Jeremy Cherfas

Our Daily Bread 30 - A Perennial Dream http://ow.ly/8pcy30lB5vW Wheat is an annual plant; it dies after setting seed. Each year, the farmer has to prepare the land, sow seed, fertilise and protect the plants. When the ground is bare, between crops, wind and water can erode the soil. The shallow root systems of annual plants fail to exploit the resources of the soil and do little to improve it. So although wheat feeds us, it does so at considerable cost to the environment. It isn't sustainable. What if wheat were perennial? Photo by Jerry D. Glover; annual wheat on the left, Kernza™ on the right.

Our Daily Bread 29 - It's a Hard Grain http://ow.ly/3Zvt30lB5rE Durum wheat is only about 5% of the total wheat harvest around the world. For those of us who like our pasta, that's a very important 5%. Different gluten proteins make a durum dough stretchy rather than elastic -- perfect for pasta. The kernels are very hard and need dedicated milling machinery, which produces small granules -- semolina -- rather than flour. That, however, may be about to change.

Our Daily Bread 28 - Anything but Grim http://ow.ly/MAbj30lz3WQ The one process in the whole business of turning wheat into bread when time is of the essence is the harvest. It's back-breaking work, and the slightest delay can ruin the quality of the grain. In Europe, a ready supply of peasants got the job done. In America, labour, especially in the newly settled midwest, was extremely scarce. Inventors had to come up with machines.

Our Daily Bread 27 - Bread and Political Circuses http://ow.ly/SUG530lz3Uo An enormous amount of wheat, roughly one fifth of the total harvest, is traded internationally between countries and, as might be expected, if the supply falls, prices rise. Given the strategic importance of wheat, countries try to ensure that they have an adequate supply, even when doing so actually makes things worse, at least in the short term. Wheat links a drought in China to the fall of Egypt's government in the Arab Spring of 2011.

Our Daily Bread 26 - Wheats and Measures http://ow.ly/jVLd30lxI4x Eight wheat seeds of silver gets you 5 pounds 10 ounces of bread. The very first English law about food regulated the size of a standard loaf of bread. The Assize of Bread and Ale kept the price constant, but that price bought more or less bread depending on the price of wheat. It never was a very useful system, for bakers or bread buyers, but it survived from at least 1266 until 1836 and provides an opportunity to consider a pound of silver versus a pound of bread.

Our Daily Bread 25 - Tradition! http://ow.ly/wCsS30lxHFL The one thing to be thankful for in the rise of fast factory bread is that it prompted the resurgence of small, artisan bakers. They have been goaded to produce breads that are better in every way than even the best breads of years gone by. It may seem at times as if their focus is on traditions from time immemorial. It isn't. Because aside from taking time, what they are doing isn't all that traditional.

Our Daily Bread 24 - Slow, but Exceedingly Fine http://ow.ly/W4Ix30lvxpu Without a doubt, the most important trend in the resurgence of baking with care is the increasing use of small mills by keen home bakers and professionals alike. Better nutrition and stunning flavour are the obvious benefits. Less visible, a renewal of local grain growing and closer links between farmers and bakers, all in search of better wheats. Photo by kind permission of Andrew Heyn at New American Stone Mills.

Our Daily Bread 23 - Brown v. White http://ow.ly/Fn5K30lvxlk The fight between brown and white, good for you versus good for us, has been going on for a long time. Brown flour certainly ought to be more nutritious, and these days, even the elites are choosing brown bread over white. Maybe that's why sales of "whole grain bread" have more than tripled in the US over the past few years. The weevil in the loaf: whole grain need be only 51%, and whole grain flour is just white flour with some added bran and germ.

Our Daily Bread 22 - Sourdough by Any Name http://ow.ly/QLnm30ltLNu Sourdough -- whatever you call it -- is the original leavening agent for breads around the world. At its simplest it is just a piece of the last batch of dough, set aside to ferment the current batch. But it can be so much more than that, a stable little ecosystem of species that support one another while keeping out intruders. It also makes the best bread, although I admit to being biassed. It needn't actually taste sour. In fact, except in a few countries, it need not even make use of a natural leaven.

Our Daily Bread 21 - Breaking Bread http://ow.ly/Z8c730ltLDJ If you bake bread only occasionally, you're probably just grateful to little packets of dried yeast. This episode is not about that. There's just not that much to say. When it comes to Judeo-Christian religious doctrine, however, the role of yeast in human affairs bubbles away below the surface of our cultures.