Baking Bread

This morning I decided to bake a loaf of fresh bread for my boys and myself. It had been a couple of weeks since last doing this and I so badly wanted to fill the house with the aroma of freshly baked bread and wanted to fill some little tummies with something a little more nutritious than partially hydrogenated oils. So as I was kneading this morning my mind started wandering (you see it was quite quiet in the kitchen this morning considering everyone was home. I could actually complete thoughts!)

I started to think in a broader sense about the problems we face as a nation when it comes to food. Why is it that we have an overabundance of cheap food lacking in nutrition? Why is it that the rates of heart disease, diabetes and cancer are at an all time high—all things influenced and affected by diet? Why do we have so much as a nation, yet we still have some that are affected by hunger? Why is it that the school breakfast and school lunch programs are full of pre-packaged, overly-processed food that are marketed as healthy choices?

I’m partially influenced by Michael Pollen’s recent article, Farmer in Chief, where he describes in detail how decades of creating a monoculture of corn and soy beans has created myriads of low-cost but low-nutrition food options. Sure, this method of farming has brought down food prices, but it has also brought down the nutritional quality of much of what is in the grocery store. As a result, those in our nation that are on the lower end of the economic spectrum are likely to consume these products—especially in programs like free or reduced school breakfast and school lunches.

And this just gets me ANGRY.

So what’s a busy mom to do?? Read and get educated. Teach your children about the problem. Support local farmers. Take your kids to the farmer’s market. Support a local food system rather than an industrialized food system. Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and show your kids the excitement of receiving fresh vegetables and fruit from the farm. Start a garden.

Don't get me wrong. Many of our school mornings are spent eating a bowl of prepackaged cereal, oatmeal or worse, waffles. Ryan still lives for his chicken nuggets. But more and more of our food choices are more and more natural. Dinner comes from the oven, not a box. Muffins come from a mixing bowl, not a package or a store. Even our packed lunches are becoming less processed.

For today, though, I’m taking this step, and I am baking some bread to nourish the boys. Hopefully I can nourish their minds as well.

Well, off to the farmers market!