Resurgence Slow Sundays • Baking Bread

Bake bread – for yourself, your friends, your neighbours

The first Resurgence Slow Sunday celebrated baking bread and this theme was continued for our second Resurgence Slow Sunday. Here is the background to this Resurgence Slow Sunday action of baking bread as a rejection of mass-produced, factory-made bread.

Why bake bread?

Mahatma Gandhi made spinning an act of defiance; the spinning wheel became the symbol of the independence movement in India. Similarly, good bread should become a symbol of environmentalism. Bread diversity is a symbol of cultural diversity. Regional varieties represent grain diversity as well as diversity of style.

Baking bread is an act of meditation. Through this simple action we are able to slow down, pay attention and reconnect with tradition. It is something to share and to celebrate.

Baking your own real, healthy bread is a stand against commercialism - almost 90% of bread is mass-produced in factories using some ingredients that are not declared on the label. Read a selection of articles on ‘real’ bread or try Andrew Whitley’s simple recipe from Breadmatters.

For inspiring recipe ideas for rye bread, soda bread, cinnamon snails, pumpernickel bread and more visit the Shipton Mill Bakery website.

Articles on bread-making

Let’s have some decent bread – it’s about time! • Andrew Whitley, founder of The Village Bakery, reveals what really goes into industrial bread and encourages us to bake our own.

Bread Matters • Andrew Whitley on how to take back your health by baking your own bread.

Simple Sourdough • Resurgence editor, Sophie Poklewski Koziell, discovers the art of traditional bread-making.

Connecting with other readers

Share your ideas and experiences with other Resurgence readers. If you’ve found an age-old recipe for a traditional regional loaf – why not share it with other members? Or perhaps you have a story about baking bread that will inspire others?

Go to the Resurgence & Ecologist facebook group page

Find out about the Real Bread Campaign, which aims to increase the enjoyment, production and consumption of bread made with natural ingredients, appropriate fermentation and no adulterants, so that good bread can play a larger part in the physical, mental and social wellbeing of the nation.