La ferme de la Poule Rousse (Little Red Hen's Farm): portrait of a farming baker

The day begins with a tour of the property. Simon talks about the tidy flower garden in such a way that you immediately grasp how much pleasure it takes out of caring for it. As we look around the old building, we stumble upon the windmill ; Simon only prepares the precise amount of floor he will need for the day. The windmill sorts the bran and white flour so that you can choose whether to make white or wholegrain bread.

 

Simon usually wakes ups at 3 am on baking days. Today he's been preparing the leaven for us before we arrive, so we only have make our floor mix to which we'll add the leaven and warm water ; then we knead. And keep kneading, and kneading...

 

After making nice balls of dough we have to wait for a few hours for it to raise beforewe can oven-cook our loaves. Simon loads up the oven with firewood so that the temperature rises, so that it's ideal when we put our dough in. Meanwhile, Simon offers us to tell us some more tips on homemade bread in the comfort of his livingroom accross the bakery.

 

The bread has raised, it's baking time. It's very hot in the bakery. We load our creations one by one and barely and hour after that we can take out the crusty, gorgeous loaves ! We can't wait to have a taste !

 

This handmade bread will last for everal days (nothing like supermarket bread) but it looks so yummy that it's unlikely there will be any left in two days...

 

Delighted, we can all bring our loaves home, and a few of us also brought a little piece of leaven back. You just have to feed it from time to time with to spoonfulls of floor to presevre it so we can make our own bread once home.

Le Fournil de la Poule Rousse, lieu­dit Le Barou sur la D19, 09130 Sieuras. Tél. 06.95.17.21.94 (Simon Coyard)