Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout By Gary Snyder Down valley a smoke haze Three days heat, after five days rain Pitch glows on the fir-cones Across rocks and meadows Swarms of new flies. I cannot remember things I once read A few friends, but they are in cities. Drinking cold snow-water from a tin cup Looking down for miles Through high still air.
From Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems
Copyright © 2003 by Gary Snyder. Reprinted by permission of Counterpoint Press.
Here is summer. It’s mid-July and it feels like we’ve had more rain than sun on Pender. And cooler temperatures. It’s just over 20ºC as I type, but still cool in the evenings and mornings.
Mixing bread dough in the kitchen, I look out on Boundary Pass and see motorboats, kayaks, sailboats, paddleboards. People are playing at summer, but wearing sweaters, long pants.
Many summers ago, Jennifer and I went camping in the Cascade Mountains in Northern Washington state. We rode our bikes along Highway 20 through towns named Birdsview and Concrete. Camped beside a roaring river. We never made it to Sourdough Mountain, but the trail to the lookout was not far down the road.
Sourdough Mountain is due east from Pender Island, on the far side of Mt. Baker. It’s in high country. The highway meanders around the base of Cascades mountains beside rivers and long, crystal lakes.
The name is mostly irrelevant
Sourdough Mountain seems a rich name for a mountain. For a bread baker there’s a romantic ring to it, but to the U.S. poet and author of the poem, Gary Snyder 1, the name is mostly irrelevant.
I picture Snyder sitting in the old fire lookout on the peak. The vast panorama slowing the flow of words, slowing thought, even, as he beholds the land below, the sky above.
How strange to be drinking “cold snow-water” from a cup in August, pitch glowing on the fir-cones, “swarms of new flies.” Looking down on the shapes of lakes and forests below.
The flow of words slows
Daily life falls away. Time stands still. Received wisdom from books can’t describe what he experiences on the peak of Sourdough Mountain. There are friends, he knows, somewhere, but they are far, far away. They too have fallen away.
Perhaps he feels as if he’s intruded on a lookout of gods, a hallowed space, silent. The only response is silence, reverence, “Looking down for miles / Through the high still air.”
That speechlessness comes over me, too, in the pink-tinged evenings of summer. The stillness, the gentle sound of waves lapping the beach, the closeness of the evening warmth. The sound of distant people conversing, laughing.
Summer is here, unmistakably. It just takes a moment to see it.
![Happy Monk Tidings - September 28, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice: The Approachable Loaf; Blog: This Island of Apples; South Pender Growers and Makers Market [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
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#apples #applebread #applelove #approachable #approachableloaf #breadlabcollective #breadlab](https://i0.wp.com/happymonkbaking.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png?w=980&ssl=1)
Happy Monk Tidings - September 28, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice: The Approachable Loaf; Blog: This Island of Apples; South Pender Growers and Makers Market [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
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#apples #applebread #applelove #approachable #approachableloaf #breadlabcollective #breadlab
Happy Monk Tidings - September 21, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Harvest Bread; BLOG: Greetings from St. Francis and Mildrith; The Wood-Fired Oven's Back in Business [ See LinkTree in Profile]
Introducing this bread, Raven Ring Bread (a take on Hapanleipä, a Finnish bread) a recipe borrowed from @ravenbreads. The stand is made by my neighbour, Ken, a gifted woodworker. See you at the South Pender Growers and Makers Market, if it don’t rain too hard!
Happy Monk Tidings - September 2, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice : Volkornbrot (German Rye); Blog: The Golden Loaf of Gorsefield Rye; NOTE: We're closing two weeks for Mildrith Maintenance [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - August 24, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice this week: Spelt and Honey Sourdough; Blog: The Great Kind Mystery; SPECIAL NOTE: Mildrith needs an upgrade [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - August 10, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Double-Fermented Oat Bread; BLOG: Resuscitating Mildrith; Reminder: No Bread Next Week! [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
It was a dirty day, Wednesday. The sky hadn't been washed, the ocean was soiled, and the air was muggy and smelled oily. Then, moments before the rain started, the sun shone through and a glorious slash of colour opened up. And a rainbow! No unicorns, sadly.
Happy Monk Tidings - August 3, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Anadama Bread; BLOG: Dog Days of Summer; Special Note: No Bread August 19 [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Dog days. The beginning of summer mellowness. Baked in languor. But sometimes it's hard to let go. Shouldn't I be baking something? [See LinkTree in Profile ]
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#penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery
#happymonkbakingcompany #dogdays #dogdaysofsummer #southerngulfislands
#southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries #southerngulfislandsbc
Happy Monk Tidings - July 27, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Whole Grain White Wheat; Blog: Call Me Ishmael; Video: How the U.S. Ruined Bread; Announcements [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - July 20, 2022 🍞 - BAKER'S CHOICE: Rye and Currants; BLOG: Blessed; EXTRA: World's Oldest Sourdough? [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - July 13, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Bird Seed Bread; Blog: Down to the Crossroads, Medicine Beach; Baking your own bread guides - [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
This is James Morton, my father, who would have been 100 years old today if we hadn't lost him 36 years ago. I've surpassed him in living age and spent more years without him than with him, yet he still whispers in my ear and is a great listener when I talk to him. Taken at 14th Ave. and Burgess St., Burnaby, 'round about 1955. Handsome devil, ain't he?
