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Robin Shreeves

Gaining knowledge by baking bread

In order to stop the loss of food knowledge from one generation to the next, MNN's food blogger is going to bake bread. Lots of it.
Tue, May 05 2009 at 11:17 AM EST
Read more: ORGANIC COOKING

I read with interest this morning a piece we have here on MNN that was originally published by Plenty. It’s titled Why we are losing what we cannot teach and talks about the rural knowledge that we seem to be losing as a culture. Rural knowledge “encompasses everything from how to gut a fish to how to balance the farm books” the article says, and we are losing it.
 
Some of this knowledge may be written in books, but as the piece points out, there is some knowledge that can only be passed on through experience and apprenticeship.
 
I think a lot of food knowledge, kitchen knowledge, cooking knowledge and gardening knowledge is in danger of being lost in our culture, too. I remember hearing (but can’t remember where) that things like the current interest in artisan foods, the slow food movement, and the popularity of cooking classes are partly due to Generation X and beyond knowing that they are missing something that they weren’t taught, even if they don’t know exactly what they are missing.
 
I get that. As a card-carrying member of Gen X, I grew up on frozen meals, fast food and the wonders of the modern conveniences that let people spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. My mom could cook; so could my dad. No one makes a pot roast like my mom. But by the time I was a teenager, my dad and older brother were on shift work, and I was firmly entrenched in school activities. Stouffers made many of our meals. My mom didn’t take the time to teach me any of her cooking skills because frankly I wasn’t interested, and I’m sure she didn’t think it would be important. Stouffers or some other company would be there to keep me and mine fed.
 
Yet now I find myself very interested in learning these skills that weren’t passed down to me and very intent on passing them down to my boys. There are some things that I’m not so much learning and passing down as I am learning alongside of them. Like composting. We’re learning it together. I heard my 6 year old explaining it to one of his friends when we were walking home from school the other day, and I was so pleased. It was a basic explanation, but he was right on the money.
 
One thing I have very little knowledge about is bread baking. I have a bread machine, but that doesn’t give me any actual experience with making bread. I also made that no-knead bread recipe that I wrote about a few months back. But I don’t really know how to make bread, but I want to change that.
 
I’ve joined a challenge from the Pinch my Salt blog based on the book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Participants in the challenge will be baking their way through the entire cookbook. The first recipe is to be completed by May 18, so look for my first entry on my attempts by then. I’ll be organic-ing up as many of the recipes as I can.
 

Am I crazy? Sure. Is my house going to smell awesome? Yep.

 

Image: Star5112 

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Comments(5)

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Posted By GK - Tue, May 05 2009 at 5:14 PM EST

Do It

Baking bread is not difficult at all, Robin. Just time consuming. Not that I'm an expert . . . but just start with a basic white or French bread recipe. You'll be fine!

Posted By Anonymous - Tue, May 05 2009 at 2:06 PM EST

GEN-X??

I think it's funny how GEN-X (I'm assuming you're referring to Baby-Boomers, cuz that's the last gen-x i've heard of) is largely responsible for these problems that we face today and yet now they seem to have no problem taking credit for the new health/environment craze that is sweeping up everyone in Generation Y (i.e. WHY). I guess I shouldn't complain. At least they're finally doing something about it.

Posted By Robin Shreeves - Tue, May 05 2009 at 2:28 PM EST

Gen-X is not the Boomer generation

The years for Gen-X will be different depending on the source, but it's generally considered those born between 1965 and 1981. The Boomer generation was called so because of the baby boom that happened after WW2. Gen-X'ers are part of a baby bust when the birthrate dropped significantly. But enough about fairly arbitrary labels.

Anyone, whether he is 7 or 70, looking to blame some other group or some other generation for the problems of today and waiting for that group to fix the problems.... More

Posted By Robin Shreeves - Tue, May 05 2009 at 1:16 PM EST

Thanks

Anne - thanks for the support. I'm sure that there are areas in the world that continue to pass these things down from generation to generation so yes, this post is relevant to the USA and probably many other cultures that have embraced convenience.

Posted By Anne - Tue, May 05 2009 at 12:39 PM EST

Gen-X

I'm a card-carrying member too, enjoyed reading this post. I grew up in rural S. Africa (I'm of Dutch descent) and we pretty much learned how to accomplish the basic "lost skills" growing up. I think your post may be relevant to the USA, but it is not necessarily the case in other parts of the world. Kudos to you for getting hands-on with learning basic old world life skills. The world needs more people like you. :)

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