h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just finished a letter to a local magazine.

It's a long story.
My wife (who I'll call Mrs Pimms on this thread) decided to set up her own baking business over a year ago, making bread to organic principles (you can't legally say you are making "organic bread" unless you have a recognised organic certification). It started small, supplying to a single Farmer's market weekly and has been a learning curve for both of us. Currently she sells at three markets (that is all there are on the island), one health food shop, is preparing for upcoming shows, and has other irons in the fire.

The name she gave her business is The Good Loaf, a pun on The Good Life, and unsurprisingly we found someone else had already used it for the dot com, so we had to go for thegoodloaf dot co dot uk as the next best site. I drew our logo in a few minutes (and have had to redraw it several times since, taking a lot longer ).

In the last year Mrs P has been on two breadmaking courses to become more professional, and gradually expanded her equipment to cope with increases in demand. Realising the need to promote her business more she approached the local magazine and offered to submit a local interest story about why she set up the business. This duly appeared, but in retrospect was possibly a little negative about the alternative to her methods of baking...

In the next issue a letter was published from the chairman of the local mill who started by saying it was a bad idea to badmouth your competition, and then proceeded to do exactly that mentioning Mrs P by name seven times with various slighting or sarcastic comments. He took as a personal affront comments Mrs P had made in general about mass-produced bread in the UK

Mrs P initially wanted to disappear - certainly not provoke further attacks by responding to the letter. I however was not going to sit by and let his comments go unchallenged. So I drafted th response and emailed it to our key supporters to ensure that I'd set the right tone - we weren't going to apologise, and Mrs P didn't want to be antagonistic or descend to his level of snide abuse.

My letter however, in order to address his points, provide references for my facts and achieve a balanced view (h2g2 entry writing having rubbed off a bit ) was over 1000 words, which could have been too long (it can be found on our website). Further drafts reduced this to less than 600, though at one point it was *too* amiable, and I had to get it a bit more steely in tone. I don't know if advocacy is a role I am well suited for, but researching this letter got me pretty het up

Pimms, the logical online name for Mrs. P is Lettice.

I don't suppose she has a sourdough bread starter recipe that does not use yeast?

When will your letter appear? And do the commercial bakers really think Mrs Pimms can produce enough bread to put them out of business? Or that the general public even cares what's in their foods? This is what ammazes me. There is all this information out there about additives and stabilizers and preservatives and refined this and that being harmful but knowing this doesn't seem to change how things are produced or the sales figures.

Lettice Not sure she'd go for that.

I have made a few sourdoughs from scratch. It is very easy (if a little labour intensive compared with using dried yeast) All sourdough starters contain yeasts - but they develop from yeasts in the air or already present on the ingredients, rather than from a concentrated source such as brewer's yeast. No proper sourdough has yeast as a specifically added ingredient, though all sourdoughs develop yeast as a a component. The dough usually has a stronger flavour than common yeasted doughs, and takes longer to prove.

At its most basic rye flour, white flour and water stirred and refreshed over several days with more flour and water will develop into a rye sourdough starter which can be used to make a sponge and from that a dough to bake. A San Francisco sourdough additionally uses yogurt and fruit juice, but they are not essential. A properly made and baked loaf will not have live yeast in - it will have been fermented in the proving process. Commercial bread *may* retain some yeast due to the higher levels used to compensate for the hasty processes used.

The letter should appear at the start of August.
Organic bread is a niche market, economically we can't compete with commercial mass production, and their advantages of low cost, convenience and durability will for many outweigh the potential health benefits and enjoyment of a tastier but pricier and faster-staling handmade loaf. I reckon we need to somehow get to the people who have unwittingly and unfortunately become disenchanted with bread because of reactions to the commercial processes and are open to be persuaded that not all bread is bad for them.

An interesting read is this article: http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=471 written by the 'guru' who set 'Lettice' on her organic bread crusade.

I'm willing to spend some time baking bread myself if that means I can eat it. Bread is my favorite food. Doing without it is hard for me.


When I eat bread, blisters form in the roof of my mouth, which then break open and I wind up with this loose skin sloughing off. Sort of like a candida infection, but not exactly. I don't break out any place else, but my forearms itch. So, I've been doing a yeast-free diet for months - nearly a year. After 3 months the yeast is supposed to be gone and you can start eating bread again. Wrong. Every time I add bread back into my diet the same thing happens. Which makes me wonder if it is actually yeast or one of the other additives in commercial breads. But, it could be yeast because I had a mild reaction when I was in Blighty and had fish and chips - beer batter.

