Slow rise: a bread making adventure

by Robert Penn

A tale of rediscovery and a celebration of the everyday miracle of homemade bread

Over the course of a year, Robert Penn learns how to plant, harvest, thresh and mill his own wheat, in order to bake bread for his family. In returning to this pre-industrial practice, he tells the fascinating story of our relationship with bread: from the domestication of wheat in the Fertile Crescent at the dawn of civilization, to the rise of mass-produced loaves and the resurgence in homebaking today.

Gathering knowledge and wisdom from experts around the world - farmers on the banks of the Nile, harvesters in the American Midwest and Parisian boulangers - Penn reconnects the joy of making and eating bread with a deep appreciation for the skill and patience required to cultivate its key ingredient. This book is a celebration of the millennia-old craft of breadmaking, and how it is woven into the story of humanity.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cookbooks, History, Food

256 pages, Hardcover

Published May 26, 2020

About the author

Rob Penn is an author, journalist, TV presenter and cyclist. He’s ridden a bicycle most days of his adult life, in over fifty countries on five continents.

Reviews

[Brian Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

One proviso: I'm giving this book four stars because I enjoyed reading it despite its irritating flaws. It's a bit like a film I watched the other day in which an American actor did one of the worst Scottish accents I've ever heard. I still managed to enjoy the film, but I had to work at ignoring it.

In Slow Rise, Robert Penn provides a memoir of his attempt to produce a year's worth of bread for his family using traditional wheat varieties he has grown and converted into flour himself. This may sound a bit like one of those amusing self-challenge books that Tony Hawks does so well, and there certainly is an element of humour in Penn's self-deprecating comments when things go wrong. But here this is also combined with some really interesting material on the biology and nature of wheat and the technical details of the bread-making process.

Along the way, Penn visits various growers of ancient wheats (and factory-scale harvesters), talks with flour and bread fanatics and samples a whole range of exotic bread types before settling on his own wholemeal sourdough, made from a combination of emmer wheat, one of the main standards a couple of millennia ago, and a Welsh wheat variant that would have been popular in medieval times.

As well as finding a lot to like in Penn's storytelling and the occasional, cosmetic advert style 'now the science bit' (my label, not his), I was convinced by his argument that modern white bread is far more likely to be responsible for some of today's digestive problems than gluten, and that going for quality bread made with good wholemeal flour is well worth spending extra on. However, I can't entirely ignore the two main irritations.

The first is that Penn very much portrays a 'back to nature', caring for the environment ethos, taken sometimes to ridiculous extremes when, for example, he ploughs a field with a horse-drawn hand plough. Yet he's even worse than Brian Cox at jetting off all over the world to have a cameo appearance in the wheat fields of middle America or to search out an ancient grain in Turkey. I find a degree of hypocrisy in speaking up for thinking more of the environment (which is of genuine importance) while flying across the world. The other issue I have is Penn repeatedly refers to organic flour as if being organic makes any difference to the quality, rather than being a marketing tool to charge more. Where he makes a good case for the benefits of good quality wholemeal and lack of additives, he makes no case for organic (which is hard to do for a system so embedded with woo and lacking evidence of benefits), but simply assumes it's better.

Despite the genuine irritants (a bit like those additives in many loaves) this remains a book I'm glad I read and can happily recommend.

[Rob Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Penn sets out the history of agriculture and bread making. He learns how to use pre-industrial techniques to grow and produce his own family’s bread. The most intriguing part was the history of agriculture and bread making. Less so the author’s own bread making journey. He travels frequently, which is a little environmentally concerning, seeking out wild wheat and meeting growers and producers of flour and bread. All in all it was okay.

[Jane Shambler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not what I expected. It's basically a history of bread making.
I found it a bit preachy.
Guess it was informative.

[John Oswald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few years ago Thomas Thwaites made an electric toaster from scratch in a bid to demonstrate just how far we have come from primary crafts, and just how mechanised and industrialised our society has become. Robert Penn’s journey through bread making tells a similar tale. My mum bought this for me after I’d spent lockdown doing the inevitable middle class thing of baking sourdough bread. But this is no guide to baking (though Penn clearly has a Dan Lepard style book in him); instead it’s Penn’s account of sourcing an original heritage grain from where he lives in Wales, ploughing and sowing a field himself, harvesting, threshing, winnowing and then grinding his own flour, and only then baking bread…. And he does it by investigating origin stories across many cultures of each step in bread baking. Not only to understand the history of techniques and how they’ve solidified and industrialised over the years, but also to grasp the cultural phenomenon of bread and bread making and all the intricacies of its production. It’s a beautiful read, eloquently explained. And you can practically taste the loaf that comes out of the oven at the end, rejoicing in Penn’s fascinating journey.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author Robert Penn sets out the history of agriculture and bread making. He learns how to use pre-industrial techniques to grow and produce his own family’s bread. This is a book rich in detail, I particularly enjoyed the opening chapters about various breads made and eaten in different countries around the world.

