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  12/03/2020

  Aidan McNaughton Oral History, 2020/12/03

  Washington county in Oregon has established several COVID-19 quarantine centers in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus among the community. A number of local motels have been converted to such facilities. Aidan is an EMT at one such motel, and agreed to be interviewed about his experience.
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  2020-05-20

  Making My First Sourdough Starter

  I decided to start making a sourdough starter a couple months into quarantine like just about everyone else. I had a fairly large stockpile of flour in my cupboards because I bake fairly often, so I didn't have to worry about dwindling supply at the supermarket too much. My grandma taught me how to bake from a pretty young age, and my mom made bread with an electric bread maker for years, but I'd never attempted my own loaf without a bread maker, let alone a sourdough starter. A starter always seemed like something out of reach and far too difficult for an inexperienced bread maker, but with armed with encouragement and tips from some friends via Discord, I set out to make my own. These are photos of my process, from my beginning mixture of flour and water to my first sourdough loaf (and my starter's permanent 'home'). I'm fairly proud of it. It took me about 2 weeks to get the starter to really start; I'm guessing in part because I only had all-purpose flour and not the suggested rye flour. There was a lot of troubleshooting involved before it really started to mature. It's been an interesting process, and I'm really glad I tried it. Starters are far more resilient than I had previous believed, and the bread is fantastic. It's been a somewhat calming respite from everything, even though I feel fairly selfish giving myself that with everything that's happening.