A Real Bread Movement for Sevenoaks?

The latest issue of Country Living features local bakers around the country campaigning for better bread on our tables. I was intrigued, and have since read into the campaign and what exactly constitutes ‘real bread’.

In essence, the stuff we buy wrapped and sliced in the supermarket is a pale imitation of what bread traditionally is. Bread should contain flour, water, yeast (cultured or naturally occurring) and possibly some salt. Our sliced white that keeps for a week contains most of this, but is also jam-packed with additives and chemical trickery to last longer, rise quicker and reduce production costs.

According to the Real Bread campaign, 99% of UK households buy bread, and 74% eat it at least once a day. If the bread we were eating was all real bread, we’d be enjoying simple ingredients made with natural techniques that suit the human palette and gut. But we’re not. In the main, we eat bread mass produced in factories, full of additives and often salt and fat. 

According to the campaign's website: “High speed mixing, high levels of yeast and perhaps a lacing of enzymes are employed to force the dough to rise quickly, rather than allowing the bread to ferment and ripen in its own good time. These products may well then be sprayed with chemicals such as calcium propionate to prevent the growth of mould.”

By contrast real bread, campaigners say is:

•    Better for us

•    Better for our communities

•    Better for our planet

But in Sevenoaks, our nearest ‘real bread’ producer is in Maidstone and the next along are in London. Surely Sevenoaks, with our love of the good life and relatively high disposable income, could sustain a local ‘real baker’?

Or perhaps we have one, and it’s simply a bit hidden? If that’s the case, speak up!