Mr. Pollan talks about big, bad gluten and how we are all avoiding it. (I have recently learned by an elimination process that eating bread/flour will swell my fingers over night and make my knuckles sore in the morning; the soreness does go away as the day goes on. I can choose, now, if I want that feeling in the morning or not.)
What did excite me, though, was his thoughts that perhaps if we returned to real flour and a fermentation process, eschewing the commercially made quick-rise yeasts, we might be able to eat bread again. I did rather feel that I didn't particularly have a problem after enjoying the bread at the New Orleans restaurant Coquette, which is made with a starter/sponge and 'rests' overnight. They will kindly share their recipe for bread, if you ask. As I understand it, the recipe originated with the chef's mother.
While listening to Splendid Table I learned about a group of women who have opened up a flour mill in Asheville, NC called Carolina Ground. Their whole deal is to make healthy flour and to keep it closer to the community. Even in the television show they talk about a wheat economy and how wheat is being shipped all over the world, with real ripples in the system when invasions happen in the world's 'breadbaskets' (i.e. Ukraine). We, in America, are not as effected by that kind of thing, but cultures/countries which eat bread as a staple are hardest hit.
I may be back in the business of making and eating bread... my bread, from my home, from my yeast.
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| Making a starter, apparently the yeast is robust! |
Now I am just thinking that I need to visit Carolina Ground as I travel between New Orleans and DC. Perhaps I can visit a newly discovered cousin when I take my night-time break 9 hours in to the trip.
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