I can find along with caramel bits to bring the flavors of a caramel apple into baked form. These are a great snack or breakfast on the go.

As always, my house sourdough is available as a monthly subscription as well as on a week-to-week basis. This month, I’m using triticale as the freshly-milled portion of this sourdough. It’s a hybrid of wheat and rye, more often used in brewing than in baking, but we really enjoyed the loaves I made with it! All of my sourdough is naturally leavened, without any added commercial yeast. That process takes time, and that time often makes bread easier to digest, even for those who are sensitive to gluten.

Orders can be placed on hillsdalehearth.com from now until Tuesday, or until I’m sold out. Pickup is either at my home in Hillsdale on Thursday or Friday, or at Hillsdale College (Kendall 413) on Thursday. Payment is by cash, check, or cashapp when you pick up, or credit card when you order. 

I’m still in denial about school starting next week, so instead I’m eeking out the last vestiges of summer. We’ll start slow next week, easing everyone back into a schedule (including me!). In the meantime, we’ll plan to swim, grill burgers, eat fresh from the garden, and enjoy the warm sunshine while we have it.

This week’s bake is a summertime staple: s’mores. We ate these on repeat while we were camping and I don’t think the kids ever tired of them. Since s’mores are a little tricky to package up for you, I decided to put all of those flavors into a scone. My experiment paid off, and you’ll get to enjoy these classic campfire flavors without the intrusion of mosquitoes! Mini marshmallow, graham cracker crumbs, and sweet chocolate chips round out these scones. And I’m adding some freshly milled white whole wheat – it doesn’t make them healthy, exactly, but it does add some nutritional value 🙂

My house sourdough is a staple for everything around here. Now that tomatoes are ripe, we’ll be enjoying BLTs on fresh sourdough for quick and easy dinners. My oldest daughter usually requests these for her birthday dinner; I’m more than happy to comply! Fresh bread, just-picked tomatoes, bacon from pigs raised by our dear friends – it’s a meal with a lot of love behind it.

Orders for s’mores scones and house sourdough are open now through Tuesday, August 20th for pickup on Thursday and Friday, August 22nd-23rd. Payment is by cash, check (made out to me), or cashapp, or by credit card when you order. Pickup is at my home on Thursday and Friday afternoons, and at Hillsdale College on Thursday afternoon. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or special requests!

If you have ever had a garden and grown zucchini, now is the time when you’ve exhausted the recipes you have that utilize zucchini and you start giving it away to anyone who might want it! I’ve harvested a few whoppers and enlisted my kiddos to shred, chop, and freeze it. For the bake of the week, I wanted to find a way to incorporate zucchini without all the sugar and oil. Something light, something savory, something that would showcase this garden star. I made these muffins this morning and all four kids have already requested more! I think they’re a hit. They’re simple: shredded zucchini, eggs, cheese, milk, and a mix of flour, baking powder, and salt. I added a few spices to make them more interesting, and they will be great as a snack or a savory side. These are a wonderful way to add another serving of veg into your day!

As always my house sourdough is available this week. It’s good to be baking again after almost a month away! We all missed eating bread while we were camping and are glad to have it back in our daily routine. If you’re new to the bread list, my house sourdough has a long fermentation, which helps with gluten digestion. I also incorporate 25% freshly milled whole grains into each loaf, packing a nutritional punch! If you’re interested in reading more about the health benefits of sourdough, shoot me a message and I’ll send you a few articles.

The summer has gone by quickly and we’re gearing up for school again. The garden is in full swing, and we’ve tacked on a renovation of our three season porch into the mix! My husband will get a home office, and I will have more dedicated baking space. After the professionals do the framing, we’ll take on the interior work…slowly!

Cheesy zucchini muffins and house sourdough are available for ordering on the website until Tuesday, August 6th with pickup on Thursday and Friday, August 8th-9th. Payment is by cash, check, or cashapp, or by credit card when you order. 

This coming week will be my last bake for a few weeks. I’m taking off the month of July but will be back with subscriptions and delicious bakes in August! If you need to stock your freezer for a few weeks, this is a good chance to do it.

The heat this week has made my garden grow a lot – and the weeds, too! Early mornings are a cool(ish) and quiet time to make some headway on keeping the weeds at bay. I enjoy the stillness, and a chance to think uninterrupted thoughts. We haven’t harvested much besides lettuce and radishes yet, but it is exciting to see growth out there!

I make a good number of breads from a website and book called “The Perfect Loaf.” It’s a site run by a former engineer turned baker, and his recipes reflect that. There are a lot of details, but in following his process I find there to be less room for confusion. This week’s bake – sourdough raspberry knots – is a riff on a chocolate version from that site. I like the tart, fresh flavors of the homemade raspberry jam alongside the slightly-sweet enriched dough leavened only with sourdough starter. Even if you don’t have a sweet tooth, these are a really lovely roll with a lot of flavor!

My house sourdough loaves are available as always. The freshly milled flour adds all sorts of nutrition and flavor to these long-fermented loaves. If you’re new to sourdough, this is a great place to start. I make these every week and it’s the bread that’s most often on our table.

Orders are due on Tuesday, June 25th for pickup on Thursday and Friday, June 27th-28th. Pickup is either at my home in Hillsdale, or at Hillsdale College (Thursday only). Payment is with cash, check, or cash app when you pick up, or by credit card when you order.