Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives

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When this second half hour is up, remove the casserole from the oven - it will be very hot at this point. Remove the tea towel from the dough and lower it, still on the baking parchment, into the hot casserole. Using a sharp knife, make a slash across the top. Pour a couple of tablespoons of water around the dough. 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.”

Breadsong - How Baking Changes Lives - The Frugal Flexitarian Breadsong - How Baking Changes Lives - The Frugal Flexitarian

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. Kitty is clearly very focussed and determined and before long their small home was filled with an industrial oven and other bread making paraphernalia with flour dust everywhere. Within a year of so Kitty and Al had opened The Orange Bakery in their village of Watlington near Oxford and one day Al realised that he was no longer a teacher but a baker. 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.” Breadsong is everything I could ever wish for from a book. Kitty is a true inspiration. I see her passion, her writing and her baking and I can't help but be filled with joy. I can't wait to see what she does next Just when I thought I didn't have anything left to learn about bread, Kitty teaches me otherwise. Accessible, engaging and wonderfully wide rangingLay 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. We are,” agrees Kitty, who has inherited her father’s vivid red hair and blue eyes. “We’re called the Tiny Taits.” 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. 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. If you had told me at 14 when I couldn't even get out of bed with depression and anxiety that three years later I would have written a book I would never have believed you. But here it is - the story of the Orange Bakery. How I went from bed to bread and how my Dad went from being a teacher to a baker. You reading it means everything to me' Kitty Tait

Breaking Bread (Vol. 39) | Hymnary.org Breaking Bread (Vol. 39) | Hymnary.org

Breadsong is exactly the kind of cookbook I love to curl up with - uplifting, inspiring, heartfelt and with wonderful recipes to boot. The best recipes are filled with heart and this book is just thatWe have been following Kitty and Al's journey with wonder and amazement. It is proof, if one was needed, that a loaf of bread can have the power to heal, bring joy, bring together a family and a community and give life flavour and purpose. In this book they share with their stories and recipes, both are utterly delicious