[Note: this article was originally posted in July 2009.  It is now updated with the complete recipe - include at the end of the article - for making the Artisan Free-Form Loaf.]

My bread habits have come a long way in the past forty years. I started with Wonder Bread. In the 80s I moved on to a Whole Wheat bread which was basically the brown version of Wonder Bread from a nutritional standpoint. In the 90s I discovered real Whole Wheat breads (thanks to local co-op grocery stores) and explored the tastes of fresh baked artisan breads. And now, thanks to my wife, my family is learning that sliced bread isn’t the greatest invention after all. Instead, our family is now baking all of our bread ourselves, and what may surprise most people is that it’s relatively easy to bake enough healthy, great tasting bread to feed your family.

Over the past several months we’ve been buying fewer and fewer loaves of sliced bread, and baking more and more bread at home. Two weeks ago we decided to stop buying bread at all, and switch entirely to baking our own bread. So far it’s going well and I don’t miss store bought sliced loaves. Our routine is to prepare a high moisture no knead dough once a week, store that dough in the fridge, and use portions of it to bake bread (or pizzas) as needed throughout the week.

Baking all of your own bread may sound like a lot of work, and while it is more work than putting a loaf of bread in your cart at the grocery store, it isn’t as labor intensive as you might imagine (as I thought until recently).  Of course we were helped greatly by a book that was featured on The Splendid Table titled Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  The book provides detailed instructions and techniques on how to bake an Artisan Free-Form Loaf.  It’s what they call their “master recipe”, which once mastered contains all the skills required to bake the dozens of other recipes in the book.

Read the full story

Photo by Greg Wood

Greg Brown Performing at the Arts and Convention Center July 31st at 7:30pm.

Since 2004, the Fairfield Live on the Square Concert Series has brought free, family-oriented concerts to the town square in Fairfield, IA. This month features the incomparable, Iowa born and raised Greg Brown, and the Jefferson County Greenband. And although this one isn’t free, the artists have graciously agreed to donate the proceeds to Live on the Square so that we can continue to bring free music to Fairfield for the rest of this year and beyond. In addition to thanking the artists, we’d like to thank Classic 96 for securing the artists for this show as well as the rest of our sponsors for their generous support.

Greg Brown’s songwriting has been lauded by many, and his songs have been performed by Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana, Michael Johnson, Shawn Colvin, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. He has also recorded more than a dozen albums, including his 1986 release, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, when he put aside his own songwriting to set poems of William Blake to music. One Big Town, recorded in 1989, earned Brown three and a half stars in Rolling Stone, chart-topping status in AAA and The Gavin Report’s Americana rankings and Brown’s first Indie Award from NAIRD (National Association of Independent Record Distributors). The Poet Game, his 1994 CD, received another Indie award from NAIRD. His critically acclaimed 1996 release, Further In, was a finalist for the same award. Rolling Stone’s four-star review of Further In called Brown “a wickedly sharp observer of the human condition.” 1997’s Slant 6 Mind (Red House Records) earned Brown his second Grammy nomination. His latest CD, One Night (Red House), is a re-release of a 1983 live performance originally on Minneapolis’ Coffeehouse Extemporé Records.

Tickets are only $17 and are available at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center website or at the box office. More information about Greg Brown, The Jefferson County Greenband, and the 2009 Classic 96 Live on the Square Concert Series can be found at our fan page on Facebook. You can also follow us onTwitter for additional facts about the artists we’re presenting.

Please support free music in Fairfield by attending the Greg Brown benefit for Live on the Square on July 31^st at 7:30pm at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center. Hope to see you there!

Burlington re-surfacing project nears completion.  If you’ve driven near the Square this week then you’re well aware that the final layer of asphalt is being laid on Burlington Ave from 2nd St. to the far east of town.  Road crews caught a break this week with cooler weather.  They’re doing a nice job too – I rode down the newly laid North lane of Burlington Ave. on my bike and it’s a joy to ride on fresh, smooth asphalt with just the right amount of grip on your tires.

Read the full story

This short documentary film follows two extremely lively and enthusiastic pre-med students at Maharishi University, Antwan and Yahya, though a month of their experiment eating a 100% raw food vegan diet. The story of their experiences, both challenges and benefits, on the raw food diet shows if and how it is possible for a college student to survive going raw.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Raw Food Diet and Recipes (losethattyre.co.uk)
• Eating raw food is a lifestyle change, not a dietary change (paceandkyeli.com)
• Making Raw Food Diets Work for Newbies (rawlivingfoods.typepad.com)

Fairfield resident Diana Makeig addressed the City Council on July 13th with a request that the City take action to address the horrible condition of Cromwell St, where she resides.  Diana described the condition of Cromwell St. as having been destroyed by construction crews.

Read the full story

CNNMoney.com ranked Fairfield Iowa in the nations best places to live feature.  Ranking 3rd in the category of Quality of Life: Communiting, Fairfield Iowa is listed as having a median commute time of 8.3 minutes.

CNNMoney gets their data from the 2007 Census data and Onboard 2008 projections.  I assume that Fairfield’s low commute time is a result of the high number of telecommuters bringing our median time down, which is already low due to the fact that we’re a small town.  I’ve worked between home and an office on the Square since moving to Fairfield and so my commutes have been 0 minutes (to home office) and 5 minutes (to square). Read the full story

Last night’s City Council meeting had at least one bizarre moment.  It occurred after Brent Willett approached the podium to address the City Council as a representative of the Chamber of Commerce and Fairfield Economic Development Association (FEDA).  In order to address concerns from the business community regarding the new three lane configuration coming to Burlington Avenue, Brent presented two letters (one from the Chamber and the other from FEDA) summarized as follows:

we [FEDA and Chamber of Commerce] understand that the planned curriculum of traffic lanes will be adjusted from its current and historic four lane orientation to a one which will feature one eastbound lane, one westbound lane, one middle left-turn lane, and bike lanes on one or both sides of the roadway, with the exception of the section of roadway between Main Street and Court Street, where bike lanes are for one block suspended altogether due to vehicle parking considerations.

FEDA has long been supportive of innovative public transportation policies which- in order of
priority- address the safety of travelers, improve the overall efficiency of freight and passenger
travel and create and preserve recreational opportunities for Fairfield area residents.

As does FEDA, the Chamber requests on the behalf of its members that the Fairfield City Council become inclined and commit future resources toward a scientific review by a qualified actor of traffic safety incidence improvements, vehicle efficiency data and bicycle use and safety data no more than 12 months from the completion of the striping of Burlington Avenue later this summer.

After presenting his opening address to the Mayor and City Council, the response from the Mayor and several Council members was that the new lanes are not “bike lanes”.  Just last week I received emails from city leaders using the term “bike lane” when referring to the new smaller lanes going on the outside of the roadway in both directions.  However last night neither the Mayor or City Council members wanted to call them “bike lanes”.  City Council member Martha Norbeck said they were not designated bike lanes.  And the Mayor pointed out that the redesign of Burlington Ave did not include the goal of putting in bike lanes, but rather that was a secondary consideration resulting form the extra space left over from a three lane configuration.

Read the full story