Towards the end of last year, I devised a grand plan for 2013. The aim of the plan was to improve my giving to friends and the community. I am blessed by wonderful friends who bring me all manner of gifts: fruit, jam, soup, stews, casseroles, cakes, curries, chutney, garden produce, magazines, books, clothes and even, one time, a pair of earrings. I like to give in return and I especially like to give baked goods, in particular home-made bread. I love to make bread. So my grand plan was to make a loaf of bread each day to give away. I made a good start but, after a week, the whole wheat flour and the bread maker machine decided to disagree, and I had so many bread failures that I gave up trying to feed the neighbourhood. Making a half decent loaf for my own consumption was barely manageable let alone for anyone else.
But I am nothing, if not a trier, so about ten days ago, I revisited my grand plan and returned to my bread making. Here are the results.
More bread
I had fun with my bread making, and, as I mixed and kneaded and waited for the dough to rise and to bake, I realised that a few lessons had risen out of the process, too; namely, my grand plan was not grand, but grandiose! Of all the bread I made, I was only able to gift two loaves. The rest was needed for my own household. Making bread every day might be fun but I would need super powers to make enough bread to give away a loaf a day. More importantly, I gained a new appreciation for the words “Give us this day our daily bread”.
We are so used to thinking of bread as that basic “stuff” that we always expect to buy at the cheapest possible price from the supermarket, that we have, I believe, forgotten the wonderful creation that bread truly is. We have cheapened bread to such an extent that we no longer see it as life-sustaining bounty which is brought to us by the hard work and effort of many farmers and diverse workers, as well as the skilled hands of artisan bakers and the humble hands of home bakers.
Bread, especially daily bread ( and, dare I say it, even supermarket bread), is a valuable, precious gift. Ideally, it is crafted from the best of natural and man made resources and brought to the table with a generous serving of love. No wonder it gets top billing in the Lord’s Prayer.
Now, for those of you who are gluten intolerant, I am posting this harvest arrangement as a token acknowledgement of the delights of corn bread and gluten-free bread alternatives 🙂 
© silkannthreades
silkannthreades 
Pingback: How did I do with my bread, Annie? | silkannthreades
I like to bake bread (when i have time), the smell of freshly baked bread is as inviting as fresh bread itself.I am happy when I can get good flour-directly from a mill, but this is not so easy…..Your bread looks inviting, you have a great heart!
It is an inviting smell; like fresh coffee. I love to smell coffee more than I like to drink it.
coffee I like to drink and smell….talking about inviting smells of home, in Slovene language we do say: it is the smell of holidays (good things were baked then)
That’s a great saying.
Oh that looks wonderful!!!
Thank you.
I want to live in your neighborhood! I remember when I was a kid, my mother spent a whole day making bread that would last a week for our family. We didn’t waste any part of it, but used the crumbs for casseroles and made lots of bread puddings. I agree – “give us today our daily bread,” takes on new meaning when you go through the steps to bring it to fruition. I often think of the story about the little red hen who ask “who will help me plant the seed…”
Bread baking day must have been quite something in your house. After so much effort, you would be very careful not to waste even a single crumb. The Little Red Hen is the perfect story to go with my post. Thanks for reminding me of it.
Just put me on the list for those who want to eat the bread…:)
Done!
I am so impressed, Gallivanta, I know you make bread and I loved the last one you photographed, but these are fantastic. I wished I lived in your neighbourhood. I would bake the bread with you actually. I am not really such a bread eating person, but if it was self made, I would eat more, I love the smell of it and I could put all different seeds or herbs in it. What ideas….. ever tried chocolatebread?????? Does that exist?
I will really try towards summer to bake some myself. 🙂
And what a great plan to have, even giving away 2 loaves I am sure, you made some people happy!
I am sure there is chocolate bread. And we could have so much fun baking bread together. You could teach me to dance whilst we waited for the bread to rise.
Haha what a concept, dancing while the bread is rising….. I like that, we would have so much fun!!!!!
And we would have to play Two Steps from Hell as well.
of course.. 🙂
When I was just starting out on my own I had a friend who was a full time mother who used to make fresh bread (to earn a few dollars) every week and bring it in to my office. Even back they she was getting $5.00/loaf. It was delicious and we always looked forward to our weekly bread deliveries.
I now am fortunate enough to have a step-son living with us who loves to make bread and we have it two or three times a week! 🙂
That is wonderful. You are fortunate.
I wished we lived closer so you could make me a fresh loaf of bread. What a wonderful post!
I would be happy to do so.
I love this post Gallivanta!! Since meeting Ads I have become a dreadful bread snob. In his deli the most beautiful bread is baked and brought in daily. The loaves shift and change throughout the year, depending on what is seasonal (everyone longs for autumn when the Divine Pumpkin Bread starts to arrive). I now rarely by the supermarket bread … but you are right, even that deserves gratitude and appreciation. HERE is to bread!! Brilliant idea re. feeding the community – very Galleonish. Maybe you could do a breadmaking workshop in your kitchen! xx
I would, if I could borrow Ads for the workshop. I salute him for his devotion to good bread. And I salute you for your appreciation of good bread. It’s not snobby, it’s caring about deliciousness and gorgeousness even in our food. 🙂 I used to make a lot of bread by hand but my hands object to too much kneading these days.
so now i’m wanting chocolate AND a fresh slice of bread straight from the oven!
people in ecuador made a unique roll called ‘pan de yucca’ which is made with maniac starch/yucca starch. sounds yucky but wow are those rolls ever silky and comforting! z
I like the sound of that. I can imagine it is silky because I read somewhere, the other day, about using your potato water to put in bread because the starch gives a silkiness to the texture of the bread.
well i mixed three flours / yucca, green plantain and wheat – i added the final because i didn’t have anything to make it rise, and the wheat flour has the agent already added… added half an egg (it was a small batch) and milk, and they were —- intersting orbs that did fine with a little egg o nthe side. now i’m ready to paint!
z
And with such deliciousness providing you with energy, your painting will be inspirational.
If I were a bird, would you give me piece of them again? 🙂 Your story is really interesting.Thank you for sharing with us .
For sure.
Looks good. Definitely should get back to that bread-making. (I got some chocolate today)
Chocolate! That would make your day feel better.