(no subject)

I'm not obsessed, but i am fascinated by the Estonian Singing Revolution. Last night i went over to be with Mom, sister-in-law M---, and niece S---. Mom asked me to share more about my trip, and i told the story of the Estonian Singing Revolution and the song festival. We watched the opening of the festival on YouTube entertained by the variety of costume, amazed by scale.

I'm planning on speaking about it as one of my topics for Meeting in August, inspired by the non-violent nature of the revolution. This morning i pieced together a timeline prior to the 1917 declaration of independence, and came to understand more how Estonian history is dominated by Russia and Germany. In a sense, even though Estonia was part of Czarist Russia in the 1800s, the nobility were German.

Mom still looks so faded with the exhaustion brought on by the complications from the biopsy. Dad too is exhausted. My brother's clan departs today, while he stays on a few more days.

Hans, the yeast colony

So, It's been well past the advised 5 days of feeding and nurturing a colony. Hans is bubbly and makes "hooch" (as some blogger described a liquid that collects on the top of a colony that could use more feeding). I increased the flour in response to the "hooch." I haven't witnessed it surging in volume, though. Impatient, and not trusting my attention span, i decided to mix up the first dough today.

Well, this recipe i have: it is HUGE. 1.5 kilograms of flour, 3 and a third pounds. I don't know why i didn't think to halve it until i was attempting to mix, split between my largest bowl and another giant cake pan, the instructed half the flour (.75 k), the 1.5 liters of warm water, and Hans. Bubbling commenced as soon as i was mixing. Once blended i could pour it all into the cake pan and there was some room at the top. I've put it in the oven and have periodically turned on the light to keep it warm. The house is above 70°F, but i'm feeling like perhaps a little warmer won't hurt Hans, as they seemed quite happy when the warm water was added.

The scent when i open the oven is fairly strong: yogurty came to mind at first, but it's richer now. The "preferment" has risen to the very top of the pan, but seems stalled at the top. (That's pre-ferment, not prefer-ment, as i misread it for a while.) I have a sheet pan to catch anything that spills over.

I guess it's working?

--== ∞ ==--

For the Singing Revolution in Estonia, the documentary (https://singingrevolution.com/) is available to rent via Amazon's streaming service.


https://singingrevolution.com/about-the-history
http://www.estonica.org/en/The_Singing_Revolution/
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/estonia-music-singing-revolution/415464/

I hope to at least sketch out notes for speaking in Meeting, so i will write more.