I have no secrets, just a trail of attempts from mid 2019 well into 2020. I cam back from Sweden and Estonia with a delight in the dark dark rye, to the point of watching this ad over and over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzHpUWsXvGE So i found this recipe which was nearly incomprehensible https://estoniancuisine.com/2017/02/23/how-to-do-estonian-black-bread-leib/ and started trying. I made some horrible horrible loaves. I bought 25 lbs of rye flour (right before the pandemic). I sprouted rye to malt it and toasted it in the oven. I tried to keep notes. I made one loaf that pulled the nonstick coating off one of my loaf pans. I bought sunflower seeds and flax seeds. I left out mushy messes and tough bricks for raccoons and possums. I scoured the internet for recipes for no-wheat rye recipes. I invested in a pullman pan.

Eventually i bought The Rye Baker and let my culture Hans die and just stopped. I've got plenty of rye taking up space in the pantry, seeds, malted rye.... all just waiting for me to start over. So this time, i'm going to give it a go again with tested recipes from a cook book. Except i am already stuck with the flour i have and i am already saying to myself "oh, i'll just substitute my flour in that recipe" or "maybe i can just soak rye berries and blend them up instead of buying rye meal" or -- and i need to follow the blinking directions for a while.