Giving Bits Of Ourselves Away < The Happy Monk Baking Company

I often hear it in my voice, talking about bread. The proselytizing tone when I evangelize about its value to civilization, its symbolic meaning (“I am the bread of life,” quoth Jesus in John 6:35. “Whoever comes to me shall not hunger …”), its ability to create connections and community (“Let us break bread!”), its elemental simplicity (“Flour, water, salt! What more do you need to make a meal?”)

They’re all true, yes. But the minute I hear my high and mighty voice, my fire and brimstone speechifying, I try to bring it down a notch or few: “Hey! Bread is bread!” I say, trying to undercut my note of pretension.

Bread is magic, but it’s also humble, unassuming, unpretentious, simplicity itself.

Simplicity itself

I get my hackles up whenever I hear that holier-than-thou tone in others.

And I certainly felt that way when I first came across the recent New York Times article by Lexie Smith, “What Sourdough Taught Me, in the Pandemic and Beyond.” 1

But the piece had an original twist and produced some fascinating insights I’d not considered. She brought it home with flying colours in this eloquent, beautifully laid out piece.

I’ve mentioned Lexie Smith in this blog space before. She has bona fide baking credentials but is also a great writer. 2. Moreover, she has a striking appearance and bona fide modelling experience.

Starting up with starter

Her twist here is that instead of baking bread and selling or giving it to people, she mailed nearly 2,000 samples of dried sourdough starter to people worldwide.

During the COVID pandemic, she offered her dried starter (Barthelme) to anyone who requested it. Her Instagram account, @smyth_myth, had legions of followers, and they responded when she offered.

Sourdough was trending,” she writes. “As a dealer, so was I. The following year, I sent over 1,700 packets of dried sourdough starter — most dehydrated in my oven on endless parchment-lined sheet trays, with a handful produced by volunteers — to recipients in 46 states and 36 countries.”

Her gesture struck a chord, borne by the theory that people sought comfort in making (and eating) bread during this time.

Presumably, Smith included instructions on how to reconstitute the dried sourdough starter. Recipients bring the starter to life and the starter is fed and replenished. Then used to make bread.

Spreading lactobacillus

It occurred to Smith that bits of her sourdough starter — including the free-floating yeast spores from her kitchen and hands — were making more than insensate loaves.

“Lactobacillus spores (one of the dominant bacteria found in sourdough cultures) are present on the bakers’ hands after a few weeks of consistent breadmaking.”

Something of herself was in all the loaves made with her starter. Talk about spreading the love!

“It’s hard to resist the cozy thought of nearly 2,000 of Barthelme’s children scattered across a fractured and disconsolate globe. Especially when I consider they’re working to unite our bodies on an imperceptible scale.”

But Smith brings her poetic bread thoughts down to earth. And here’s value of the New York Times piece.

Getting real

Bread has been a linchpin throughout history in world conflicts and uprisings. When governments tried to cut bread subsidies in the Middle East, the citizens revolted. When Marie Antoinette (the last queen of France before the French Revolution) learned the peasants had no bread to eat, she uttered, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” — “Let them eat cake!” The French Revolution followed. 3.

Bread is still a linchpin in conflicts today. We’re seeing this in Syria, Ukraine and, most recently, Gaza, where Israeli airstrikes have damaged large numbers of bakeries.

In early November, bakeries in northern Gaza’s most densely populated regions were closed. Infrastructure damage, lack of fuel and ingredients, or fear of further attacks drove away bakers and citizens.

Bread is a bellwether

“Bread is a bellwether,” writes Smith. “Its absence a death knell. In the corners of the world where bread flows freely and remains affordable for every rung of society, there is at least the potential for people to thrive.”

Lexie Smith’s sourdough starter project brought some relief to hundreds during the pandemic. The responses suggested “a desire to connect and nourish, along with the sincere hope that feeding and eating this [sourdough culture] might offer some small cure to a huge problem.”

Is sourdough a solution to world strife?

“Of course not,” writes Smith.

“But if Barthelme’s spores still bubbling away in kitchens around the world can tell us anything, it’s that it’s within our nature … to reach out to one another and give bits of ourselves away. There is still, and there is always, something to be done with what you have right here, in and on your hands.”

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Simplicity itself

Starting up with starter

Spreading lactobacillus

Getting real

Bread is a bellwether

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