There’s more than meets the eye when you’re talking about Jacob Marks. Last month during my visit to North Carolina I got to spend time with Jacob and his girlfriend Kate.
Actually the story starts with a visit to Skram Furniture’s shop in Hillsborough. It’s really more of a production facility.
It was a Friday, so Jacob lets the staff cut our early (nice). After my tour we headed for a beer at the local Wooden Nickel Pub. We thought we’d stop there for a quick one before heading back to his house where Kate was waiting. Jacob wisely thought to revise the plan to have Kate meet us there since we didn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea. They had a good selection of beers on tap and bottled. I think I had a Stone IPA.
We then drove to the house that Jacob designed and built which was an architectural testament to the clean lines and thoughtful use of materials exemplified in his furniture. It was straightforward, and it was beautiful. Everything from the kitchen which opened up into the dining and living area, to the fantastic organic vegetable garden, to the fire-pit that looked like it could double as a grave (maybe for less gracious guests?)
Here’s Jacob with his dog. Examples of his Neutral Bench and Lineground Armchair with some less finished pieces for counter stools.
While we were outside, I got to see another “pet,” their resident weaver spider or Argiope aurantia. Have you ever seen one of these? Apparently it had been there for a few months already and didn’t look like it was leaving any time soon.
It turns out that Jacob’s also quite skilled in the kitchen. He prepared peppery pork chops which were quite tasty, AND some home baked bread. Apparently bread baking is a fairly regular if not daily occurrence there. The bread was really good. It had a nice firm, crispy crust and soft center. I bugged Jacob for his recipe and apparently it’s based off of a baguette recipe from epicurious.com. He did offer the following suggestions:
“…it’s both the best and the easiest baguette recipe we’ve done to date. I’ve tried several others and this one beats them all. A few things: try to use a little flour as possible–if you can keep it at or under 4 cups total, including what you use to knead, it’ll be better. Also, the longer you let it rise, the better. If you can put it together the night before, that would be best. Make sure you get the water temp just right for proofing the yeast. if you can, spray the bread with a little water right before you bake it and then 1-2 minutes after you put it in the oven. and spray the walls of the oven too.”
So while you’re contemplating your next Skram piece you might want to try the recipe and chew on some great bread.
posted by Andrea on November 12th, 2009 in Designer Profile
