Baking bread

Sarah and I are making bread.  We use stone ground flour from Eureka Mills, free from chemicals and preservatives, and it feels good when you knead it - alive, filled with goodness.  We are conscious of our thoughts and moods when kneading, banishing worries and negativity, willing happiness to flow through our hands into the dough.  The whole kitchen smells like a brewery and the dough sits quietly in its bowls, allowing the yeast to do its work, slowly puffing itself up until it bulges the covering cloth, declaring itself ready to be shaped into loaves in the tins.  Then the house fills with the smell of baking - reassuring, familiar.  We feel good, knowing that these loaves will feed many people.  We picture them closing their eyes and groaning with pleasure as they bite into the steaming slices of bread and thick melting butter, experiencing it with all their senses.  This is true bread!

This is usually a weekly activity, and we bake eight or sixteen loaves at a time.  We stand and admire the brown shapes when they are tipped from the tins, as if we see them for the first time.  We burst with pride as we rub a little butter onto the crusts to make them shiny.  Some loaves are sold to friends and people in the village, others kept for our family.  Sarah loves adding rosemary and cheese, sometimes even garlic, making a savoury loaf, but we have learned that many people are hesitant to try out unfamiliar flavours, so we make sure that we have traditional white and brown loaves as well.   I love doing this.