Anyway, the yeast-free diet book I have says that sourdough bread is allowed. But all of the ones I find say they contain yeast. All of the pitas also contain yeast.

I've changed brands of toothpaste, mouthwash, etc and that wasn't causing it. Haven't had a glass of wine in months. But I miss the bread a lot more than the wine.

It could be an allergic reaction specifically to commercial yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, brewer's and baker's yeast) which is why sourdough is theoretically safe to eat, as there is no commercial yeast in it.

How are you on unleavened bread (eg pitta) or soda bread? They *shouldn't* contain any yeast. The best way to avoid unnecessary yeast (or anything else) being added is to make it yourself. You can't easily avoid additives they don't label them. My mother has some allergy to a flour additive present in most UK flour, causing rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. Only when experimentally eating French bread did she realise that her intolerance wasn't to flour itself.

It isn't flour, thank heavens. I can eat soda bread. But I want something for a sandwich. All of the pitas here have yeast listed pretty high up on the ingredients list. I can tolerate whole wheat tortillas, but only like then hot. Hate wraps made with cold tortillas.

I have searched for a sourdough starter and can only find ones that call for yeast. That's why I wanted a genuine one. I have a good source for specialty stone ground whole grain flours. We have a mill not far from here that does wonderful flours. I always use really good flours in my cooking and baking at home. I haven't bought the regular white, bleached flour for years. So, that's to my advantage. But the bread recipes all call for yeast.

I thought it would be a simple thing to google a sourdough starter. Boy was I surprised. And I have a gazillion cookbooks but not a single one has a traditional sourdough starter. I love sourdough bread, by the way. It's a big favorite of mine. I just need one that doesn't make my mouth break out.

I'm on it. The sour dough starter, I mean. I'll ask my resident Amish expert if she has a recipe.

Meanwhile, I found this in an old, old Rumford Baking Powder cookbook

Rumford Light Bread
1 pint flour
1 level tsp salt
4 level tspns Rumford baking powder
Milk and water to mix

Sift the dry ingredients together and mix to a soft dough with the milk and water. Kenad two minutes, turn into a greased pan and allow to rise ten minutes before baking. Bake slowly for forty minutes.
Foot note:
This bread can be eaten by those with weak digestion who can not assimilate bread prepared with yeast.

Thank you for your patience, Pimms, and the use of your space. I think Lettice is a delightful name.

No worries Lady C!

Hyp, how about this one - top of my google list for sourdough starter: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm - I've read it through, and it is basically the same information as I got out of Mrs P's bread books. You don't need to boost it with yeast at all - honestly! If you don't believe me try the instructions given and find out. One recipe I used that boosted it without packaged yeast was an initial handful of raisins (which apparently have natural yeasts on the skins), which are sieved out after a couple of days.

As well as the oil/butter being optional, so really is the sugar. The yeasts should be quite capable of fermenting the starch in the flour, sugar is just giving it a boost.

with your baking.

Oh and the editor replied and said we'd missed the boat for August's issue - it was already full by the time I eventually sent in a letter, but it has been placed for publication in September's issue.

In retrospect we should have alerted the editor early that we would be sending something, so he could have allowed space for it.

When I googled sourdough starter that site definitely did not turn up. Thanks for it, Pimms. I've printed it off. And thanks for the Rumford light bread, Lady C.

Perhaps someone else has sent in a letter to defend Mrs. Pimms' bread for the August edition.Perhaps a satisfied customer.

No news on the letter appearing. We have had a setback to our income as since yesterday all Farmers' markets on the Island have been 'postponed' as a safety measure in response to the news that Foot & Mouth had been diagnosed at a farm in Surrey.

It is a headline grabbing example of swift action by DAFF (the Dept of Agriculture Forestry & Fisheries). It has caused some ill-will, thoiugh it is ostensibly sensible to be cautious. Many small market traders will be heavily hit by this, and since the current Farmers' markets on the Island are by and large not concerned with livestock (or even meat and dairy) it seems misjudged.

Fortunately the preparations we had made for Saturday's markets did not go entirely to waste as we were able to increase our order with the shop we deliver to and sell the remainder of the perishable stock at a local Hospice "Garden Party" for a small donation to the charity (though it took longer to sell).

