Bread making is at least 10,000 years old, coinciding with the beginnings of agriculture in Neolithic times; it’s also one of the oldest trades. What we think of as “modern” bread made with finely ground flour (both wheat and white) and a leavening agent was developed in Egypt and Rome between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago, and it is doubtful that we’ve made any improvement on the resulting product since then. A principle use of early watermills and windmills was the production of flour from wheat (hence, as Ellen pointed out to me, the term “mill” in watermill and windmill). In the 19th century the industrial revolution brought steam power to milling and steam heat to baking which quickly led to today’s modern bread factory.
It’s hard to find a culture that does not have some bread variant.
We have a rich vocabulary to talk about bread and its qualites along many different dimensions: leavened or flat; white, wheat, rye, corn, or multi-grain; soft or crusty; rolls, sticks, loaves, pasta, or dumplings; baked, boiled, pan fried, or deepfried; plain, stuffed (with nearly anything), topped (with nearly anything), or with mix-ins (nuts, seeds, berries, vegtables); fresh or stale; … .
If you have access to flour and an oven, you should know how to make a loaf of bread. It’s a simple, easy, and vital lesson in sustainability, a way to step off the hampster wheel of our grow-faster, do-more, buy-more, modern economy — and in addition to being useful it’s fun, active, fascinating, and creative. You can do it with others, like your kids, and enjoy eating the result which will be far tastier than anything you buy at the store. It’s also a way to make a difference using the power of one. Don’t wait for your government to fix things, take responsibility in every little way you can.
Colin Beavan, the No Impact Man and a very busy guy, says,
…this quiet, non-cerebral activity has provided much needed space in my life. It’s a break. It’s one of those things that takes the rhythm and slows it right down to what it’s supposed to be. It helps me remove myself from the high-speed tempo of the Blackberry culture.
…
I’m not a Luddite, but before this project began, I had begun to let technology run my life rather than the other way around. Just because technology allows us to go at a breakneck speed doesn’t mean we should. That’s why making bread is such a consolation. It’s a way to stop, to take a break, to just, well, knead the bread. [emphasis mine]
And he can share that bread making time with his 3 year old daughter.
When thinking about how something you do contributes to sustainability, consider the ways it satisfies items on Max-Neef’s list of our ‘few, finite, and classifiable’ needs. In the case of making your own bread:
- subsistence (food, shelter, water) — this one’s obvious
- safety (protection, security, health care) — you’re more secure when not dependent on a baker or supermarket for something as basic as bread
- affection — n/a, when I say I love my bread I’m not talking about affection in this sense
- understanding (critical capacity, curiosity, intuition) — learning about how yeast and kneading operate in the bread making process is fascinating
- participation (community, sense of belonging) — involve your children and other family members; even if you don’t, you’re providing delicious, nutritious food for those around you
- leisure (play, rest, recreation) — for many, bread making is just as much a recreational activity as it is work
- creativity — there’s no limit on how creative you can be when producing a loaf of bread
- identity (meaning) — for me, making bread is about connecting to the essence of life (yep, really), using my own simple skills to turn flour and water into something of critical value (food) that’s both needed and appreciated by nearly everyone, a food that’s been consumed for millenia
- freedom (autonomy) — see comments on safety and identity; becoming independent of our modern economy which would have us purchase everything in a form ready for consumption is at least a few steps on the path to freedom and autonomy
My point is not that local bakeries are a problem. The problem is the larger, more encompassing, trend of industrial factories producing basic items that can easily be made at home or locally — at least part of the time — with many ancillary benefits. In the case of bread, it’s about wheat being harvested and shipped to high volume mills to make flour that is in turn shipped to large industrial factories to make bread that is then shipped around the nation to be sold in its plastic wrappers in local supermarkets. This product is poorer in taste and nutrition than what you can easily produce yourself and relies on cheap transportation while all you need to make a superior product is flour.
