Garden Vegetable Bread -- A New Year's Morning and the Intention to Bring Her Home

New Year's week. We don't do anything for New Year's. We never have. Hannah and I went to bed at ten on the thirty-first. Woke up at seven on the first. I made sourdough toast and eggs and ate it at the kitchen window watching the sun come up over the woods. The sun on January first looks the same as the sun on December thirty-first, but the framing is different. The framing is everything.

I did the year-end review I do — not formal, not on paper, just a couple of hours of sitting in the workshop on the second of January and thinking about what worked and what didn't. The Harvest Gathering grew. That worked. The Saturday Caleb work-program worked. The cohort had its conflict resolved. The shoulder is the same — not better, not worse. The garden produced enough. The food forest is in its eighth year and the orchard is producing more reliably each season. The smoker got a side-door upgrade. The cemetery gate is hung. The cultural center stabilizers are placed. Quoy welded a blade. Ada welded a bead. Tommy said equoi nvdo. The year worked.

The year that didn't work: I didn't finish the rotator cuff surgery decision. I didn't reach out to Macy as much as I should have. I didn't spend enough time with River and Lucia separate from work — we've mostly seen them when they're sampling, not when they're just being people. I didn't teach Hannah to weld this year, which I keep saying I'll do. I didn't finish reading the book Lily gave me for my birthday. I didn't call Sister Linda back about the cemetery extension. The list of didn'ts is shorter than it used to be. It's still long enough.

Resolutions I don't do. Intentions I keep — the things I want to be true about the year ahead. This year's intention is single-sentence. I want to host my mother on this property before her health makes it impossible. The conversation Hannah and I have had about Terry moving to Kenwood when she can't live alone — that's a future-state conversation. The intention this year is more current. Get her out here in the spring. Get her to spend a week. Get her in the kitchen with us. Get her on the porch with us. Make sure she sees this place lived in by us, not just visited from her chair on Christmas. That's the intention. I'll write it on the back of an envelope and put it in the kitchen drawer and look at it sometimes through the year.

The sourdough toast that morning was store-bought bread — good enough, but not what I want when I think about what that meal deserved. What I keep coming back to, sitting in the workshop that second of January, is bread that carries the garden into it. This Garden Vegetable Bread is the kind of thing I want in the kitchen drawer right alongside that envelope — a recipe that fits the intention, not just the morning. If my mother is going to spend a week on this property in the spring, I want her to eat bread we made from what the garden gave us.

Garden Vegetable Bread

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 12 slices

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet)
• 1 cup warm water (110°F)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely grated zucchini, moisture squeezed out
• 1/2 cup shredded carrot
• 1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Instructions

1. Activate the yeast. Combine warm water, honey, and yeast in a large bowl. Stir gently and let sit 5–8 minutes until foamy and fragrant.
2. Mix the dough. Add olive oil, salt, garlic powder, and oregano to the yeast mixture. Stir in the all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour, one cup at a time, until a shaggy dough forms.
3. Fold in the vegetables. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Distribute the zucchini, carrot, bell pepper, and parsley across the dough and knead them in, working the dough for 8–10 minutes until smooth and elastic. The vegetables will release some moisture — add flour a tablespoon at a time as needed to keep the dough from sticking.
4. First rise. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
5. Shape the loaf. Punch the dough down and shape it into a loaf. Place in a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Cover and let rise again for 30 minutes.
6. Bake. Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the top is deep golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. If the top browns too quickly, tent loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes.
7. Cool before slicing. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool at least 20 minutes before slicing. The crumb sets as it cools — don’t rush it.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 165 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 3g | Carbs: 30g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 195mg