 View from the Samish Overlook on New Years Eve. The view outside the cafe was all concrete and cars, but sitting at the window reading Robert Macfarlane as my coffee cooled, I felt the ghost forest press close. Here around me and stretching out in all directions was the memory of trees over a century gone: fir and spruce, red cedar wider than my outstretched arms, with clouds catching in their peaks and the understory open beneath. I could almost hear the wind and creaking wood, almost smell the forest must beneath the coffee and the wet wool of my sweater. “She came to know her chosen place closely, [and] that closeness served to deepen rather than to limit her vision,” Macfarlane wrote of the Scottish writer and mountaineer Nan Shepherd. I would know this place closely, though it will take me a lifetime of stolen Sundays to learn the landscape, and years of baking to know the fruits of our land. This winter my studies range from rainy runs through the Chuckanuts to an exploration of Whatcom-grown rye through the Bread Subscription. I look forward to every day. Sophie Owner | Baker WEDNESDAY BREAD Order by Sunday night to pick up Wednesday, Jan 9 Red & White Mountain Rye Baker's Choice: Potato Rye Honey & Spice (pain d'epices) WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION Sign up to get a loaf every Wedneday through March 6 RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: a new rye every week  Recipe testing: on the right, Belarusian and Lithuanian potato ryes for this week's Baker's Choice. On the left, sweet limpas for the following week. Comments are closed.
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