Always time for a quick selfie at 4 a.m. while the bread puffs up and its aroma fills the darkness. This Friday morning the scent was deep and floral from the Cinnamon Raisin Loaf. Makes the juices flow, rumbles in the tummy, drives you crazy for a hot slice and schmear of butter.
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#cinnamonraisinbread #cinnamonraisin #woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredovenbread #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakery #bakerslife #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #breadmaking #breadmaking🍞 #sourdough #sourdoughbread #coboven #earthoven #earthenoven #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries #penderisland
Happy Monk Tidings - July 6, 2022 🍞 - BAKER'S CHOICE: Cinnamon-Raisin Bread; BLOG: Filling the Belly: Words vs. Loaves [ See LinkTree in profile ]
How many times have I seen these loaves tumble out of the oven! If I’m not in a rush, I like to pile them up and just stand near them a moment, feeling their heat, hearing them crackle, their glorious warm aroma! Seems like a miracle, been working hard since the dark hours of morning, heard the first birdsong, seen freighters moving silently through Boundary Pass, a gentle breeze coming up from the ocean. I know I’ll pay for all this later in the day with fatigue and there’ll be several days catching up with sleep. Is it worth it all? Three years into Happy Monk Baking, I still say yes. Happy sleeping, everyone!
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredovenbread #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakery #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #breadmaking #breadmaking🍞 #sourdough #sourdoughbread #rusticbread, #breadhead, #coboven #earthoven #earthenoven #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries #penderisland
Happy Monk Tidings - June 29, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Rustic Peasant Bread; Blog: A Pinch of Salt, A Pinch of Life [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - June 22, 2022 🍞 - Bakers Choice: Sprouted Rye and Seed Bread; BLOG: Henry Miller and the Staff of Life — [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - June 15, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Cranberry-Pecan Sourdough Bread; Blog: Breakfast on Bloomsday https://mailchi.mp/4c924688ed54/happy_monk_tidings_june15
Fun at 4 in the morning … first load of bread in the oven, first light, first birdsong, making the treacherous walk back inside with a tower of bannetons. In the rain.
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#bakerslife #bakersofinstagram #baking #baker #woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredovenbread #coboven #earthoven #earthenoven #bread #sourdoughbread #sourdough #bbga #realbread #naturallyleavened #artisanbread #artisanbreadbaker #rusticbread #breadhead #breadlove #breadhour #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries
Synchronicity! Happy to see our beloved Nootka Rose bush in fine fettle, thriving beside Mildrith, the wood-fired oven for the Happy Monk Baking Company. Which reminds me of our number one provisioner of grain goodness and organic flour, Nootka Rose Milling of Metchosin B.C. They keep us hooked in with the best locally sourced grain, and expertly milled flour, not to mention great advice and customer care! Thanks, Nootka Rose, from the Happy Monk and all of us on Pender Island.
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#bread #breadbaking #artisanbread #woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredovenbread #coboven #earthoven #metchosinbc #stonegroundflour #stonemilled #stonemilledflour #stonemilledbread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #breadmaking #sourdough #sourdoughbread #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries
Inspiration at 3 a.m. on bake day. A customer had announced there was a 40th birthday in her family this weekend. She was looking forward to some good bread with which to celebrate. Found my precision X-Acto blade and cut out the letters. Laid it over the nicely domed top of a panned loaf (Salish Sourdough) and sprinkled a light dusting of bread flour. I ain't no crafty artiste, but the thought was there. A half-baked idea, but the loaf … it was perfectly baked. 😇 (Thanks for the picture, Laura!)
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #coboven #bakinginspiration #Mildrith #Mildriththeoven #woodfiredovenbread #sourdough #sourdoughbread #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #breadbaker #bakery #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #breadart #stencil #stencilart #breadlovers #breadofinstagram #sourdough #sourdoughbread #penderisland #southpenderislands #happymonkbaking
Happy Monk Tidings - June 1, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Fig and Fennel Sourdough; Happy Monk Blog: The Golden City [ LinkTree in Profile ]
Post to The Happy Monk Baking Company
Happy Monk Tidings - May 25, 2022 🍞 - Baker's Choice this week: Sprouted Kamut Bread; Blog: A Paean to Rye Bread: Deeply Felt and Honest [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Gary Snyder is an American poet, most often associated with the Beat Generation, also an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His 1974 book, Turtle Island, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.↩
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