Hope the F&M crisis abates quickly. It has already caused the cancellation of the last big agricultural show in August, at which we were hoping to have a large turnover (about two to three times the turnover we'd get on any normal market day).

Well, that's sure a kick in the head!! Sorry about that. Maybe this Foot and Mouth thing will get cleared up quickly. Sure hope so.

That is a nuisance. I hope it does clear up soon. Like you, I don't understand the restriction on anything other than meat and dairy. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

I have sourdough starter happily bubbling away.

Fortunately the speedy over-reaction cancelling the markets was rescinded when arguments were put forward on lack of livestock involved in current Manx Farmers markets.

Still lost out on Royal show, but we still had to work hard with other shows almost every weekend. Glad the summer break is over. We should be able to enjoy at least *part* of each weekend now

Letter has appeared in magazine. Only given a half page, with no picture (of A5 size glossy magazine), but it was near the front
Not much feedback on it yet.

At least the letter made it in and has a good position. I hope you get a good response from it.

Those who mentioned reading the letter all said it was very good

Now the problem is preventing Mrs Pimms from burning out. Recently the idea of baking has given her a sinking feeling, and it has been hard to get her motivated. Even with the aids she has equipped herself with (large mixer, weighing scales, food processor, cooling racks, second oven et cetera) the idea of preparing the orders for the markets is depressing her.

She has had much advice since starting, and mostly encouragement (a former boyfriend who had been a baker advised her early on not to do it as it is difficult to make a living at).
I don't want to support her by saying "give it up, you don't have to do it" and have her regret not trying harder. Nor do I want to bully her into a breakdown by making unreasonable requests for increased production to meet demand. It is worrying that two of the successful artisan bakers she has spoken with are both divorced - I can't avoid the conclusion that baking for a living is not conducive to a stress-free life

We have tentatively planned to have a break from baking after christmas. Something to look forward to.

This reminds me of a recent Gosho journal entry. About hobbies becoming occupations. Some people think it is the ideal situation. For me it wouldn't be. It would take something that gives me pleasure and add a ton of stress to it, thus destroying said pleasure.

The best thing you can do is let her make the decision and then support her in it - whichever way it turns out. Is there a happy medium? Could she take orders for special events only, rather than having regular customers? Do enough to keep her hand in but not so much to feel constantly pressured? How about teaching breadmaking?

Aha.. got there before me, Hyp You share my views about hobbies being your business.

I wonder, Pimms, whether there's any way she can take on a part time assistant? A student perhaps for day or two a week?

You're in the horns of a dilemma, aren't you? Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Have you had the chance to have a good open discussion with your wife about it? Does she have to respond to the increased demand for her (obviously wonderful) baking? Could she maintain production and still make an income?

was pretty cut and dried about this sort of thing and his view was that if work is detrimentally affecting home life, it's time to look for something different. We both did it a couple of times and on balance I think he was spot on. Whilst we may have been seen to be acting with haste, it meant that we never felt that we'd lost control of our lives.

One of the things we drastically cut back was our hobby - sailing. We'd take backpackers out to the reef for day trips. The demand was huge and we struggled to keep up - which was all well and good for a while. But we found ourselves being dictated to by the owner of the backpackers' - about when we went out, with whom, to which reef etc and the hassles overtook the fun. So we quit - much to a lot of people's irritation and even anger. We went back to sailing to the reef just the two of us, inviting friends every now and again. Suddenly we rediscovered our joy in it

Don't know if that helps at all, but it was pleasant to recall our reef sailing days


Fb

Gosh. Over a year has gone by. The baking still continues, despite setbacks. One thing that has aided Lettice has been the realisation that she couldn't continue as she was doing things, and this has resulted in the purchase of a white van, and more importantly the demolition and rebuilding of our garage into a more appropriate venue for running the bakery. This latter project had numerous setbacks including changes in architects and in builders before anything really started physically happening.

Having the encouragement of a new accountant, who is willing to be paid in bread , and of some stalwart customers, we have realised a large increase in turnover form the first to the second year, and hope to increase again in this third year. The next stage is definitely getting some paid assistance to help with busy baking days, as Lettice is struggling to cope.

Glad things are gradually taking shape, Pimms. I hope Lettice can get paid help soon too.

Which reminds me, I shouldn't be dawdling on hootoo. I should be baking It will be the new Bean Gables' inaugural baking session ... and means I'm really home

Merry Christmas Pimms and Lettice
Fb