I agree that the more baking you do, the more you get an instinctive sense for what something’s supposed to be like, and a lot of dough is fixable if it’s off. I’ve actually done a goodly amount of baking (used to have to bake the bread when I worked as a cook, in fact)–but I do think it calls for a different kind of precision and has a different kidn of linearity than cooking.

Orientalizing the activities of the working class is something I have noticed among my peers.
Yes, totally, but I think this ends up depending much more on whether the individual becoming fascinated is obnoxious or not. Mostly when I’ve done farmwork (or whatever) the real question is whether I’m going to work, because a lot of people who don’t have the experience of doing hard physical work for a long time aren’t willing to do it. My partner works in local food, and even though she’s a queer urban person, the farmers she works with tend to love her because she works incredibly hard and is genuinely enthusiastic (and fairly knowledgeable) – it’s obvious that she’s not being a tourist. I’ve had a similar experience being a young teacher around a lot of older, more experienced teachers: as long as I worked hard and cared about what I was doing and wasn’t a jerk about it, they were really happy to have me around. People like showing other people what they’re doing, and passing on the hard-earned particular knowledge of their trades.

I wouldn???? disagree, on the other hand, with an argument that a liberal arts education should have way more hands-on and practical components than it typically does. But that too is an old argument: constructivist pedagogies have been knocking around for decades, looking for greater purchase in many curricula.

I don’t read Crawford as directly addressing this, so much as making a parallel argument for the intellectual seriousness of trades. But I do really agree with it. I think it’s great for people to experience more than one kind of intellectual work, partly because then when you make a job/career choice, you’re clearer about what you’re getting and what you’re giving up. I’m a little less worried about the lack of prestige of this than I might be, because I think it’s good for people to spend a couple years doing things for reasons other than prestige, and because I also think it’s good for people to have the experience of saying, “what the hell, I’m just going to try this,” even though they don’t see a clear path for it to be useful in their long-term career arc.

As for practicalities:
1) I think this becomes less true as you do more baking and learn more about how it all works. I’ve managed to fix some ridiculous mistakes, like adding twice as much baking soda to a gingerbread cake. I added a little extra acid and baked it anyway, and while the center fell, the cake was still tasty. You also eventually get more of a feel for what dough or batter is supposed to look like, whether you should keep adding flour, etc. Even after the bread rises, you can knead in the salt, let it rise again (maybe in the refrigerator?), and it’ll probably turn out fine. Second and third rises mostly don’t hurt bread. Of course, you are essentially stuck with whatever you’ve made once it goes in the oven (as, for example, the time my brother measured the dry ingredients for some muffins and forgot the leavener). But that’s part of the pay-off of baking, that you put something in the oven and it comes out completely transformed.

2) I am really excited about the chance this fall to work with my partner’s dad on some DIY projects for exactly this reason (and similarly bummed that I didn’t take advantage of my parents’ fairly extensive knowledge of carpentry). It’s a lot easier to learn when you have someone to show you what an instruction means.

6) One way to contain mint, should you decide to dig it up, is to sink a large pot in the ground with the mint inside it.

7) There was a different NYT article at one point about a couple who tried to turn their lawn into a no-mow perennial native grasses situation. It took them something like 6 years, I think.

8 ) One totally genius idea is the tool library, which both Berkeley and West Philly have. You buy a membership ($20 in West Philly, I think) and can check out any tools they have for a few days at a time. I don’t know why every community doesn’t have these.

I wouldn’t disagree, on the other hand, with an argument that a liberal arts education should have way more hands-on and practical components than it typically does. But that too is an old argument: constructivist pedagogies have been knocking around for decades, looking for greater purchase in many curricula. And it’s pretty much gospel in liberal arts science majors that direct experience with laboratory work is a necessity for doing science of any kind.

Also investing in a pet rabbit might be a good idea to curb the mint. Or fight it with kudzu. Then fight the kudzu with kudzu-eating giraffes. Then the giraffes with a pack of lions. Then wait for winter to take care of the lions….