Yes, a new garden here at Struan Farm, but it's not what you think. I've been reading about and seeing pictures of some wonderful focaccia gardens during COVID lockdowns around the world. It's amazing how creative people can get when they are cooped up!
This weekend I finally had a chance to try my hand at it. It took me awhile to track down unbleached flour here in NZ, but I found a fantastic source online: The Source Bulk Foods. This company is a franchise that was started in Byron Bay, Australia, but has franchisees here in New Zealand. The company's focus is on zero waste, so everything is minimally packaged. I suspect you are meant to take your own containers to their brick and mortar locations. In any event, this is the only place I could find to buy unbleached flour.
I used the focaccia recipe in "Bread Toast Crumbs." I'm also keen to try the basic peasant bread recipe in this same cookbook, which also calls for unbleached flour. At this rate I will turn into The Source Bulk Food's best unbleached flour customer.....
The dough is made with the flour, kosher salt, instant yeast and lukewarm water. After being mix it's left to rise for 1- 1 1/2 hours before being put onto an oiled tray.
While this was happening I played around with my decorations, cutting up yellow and red bell peppers, red onions, herbs, and spring onions and chopping some olives. I looked at photos of what other garden focaccia artists had created for inspiration, and to gauge what might work.
Here's the finished version:
Next time I'll add cherry tomatoes and purple potatoes, those are also meant to work well. It's a start on my focaccia garden journey.
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