Travels with a loaf of bread over time and space ……….. today and all week on the wireless

I won’t bore you with the story of my bread making efforts, other than to say after years of failed and half hearted attempts to make the stuff, all now seems to be going well.

So I bake every other day and have expanded the type of flour I use with growing success.

All of which makes the new Radio 4 series Slow Rise: A Bread Making Adventure, a timely addition my wireless listening.*

“Adrian Scarborough reads from journalist Robert Penn’s account of his search for the perfect bread made from ancient wheat grains – a quest that takes him to several countries around the world, including Egypt, Turkey and America, before he returns home to grow his own wheat in the Black Mountains in Wales. Can he learn to plant, harvest, thresh and bake enough sourdough bread to feed his family for a year? Abridged by Anna Magnusson, Producer: Bruce Young”

Episode one was today, and that will be followed across the rest of the week with a programme on how 

“In Egypt - where the rich alluvial soil once made the Nile delta the grain store of the Roman world - Robert Penn learns how to scythe wheat as farmers have done for thousands of years. Back in Wales he makes his first attempt to harvest his own home-grown wheat”.

Followed by episode three, “in America, Robert Penn discovers how the combine harvester transformed the vast plains of the Midwest. In Wales, his first harvest provides enough flour to make bread for a year – but it’s still a disappointing return for his back-breaking labours".

And finally in the last two programmes,  “in his quest for the perfect bread, journalist Robert Penn examines how from ancient times white bread became the preserve of the richer classes, while the coarsest brown loaves were eaten by the poor, [and finally he] explores how bread has been central to religion through the ages, how modern manufacturing processes have radically changed the taste of bread, and after weeks of trial and error he tries out his new bread-making skills on his family. Will they give him the thumbs-up for the perfect loaf?"

Picture; courtesy of the BBC

*Slow Rise: A Bread Making Adventure, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sqt6