3,000 Monthly Views, and a Short Break

It is September and the hot days keep coming. This summer has been punishing; even with the air conditioning on, switching the oven on to bake sends the room temperature straight up. The motivation to bake is hard to find — and on top of that the oven is complaining and running slightly out of sorts.

I had been baking focaccia repeatedly, but this time a sourdough loaf with rye and spelt. The recipe is the one I have written about here before.

Sourdough in the Height of Summer

On hot days, fermenting in the fridge during the bulk ferment seems to be the way.

Another very good sourdough loaf.

So, two pieces of news. This site, Sourdough & Kitchen, began in April 2020, when cities around the world had gone quiet under Covid lockdowns and Japan had declared a state of emergency. I had never had anything resembling a hobby, and I wanted to use the moment to pass on something of the sourdough baking I had fallen into since the winter of 2018.

There have been failures, and there have been detours — recipes for doubanjiang that have nothing to do with sourdough at all — and lately the heat has slowed the pace of updating considerably. I have not grown the site as much as the people reading it deserve.

Even so, and I am grateful for it, in about five months the site reached 3,000 monthly page views. With only 39 posts published, a great many people have come to read it, and I am genuinely pleased. Thank you.

When the site launched, the first goal was 3,000 monthly page views. With that cleared, the next target is 10,000.

Having said that, there is a second piece of news: the site will be taking a short break, probably until around the middle of November. My usual work is planning and producing art exhibitions and music events, and within that I interview a great many artists. Recently I have been asking them what they are thinking through all of this, and what they intend to make next, and setting it down in articles a little at a time. That project has just been awarded a grant under the Agency for Cultural Affairs' programme supporting the continuation of cultural and artistic activity.

Until 31 October my schedule is full with the interviews, photography and editing for it, and I will not have the settled time needed to bake sourdough. My apologies to everyone waiting for posts and recipes — in the meantime, I hope you will use the recipes already here to bake something good. And if you do, please tell me about it.

Until then, enjoy your sourdough. See you again soon.