Thanks for sharing the video. Reminds me of a baking and pastry program they set up in a maximum security prison in Padua. Here's a link to the first of four youtube videos on the subject:
Unfortunately, the videos are in Italian but you can see the level of skill the inmates have acquired. The colomba they make look as good as any you might buy from an artisanal master. These are all great rehabilitative programs that should have more widespread implementation in correctional facilities.
Every bread baker I know loves the craft for their own reason, but I think that we all find it somehow informs or reinforces values we hold on a deep level. It reminds me of beekeeping in that respect--yes, the honey has the taste of sunshine, but nurturing the colony is its own reward. The reason I weigh water down the gram (much to the amusement of my friends) isn't simply to make sure I follow a formula and get a predictable result, but to ensure that everything that has gone into the loaf--the precious topsoil, the gift of the sun, the farmer's long harvest day, the miller's science, the work of my own hands, even the yeast's sacrifice--becomes more than the sum of its parts, something that does honor to its long origin, and nurtures and gladdens the hearts of my family and friends.
So, that's your mystical, woo-woo explanation of why I make bread. I should also add that Hamelman's whole-wheat sourdough, tin-baked, then toasted and slathered with butter and honey, is just terrifically yummy at midnight.
Thanks for posting!
Paul
a great story about 2nd chances and lives worth saving.
and it does good work in those lives, doesn't it?
Great story.
Thanks for sharing.
Michael
Thanks for putting this here. Sounds like a great program. The 'staff of life' giving those people a new chance in life. How appropriate.
Janet
Thanks for sharing the video. Reminds me of a baking and pastry program they set up in a maximum security prison in Padua. Here's a link to the first of four youtube videos on the subject:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MFP2IcAc7E
Unfortunately, the videos are in Italian but you can see the level of skill the inmates have acquired. The colomba they make look as good as any you might buy from an artisanal master. These are all great rehabilitative programs that should have more widespread implementation in correctional facilities.
Every bread baker I know loves the craft for their own reason, but I think that we all find it somehow informs or reinforces values we hold on a deep level. It reminds me of beekeeping in that respect--yes, the honey has the taste of sunshine, but nurturing the colony is its own reward. The reason I weigh water down the gram (much to the amusement of my friends) isn't simply to make sure I follow a formula and get a predictable result, but to ensure that everything that has gone into the loaf--the precious topsoil, the gift of the sun, the farmer's long harvest day, the miller's science, the work of my own hands, even the yeast's sacrifice--becomes more than the sum of its parts, something that does honor to its long origin, and nurtures and gladdens the hearts of my family and friends.
So, that's your mystical, woo-woo explanation of why I make bread. I should also add that Hamelman's whole-wheat sourdough, tin-baked, then toasted and slathered with butter and honey, is just terrifically yummy at midnight.