Description

‘Charming, important . . . a journey of discovery’ Telegraph

Over the course of a year, Robert Penn learns how to plant, harvest, thresh and mill his own wheat, in order to bake bread for his family. In returning to this pre-industrial practice, he tells the fascinating story of our relationship with bread: from the domestication of wheat in the Fertile Crescent at the dawn of civilization, to the rise of mass-produced loaves and the resurgence in homebaking today.

Gathering knowledge and wisdom from experts around the world – farmers on the banks of the Nile, harvesters in the American Midwest and Parisian boulangers – Penn reconnects the joy of making and eating bread with a deep appreciation for the skill and patience required to cultivate its key ingredient. This book is a celebration of the millennia-old craft of breadmaking, and how it is woven into the story of humanity.

‘Compelling, vivid . . . Slow Rise will be welcomed by the new bread geeks’ Spectator

Publisher Review

A modern day Thoreau . . . Rob Penn has been hand scything wheat in the Nile Delta and growing his own heritage grains * Great British Food Magazine * Compelling, vivid . . . the cyclist and former lawyer explores his enthusiasm for sourdough bread, and forgotten "landrace" wheats, as he supervises their planting, harvesting and the milling of the grain that would go into his loaf . . . Slow Rise will be welcomed by the new bread geeks -- Dan Lepard * Spectator * A wide-ranging, gloriously obsessive odyssey ... a wonderful insight into the history, culture and sheer hard work taken to make this most fundamental of human foods -- Jenny Linford * author of The Missing Ingredient * Rob Penn's enthusiasm for what he calls 'the most symbolically evocative foodstuff' is so infectious and persuasive ... a pleasingly evocative tale, told with the same rich descriptions and wistful asides that Penn bakes into all of his books * Geographical * Charming, important ... a journey of discovery -- Boudicca Fox-Leonard * Telegraph * Fascinating, compelling . . . Robert Penn's engaging account encompasses every aspect of bread, from how it fuelled entire empires to which grains he could grow on his own allotment -- David Ellis * Evening Standard * People keep rediscovering the joy of bread. In truth it never went away; it was just subverted by pappy cheaper bread ... Rob Penn celebrates what we can do to reverse this culinary serfdom -- Tim Lang * author of Feeding Britain *