A quiet revolution is happening. Ordinary people are reclaiming control of a key part of their diet. Along the way, many discover that you can trust the words ‘freshly baked’ only when you open the oven door yourself, that better bread is made with fewer ingredients and more time to rise, and that sharing what you’ve baked with family, friends and neighbours brings joy and fulfilment. Fifty years after technicians at Chorleywood created the white sliced loaf for which Britain is notorious, the backlash against its bland texture, undeclared additives and dubious digestibility is gathering pace. Sales of industrial loaves are dropping while more and more people take matters into their own hands and start baking at home.
Bread Matters – the company – is a key part of this revolution. It was started in 2003 by Andrew Whitley to champion the cause of real bread. Andrew had founded The Village Bakery Melmerby in the 1970s and, according to the BBC Food & Farming Award judges ‘changed the way we think about bread’.
Bread Matters promotes the social, economic, cultural and health benefits of making bread using slow fermentation and home-grown grains. Our considered approach to teaching, living, working and growing creates the right conditions for the fermentation of real bread and good ideas. Our purpose is to inspire the individuals and groups, and to disseminate the knowledge and skills, that will enable communities to nourish healthy people from the fields around them, enrich their local economy and cultivate food sovereignty.
For more about the people behind Bread Matters, look here.
For further thoughts on the Real Bread Revolution, go to Hands On My Bread! by Andrew Whitley.