TV entertainment is a similar case. Entertainment itself is a good thing, but relying on just two sources, Hollywood and New York, for all your entertainment needs is silly — and takes away local incentive for providing that product (if we must look at it as a product). Similarly with sports, a source of entertainment for many. National sports has replaced the local variety for most of us, again through television, distancing people from its source and substituting your living room couch for a seat in a local stadium where you might interact with others in the community, to say nothing of actual participation.
Sustainability requires localization and localization enhances community.
See Colin’s post about making bread (from which the above quote is taken) for an excellent bread recipe. However, if whole-wheat, sourdough bread doesn’t excite you (that is, doesn’t excite you yet for eventually it will), see my recipe for simple white bread which is a way to get into bread making especially designed for typical American tastes. Master that — which is quite easy to do — and then try Colin’s method. As a result you’ll gain a host of skills that will take you down the sustainability path.
It all sounds wonderful but is actual balderdash in terms of energy savings.There IS such a thing as economy of scale ( despite high transport costs denting mass production savings).I recently saw a documentary on a village in Italy where the baker used a lot of wood ( Sustainable but leaves a heavy carbon footprint) to bake his bread and all the housewives of the village took their cassserole dishes Etc and cooked them in his oven as it cooled down.On the face of it that sounded a more eco friendly idea , then I realised that all of those women for generations had never done any sort of job other than looking after their large families ( Eco wasteful?).We need to look at the real answer which is less of everything, starting with people, here it really is a case of less is more.Every country has a duty to reduce the effect on the environment by REDUCING population, that is so easy to say but so radical in action, imagine No more hospitals, no more schools ,no more houses.Lets stop worryingt about the so called quality of life by baking bread ( which incidentally rarely tastes remotely as good as the shop bought item), I for one think that my quality of life is a million times better than that which my mother had when I was a child, spending a whole day each week boiling up a copper to wash and mangle sheets and dry them and iron them.No thanks my quality of life is a lot better with washing machines and non iron materials and sitting in front of the TV or computer than my parents could ever dream of , my mother made bread from bnecceisty and it was hard work.
I agree with you about the need to reduce population to a sustainable size. (Just put “population” in the search box at the top of the page.) I think your reading more into my words than I intended. As I said,
To me, it’s this mindless industrialization on a vast scale is one reason (of many) that our population numbers are so huge. Just because economies of scale are possible doesn’t mean they’re good. I’m not a Luddite either, please see the next post which fits quite well with your choice of laundry as an example.
Um… I’m inclined to agree with Joe in that breadbaking as an individual pursuit is big-time energy-inefficient, in that one needs to pre-heat an oven for what is presumably a small batch of bread.
There are more inexpensive (and arguably tastier) foods that one can make from flour… like chappatis / rotis (not the tandoori kinds but the ones that are made with a small gas stove, a simple pan and a rolling pin.
But I agree with the bigger point you are making here: that people should relearn the pleasures of doing things manually, rather than letting big companies supply them all their daily requirements. They should learn to wash their own clothes and dishes without machines too… not too hard once one get down to doing it.
Warmly,
Krish
I think Joe needs to relook at the phrase, ‘Quality of Life’ in a less subjective way. Agreed, our lives seem subjectively better (easier actually) with washing machines etc, but that entirely misses the point about the ecological costs of living in this easy way.
The tough way would be better in the long run, for everyone and every species of creatures… but that’s a message kinda difficult to get across to a whole generation of people who equate Easy with Good & Right.
“To me, it’s this mindless industrialization on a vast scale is one reason (of many) that our population numbers are so huge.”
You hit the nail on the head here, Trinifar. But you gotta keep hitting it again and again until people sit up and take notice.
Damned self-absorbed critter, our economically-driven modern man; his collective arse is on fire, but trust him to keep ignoring the smoke and work through the pain! He’ll even try getting by on painkillers, but it will be a long long time before he comes out of his economic routines sufficiently to try putting out the blasted fire.
Homo Sapiens… HA HA HA!
‘Homo Economicus’ is more like it; he ain’t sapient, not by a long shot!
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