Of poetry, coffee and bread

The Better Half and I headed to St. Paul today. We were past due for a visit to Nina's Cafe, plus, Sixth Chamber books was holding for me a Joy Harjo book of poetry and another one comprised of many of her interviews. We (this is the editorial version) don't get to many of our old hangouts as much as we used to, so it was a pleasant trip with pleasant company to a place that used to be close to a home away from home.

Nina's Cafe, St. Paul

Photo by J. Harrington

Heading back North after our cappuccinos, we spotted a peregrine falcon land on one of the street lights near the Jackson Street train yards. Not that we're snobs or anything, but a peregrine is a step up from our usual fare of red-tailed hawks. If you quickly check the range map at the Cornell site, you no doubt would question our identification. Instead, go to the ebird sighting and notice that peregrines, though rare, are found in Minnesota. Unfortunately, there's no photo, we were busy driving in traffic.

artisan bread and baking cloche

Photo by J. Harrington

We need to make it a short and sweet posting this afternoon. We're in the midst of reverting back to baking 5 minute artisan bread, at the request of the Daughter Person. We made the dough before we left this morning and no have the shaped ball rising in our cloche, almost ready to go into the oven. We're hoping this is sort of like riding a bicycle, once you've learned....? Apparently some folks in the family have been "sourdoughed" out. We're grateful that we can accommodate them, especially since we've been thinking that our sourdough bread needs to be a little more sour. If we ever thought we really knew what we were doing, we'd tend to get bored. It's amazing how much variation we can create with different combinations of water, flour, salt, sugar, yeast, sometimes starter, and varying amounts of time and heat. Playing with these ingredients, and a few more, is high on our list for next year. Have you started your 2018 list yet? We're pretty sure ours will include bread baking, poetry, photography, politics, fly-fishing and some local travel, leavened with a dash of flexibility.

                     Don’t Bother the Earth Spirit

By Joy Harjo

Don’t bother the earth spirit who lives here. She is working on a story. It is the oldest story in the world and it is delicate, changing. If she sees you watching she will invite you in for coffee, give you warm bread, and you will be obligated to stay and listen. But this is no ordinary story. You will have to endure earthquakes, lightning, the deaths of all those you love, the most blinding beauty. It’s a story so compelling you may never want to leave; this is how she traps you. See that stone finger over there? That is the only one who ever escaped.

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