Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives

Product Information

What’s that famous saying? Don’t cry over spilled milk? But you can cry over a freshly made loaf of bread. Having looked at many recipes these past two years as I got to grip with making sourdough bread I can 100% recommend Kitty's recipes. They are clear, simple and sensible. I have seen so many sourdough recipes elsewhere which have so many unnecessary steps in and make such a palaver of the process that you wonder why anyone bothers. 10/10 to Kitty for the clarity of her recipes. I am still only making basic sourdough loaves with the occasional foray into crumpets, bagels and doughnuts. Kitty's recipes have inspired me to try a lot more and I shall be heading into the territory of puff pastry, pains au chocolate and anything with a segment of a Terry's Chocolate Orange inside.

Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives: Kitty Tait Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives: Kitty Tait

Also I really like the form of the book, it being set up through Kitty's and Al's alternated writing, interspursed with pictures and drawings. A very lovely book to look at as well. The recipes are exiting, I don't know where to start first. Perhaps the marmite comfort loaf? I love marmite, such a shame it is not so big here in NL (I want marmite twiglets!!) 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.

Search

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!

Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives - Goodreads

We have known Kitty and Al for several years and they’ve supplied the restaurant since Day One, so we are thrilled to be hosting a launch for their new book in association with our friends at Wallingford Bookshop. Beginning at 6pm, the evening will be a friendly conversation with Kitty and Al, with plenty of opportunity to ask questions and sample some bread too! Kitty is the first to admit she has an obsessive streak. Not long ago, she “had a fling” with carrots: she was eating a bag a day, pretty much. Eventually her skin started turning orange, a harmless condition called carotenemia. “I thought you’d been using fake tan, which is very unlike you!” says her mum, Katie. “It really reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with the child who turned into a blueberry.” This book is such a wonderful read. It shows the deep bond of family, friends and the support of a community, and how much of an impact this can have on a person's life. The village of Watlington comes across as a wonderful place to live, with so many people helping on Kitty’s journey. The book is beautifully and simply written, with some beautiful hand drawn illustrations, and excellent photography. The story is inspiring, and shows how, with the right support you can get through most challenges in life. When you have finished the beautiful story, you then get to the recipes which were chosen to be included. They are wonderfully clearly laid out, with fantastic product photos, excellent and easy to follow instructions, and they all sound amazing. I think this book would make a wonderful gift for anyone in your life who enjoys food, and who has ever struggled with mental health. It is a perfect combination.

Collections

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. The book explores the slow movement from Kitty deciding she wanted to bake a loaf of bread - to wanting to make more, and therefore being allowed to use neighbouring ovens - to giving bread away because she was making so much, leading to a subscription service, then a pop-up, and then an actual real bakery and high street shop. Well, I say slow, but it all happened over about 2 years and that's just incredible. 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.” This is not just the story of Kitty and Al but her very understanding and supportive Mum and older brother and sister. And also all of the population of Watlington which seems like a wonderful community to live in. Serving suggestion Cut thinly, toasted and spread with a scraping of horseradish sauce, some smoked salmon and a couple of thinly sliced cornichons.