North Woods & Blueberry Sourdough Bagels
A book about a cabin's 300 years of inhabitants, and fermented bagels
Hello and welcome to Good Book/Good Bread!
I returned a few weeks ago from a backcountry ski trip in Smithers, British Columbia, where the snow was hard and crispy and the sun was bright. It was an awesome trip, but my body is tired and I am now getting over a sickness, so hanging out in bed and reading this book and baking bagels have been ideal activities for me.
This book has a little bit of an unusual style of narration, and is interspersed with songs and poems—two things that I usually don’t have a lot of patience for. But I loved it nonetheless, and really enjoyed how it tells the story of a structure based on the people who have passed through it over the years. I hope you enjoy it too!
Also: a few months ago I wrote a guest essay about my 1300 km canoe trip on the Columbia River for Jessica McKenzie’s awesome outdoor newsletter, A Pinch of Dirt, but forgot to share it. So, here it is!
Good Book: North Woods by Daniel Mason (2023)
North Woods in a nutshell
North Woods by Daniel Mason is a work of fiction that explores the intricate complexities of human relationships, the mysteries of the natural world, and the enduring power of place. Set against the backdrop of the rugged North Woods of New England, the book casts a cabin as the central character in a 300-year-long story. Initially inhabited by a young couple who have fled from a Puritan colony, the cabin becomes home to a wide ranging succession of residents. It becomes home to a pair of apple farming twins driven mad by envy, an English soldier, a lovesick painter, and the ends up as the scene of a crime involving a cougar as the main suspect.
North Woods in Three Words
Nostalgic, eerie, haunting
Structure
North Woods is told in the third person, and broken up into sections based on the person who is currently living in the cabin. Each section is divided by songs, poems, or letters.
What I liked about North Woods
Beautiful writing about the natural world
This book consistently describes the natural world in vivid detail, especially the changing of elements like an apple tree or a field over the course of a season. I enjoyed how nature becomes a critical character in the book. The apples that grow sustain—or fail to sustain—several residents. The wildlife prowling around the cabin intercepts a crime. And the remoteness of the area and its lack of development both draws and repels people. In the end however, Mason makes a statement about the environment as we see the natural world always getting the last word.
It’s surprisingly spooky
Some of the sections in this book start out quaint and light, like the father who grows apples with his daughters. But darkness seems to follow this family and others who follow, and the eerieness of the story was unexpected. It becomes even more spooky as some of the more sinister events of past cabin inhabitants begin to effect residents many decades later.
Quote I liked
"Now, in the place that was once the belly of the man who offered the apple to the woman, one of the apple seeds, sheltered in the shattered rib cage, breaks its coat and drops a root into the soil, lifts a pair of pale green cotyledons. A shoot rises, thickens, seeks the bars of light above it, gently parts the fifth and sixth ribs that once guarded the dead man's meager heart."
Good Bread: Sourdough Blueberry Bagels
Why this book for this bread
Sourdough was an obvious choice to go with a book set deep in the woods. Given that sourdough uses the power of fermentation to make bread rise, it’s long been baked by those living in far-flung places who don’t have access to commercial yeast. I have made bagels many times and wanted to incorporate something different in this recipe. I considered apples given their presence in North Woods, but in the end went for something more traditional with these blueberry bagels.
Recipe
I used a great recipe from The Clever Carrot. I like this recipe because it is similar to how I make any sourdough loaves, with the dough mixed in the evening and left for a long, slow proof overnight. I added the fresh blueberries in after the first dough rise, and I topped the bagels with Maldon sea salt before I popped them in the oven.
Looking forward:
Book I’m looking forward to reading: The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate
Music I’m looking forward to listening to: Deeper Well by Kacey Musgraves
Bread I’m looking forward to baking: Cheddar sourdough sandwich loaf
Drawn by the setting, I have wanted to read this book but every time I open it at the store, online or in the bookstore just before getting it, I stop. I can't imagine getting past the opening pages. The writing there is very over-the-top for me. Your review makes me think that there is better stuff ahead so I will give it another go.
A small, possibly ridiculous issue: they are running north in early June in New England. Berries are mentioned and, yes, depending on where they are starting from, strawberries are a possibility then -- but not in the north. And the rustling fields of goldenrod in which they roll: the implication is that the plants are grown when most don't reach their fullness until late August or early September and don't bloom until then. I found myself wondering how much rustling was coming from the goldenrod itself and not the early growth of whatever vegetation (usually really scratchy and uncomfortable to lie in). Nerdy and stupid, I know. Sometimes I'm surprised by what takes me out of a story.
Loved north Woods!! It was one of those that grew on me the more I thought about it too. Seems perfect for blueberry sourdough bagels