Why do so many people make pilgrimages to Tara Jensen's North Carolina Smoke Signals Bakery? Why do 100,000 people follow her Instagram feed @bakerhands? It's because Tara bakes the most exquisite bread in the US, using a wood-fired oven that she tends with her own two hands. It could also be to learn how she makes her bubbly, deep-dish fruit pies or to see the crisp pizzas that are sometimes covered with fresh flowers. It could be something deeper: Tara Jensen has learned to live a simple life, close to the land that feeds her oven. In her first book, she shares her philosophy of simple living and her trove of recipes with others. A Baker's Year takes readers month-by-month through the seasons at Smoke Signals for porridge and waffles in winter, crusty bread in spring, pies and pizza in the summer, and celebration cakes for end-of-the-year holidays. Along the way, Tara writes about how to live in a more peaceful world, shares stories from her own life, mourns romances lost, and celebrates the promise of a new relationship. Tara Jensen's A Bakeds Year is destined to be a classic of cookbook shelves in the tradition of The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth and When French Women Cook. Illustrated throughout with Tara's photographs and drawings, A Baker's Year is a true American original. Think of it as TheTassajara Bread Book meets Eat Pray Love.
This book was OK. The journal entries were a little odd and random (IMO), but it had some good information about different flours. Milling your own grains. Sourcing ingredients etc. It was well laid out with some yummy photos and cool graphics. Most of the recipes were relatively straightforward and easy to follow. That said, a lot of them had ingredients that most people don't have on hand and/or would find difficult to get their hands on.
I feel like this book is aimed more towards a granola homesteading type of family (no judgment) than your everyday working outside the home family with kids and afterschool activities. And like I said, no judgment at all if that is how you roll. I just think it's important to let potential readers/purchasers know that this book isn't really geared towards the average home baker.
