Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives

Product Information

There are some photographs scattered around the recipe section of the book, but the first half contains little sketches which I believe are done by one half of the baking team Al. They’re not necessarily professional drawings but they have their own charm. They’re simple and quirky but express what they’re meant to. It means they don’t overwhelm the text but instead complement it.

I am so glad that this book is going to be published later this month as I am looking forward to owning my own hard copy. I also know what I will be buying friends and family for Christmas! Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this story in exchange for an honest review.

Reviews

Kitty Tait grew up a funny, chatty redhead who made everyone in her family laugh. But around the time she turned 14, Kitty began experiencing anxiety. Slowly, she disconnected from everyone around her and struggled to wake up, get dressed, and leave the house. Full of worry, her parents tried everything, from new hobbies like reading and painting to medication and visits to a specialist. Nothing seemed to help.

Kitty and Al make a good team, and four years of 5am starts have done nothing to dent that. They have carved out their spaces in the operation – “I’m anything cheese-related,” says Al. “The cheese king is here!” – and have a closeness that not many fathers share with their teenage daughters. “When I got depressed and when I was dealing so badly with anxiety, you were the one who really, really understood,” Kitty tells Al. “And that’s because you’d also gone through depression, but you really listened. And I think because my brain was so fragmented, when it rebuilt, you were just kind of part of it. Most teenagers don’t have that as much, because they move away, but you’re not just my parent any more, you’re part of me. You’re my best friend, and you’re also my business partner. And you’re also just, like, my partner.” And writing about it, I didn’t realise how emotionally exhausting it was going to be,” she goes on. “There’s all this trauma that I’d just pushed down and moved on from that I had to work my way through again. And that was really painful, but also really good because, at the end of it, I understood, not why I got ill or why I struggled, but I became immensely proud of myself. Beforehand, I’d felt really ashamed of my mental health: the times that I couldn’t get out of bed or the times when I just had to scream. And writing about it made me realise my mental health wasn’t my fault and it never really was. And there might be other people who might feel ashamed of their mental health.” I chose this book because on the surface, it is about anxiety and depression, something I suffered from at a similar age to Kitty. I am always interested in how people cope with a mental health issue especially when you are still in your teens and in full time education. However, there is so much more to this book. Kitty is a strong woman with a wonderfully supportive family who not only allow her to recover in her own way without worrying about her schooling but help her every step of the way. It was a brave move for her father to give up the job of teaching to become a baker in partnership with his daughter. It is clear he knew he had no option. He writes about his amazing journey in this book and Kitty writes about hers. It doesn’t surprise me how much support this family received on their journey including from teachers at Kitty’s school. Really beautiful story with an inspiring and important message. If you read this be sure to Google the bakery afterwards and see how far it has come! The first half of Birdsong recounts how The Orange Bakery came to be, including Kitty's mental health struggles that led to her being introduced to breadmaking. I found the split father and daughter narration to be really engaging, with a good blend of (sometimes stark) emotional reality and humour.Adding to the charm of this book, the photographs are beautifully shot and many clearly show the humor of this family. I enjoyed getting to see the shop that had been described. I'll definitely be adding a copy of this book to my cookbook shelf when it's published! Drain the fruit in a colander and remove the tea bag. Scatter the plump fruit over the dough along with the lemon zest, if using. Line a deep baking tray with parchment paper. Place the dough slices cut-side down on the tray, spacing them 1cm apart. Place a damp tea towel over the top and leave in a warm place to prove for 40-45 minutes, or until doubled in size. Gently warm the milk in a small saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the yeast. Set aside and leave to bubble for 5 minutes. The second half is full of the recipes we saw being developed during the bakery's journey. As I read through, there were some I made a note of, hoping the recipe would be there (the Comfort and the Albert in particular) - and they were! There are also some amazing flavour combinations that I can't wait to get my teeth into. The instructions are clear, and I liked how the recipes worked together as a collection - using bases covered earlier on to develop different flavours and bakes, for example.

Lay the dough rectangle on the work surface with a longer side facing you. Brush the surface of the dough with the melted butter, sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon, then lay the apple slices on top.I loved the illustrations and the use of photos. Was the choice of an old copy of “What Katy did” made on purpose? Kitty and Al each narrate their own memories of the time when Kitty began to suffer overwhelming mental health challenges and left school. Her parents and siblings all tried to support her recovery but Kitty was very withdrawn and anxious. Her father, Al, engaged Kitty briefly in a range of activities and when bread-making was introduced, something ignited in her and she began slowly to recover. Reading the two narratives side by side in the book is very moving and although not all readers of Breadsong will be interested in this part of the book, I thought it could be very helpful to people who may find themselves in a position of such emotional distress that they stop functioning. It gives hope to carers too. I have several times come across people who have opened bakeries, who have written about their mental health struggles and how baking bread was the therapeutic act that opened their path to recovery. Kitty describes with such clarity how, once she had established her sourdough starter named Ferdinand, she simply had to turn up to feed it and take care of it, eventually taking to sleeping in the kitchen with it. This provided a simple structure to her day, a scaffolding on which she could build as her recovery progressed. Breadsong is not only a book about human suffering and recovery and the place of bread making in this process, but it is also a tribute to the support of Kitty’s family, especially her father who accompanied her on this journey.