Lammas/Lughnasagh blessings to you

May your harvest be abundant and well shared. I’m feeding sourdough starter to craft this Lammas’ week a loaf of bread. Unfortunately, we can no longer tell which is the first grain harvested, so we’ll have to fake it. The thoughts and love and appreciation for a successful harvest will be baked in, regardless. The loaf will look very much like the one below.

artisan sourdough bread

Photo by J. Harrington

I’ve become increasingly concerned that too many of US have come to take for granted food security while too many others among US are too often exposed to the fragility of life through hunger and malnutrition. I believe we’re severely misguided in the amount of subsidized agriculture we support that’s devoted to “biofuels” that produce more greenhouse gases than they save. About one third of corn production is used for ethanol. There’s no way ethanol comes under the heading of “feeding the world.” 

There’s a 2014 article in Vox that provides worthwhile insights into how much agricultural land is used for food production. As noted in the article:

Feeding 9 billion people won't be easy: that's basically like adding two new Indias to the world in the next few decades. And, making matters even trickier, humans have now cultivated most of the world's arable land and are pushing up against the limits of freshwater consumption. So the traditional strategy of "find new farmland to grow more food" is getting even harder.

We also must focus on reforestation, restoring wetlands and floodplains and related land uses in response to climate breakdown. Land use competition is likely to become furious. All of this was before the world food situation became even more complicated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As a hobby baker, I’ve noticed an increase in the price of flour over the past few years. Thus far I’ve been able to accommodate that increase. I know there are others who are not as fortunate. Meanwhile, to further point out more of the work yet to be done, Minnesota, as an example, had 67,000 agricultural operations in 2021, with 25,400,000 acres in operations. “As of October 31, 2020, there are 965 certified farms that represent 674,871 acres.” that are water quality certified. That represents 1.4% of the farms and 2.7% of the acres. We must do better.

Bread

By Richard Levine

Each night, in a space he’d make

between waking and purpose,

my grandfather donned his one

suit, in our still dark house, and drove

through Brooklyn’s deserted streets

following trolley tracks to the bakery.

There he’d change into white

linen work clothes and cap,

and in the absence of women,

his hands were both loving, well

into dawn and throughout the day—

kneading, rolling out, shaping

each astonishing moment

of yeasty predictability

in that windowless world lit

by slightly swaying naked bulbs,

where the shadows staggered, woozy

with the aromatic warmth of the work.

Then, the suit and drive, again.

At our table, graced by a loaf

that steamed when we sliced it,

softened the butter and leavened

the very air we’d breathe,

he’d count us blessed.

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