I laid out our solstice altar thinking about this important halfway point in the year, I considered my aspirations and let go of any unwanted energy, I let my thoughts run wild…wait, ouch, what’s that? Oh, I’m sitting on an ants nest. Thanks for the grounding mother nature.
After a magical weekend with girlfriends in the fierce northwestern beauty of Donegal I am calm, rejuvenated, thankful for the power of sisterhood and friendship. A clarity washes over me. I really love flour. A catalyst, a recipe, a story, a conversation.
It’s a kind of magic, sorcery; the things that can be made with flour, from bread to cakes, pasta to scones, pancakes to biscuits. Wonderment, I still am in awe. Ever since climbing onto chair to help mum make Rock buns or play dough I am amazed at the alchemy, the poetic movement of ingredients, the nuances of this special substance. Light, dusty flour dancing in the sunlight, on cheeks, on surfaces to allow fingers to draw little pictures, on hands reaching for the cupboard door, a packet rolled up on the shelf, a promise of deliciousness to come, warm buns from the oven. A nostalgia; hands covered in flour, kneading dough, carefully rolling pastry, mum carefully putting my hair behind my ear as I sit on the counter top, legs swinging.
And yet what do we really know about that packet, the flour on our hands and in our home. What do you know about this powder? The history of humans and wheat goes back thousands of years, tied together in the myth that it was wheat that settled people; or at least stopped our nomadic hunter gatherer ancestors from moving around. The grains used to make the majority of commodity flour (and therefore any product containing such) is far, far, far, so massively far from this romantic vision of setting up camp with a small clearing of land to grow this magnificent plant. In reality most of us have no idea (why would we?) and frankly aren’t hugely engaged in the conversation of wheat, it’s definitely niche, so please forgive me. But really it’s part of a bigger conversation, something I’d love to make more of friendly chat.
I’m surrounded by people who love food, grow food, make food and feed people. They are inspiring, hard working and are trying to make a positive change to their lives and possibly the lives of others through good/real/true food. But the tricky part is trying to pull together those who are passionate, have stories and food to share to those who are disconnected and dissociated with their sustenance. This is my future, the fostering of a food respecting and loving community, laying foundations of learning about the whole journey, from the soil to the soul. A holistic approach, we need the full picture because it’s not just food it’s environmentalism, politics, nutrition, horticulture, emotional wellbeing…and on and on.
An analogy; a wheat kernel comprises of three parts (germ, endosperm and bran) for the most part in commercial flour the endosperm is kept while the other parts discarded. This means flour is whiter and can be kept for longer but it loses in nutritional properties, Cissy Difford sums it up here about the post war reality and the invention of the Chorleyood process.
‘the process added preservatives, yeast, enzymes and oxidants to its loaves, which created an ultra fluffy, soft bread that could be made in half the amount of time and for half the cost. Although this loaf remains the most popular, it is actually so nutritionally void that producers had to add back in synthetic vitamins and irons, which are naturally found in the wheat kernel’s bran and germ.’
Oh dear…where did it all go wrong? You need a cynical eye, a critical eye; huge multinational food companies are interested in profit, not nutrition or nurture and that food only means cash and power. In order to better sustain ourselves and be well both physically and mentally we need real food; we need to be able to see through the clever marketing, the slick promises, the tempting images.
It's not our fault, we’ve been miseducated, led astray, bombarded and groomed. We’ve forgotten, lost touch and distracted. There’s excuses for all of these things; society, education, progress and more but for me, it’s vital we stop, take control of our own health and wellbeing through what we feed our bodies.
And how we feed our soul. Back to Donegal, to a deserted paradise beach, to friends in the sea laughing and sharing our soul stories. A tonic, nurturing, loving and nourishing. Friendship and food.
What else?
Yes, it’s sad and discouraging - the story of how wheat is stripped of nutrition. I grew up eating that soft white bread, knowing nothing else. But how things ha changed here in the last 50 years! Now everyone I know eats whole wheat bread and there’s many sources to buy it locally made. My husband rushes to a small local market several times a week to see if the baker (who supplies the market with his delicious goods) has been by. Apparently he’s eccentric and periodically refuses to make our favorite loaf and we must make do with whatever he now fancies. Sources for great whole wheat bread have appeared just as the community’s tastes and appetite for it have grown. If good bread has come to Nashville, Tennessee, it must be more available everywhere.