Penn emphasises bread should be made using the best natural ingredients, and argues commercially produced white bread might be the culprit responsible for today’s digestive issues, rather than an issue with gluten. It’s a convincing argument too.

As others have highlighted, there is rather a disconnect between the author’s environmental concerns and the amount of travelling by air and road he does, to seek out wild wheat and meet growers of wheat and producers of flour and bread...

Overall I found the historical and geographical detail much more interesting than the author’s own bread making journey.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read a copy of Slow Rise.

[Violet]

Wonderful! I don't bake bread myself but live with someone who does, and I found it fascinating and very enjoyable. Robert Penn goes through the history and the science of bread; while I knew a bit, I learned so much as well. I had no idea bread was so old and I found the archeological facts and the history just incredible to read about. I do agree with other reviewers commenting that for someone so passionate about traditions, nature and the quality of soil... It is odd that he travels to so many places to research bread, maybe his book would have had just as much value without going to Turkey or Israel himself for example to talk about the origins of bread... But that could not spoil my enjoyment of the book.

Free ARC sent by Netgalley

[Colette Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all good quests, this one starts with a simple idea. To make the perfect bread in today's fast paced, fast food, white cardboard bread days. The author on rediscovering artisan bread, sets out to find the perfect ancient grain to grow in the climate. It leads him around the world and to growing his own grain in a borrowed firld.

The book describes the benefits of ancient grains and wild sowing. it steers us away from pestocides and genetically modified crops. It in fact leads us back to the single most improtant fact , food is fuel and the better the fuel , the more lovingly prepared, makes for health improvements.

Thank you Netgalley for a free e-copy of this book in return for an honest review.

[Zee Monodee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but a bit pedantic at times. Wasn't really drawn into either the history of bread and the author's quest to find it out, or his pursuit to make his own bread from scratch (by growing the wheat - or emmer, was it emmer?). Think this might have been because the writing jumped from his travels to his agricultural pursuits, to history, to cultural references about bread - and it all jumped around, which made it a bit hard to follow and really sit down at any point with what he was trying to say at said point.
Still, it is an interesting take on bread and the part it's played and still plays in our lives all over the world

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, BBC Radio 4 for serialising this book a couple of weeks ago prior to the Shipping Forecast! It was so interesting that I had to download it for my Kindle and read it. Just finished this fascinating book today. Not only the writer’s own efforts to grow wheat and then harvest and mill it to make his own bread, but he takes us on an adventure around the world and gives us the history of both wheat and bread in the process. Would definitely recommend!

[I Read, Therefore I Blog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Penn is a journalist, woodsman and author. This is a thoroughly researched, meditative account of his experience of baking his own bread from scratch - from growing his own wheat to making his own oven. It’s a fascinating mix of memoir, travelogue (as he meets people involved in baking bread), how-to manual with some history, science and anthropology all thrown in too. You won’t look at your weekly loaf in the same way after reading it.

[Holly Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Umm, a bit of a book of two halves for me. I loved the parts focusing on the history of agriculture and bread making, but my attention really wandered during the parts about the authors quest to grow and harvest his own wheat.
However, that's my personal opinion and others might find these bits equally, if not more, fascinating.

[Alfi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sourdough baking is always my passion, besides making desserts.
I always like to know more about sourdough. I bake sourdough so many times already. But still, this world is new to me. I want to know more about how others do it. And every time I found out something new. This book too. Always something new that I haven't known before. I will try this.

[Neil Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting journey through the history of wheat and bread. I'm a keen amateur baker but have mostly used generic supermarket flour. This book has piqued my interest in trying out some of the more unusual wheat flours from small millers.

[JoJo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting elements, but for me not a 4 because I found less interest in the individuals story - but that's just me.

[Chris Edmondson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and inspiring, really enjoyable and informative read.

[Ivan Monckton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of bread making from Prehistoric times to the present, fascinating for the most part, though the last 2/3 chapters about the author baking his own bread were somewhat tedious

[Nick Swarbrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll come back to it, honest.

[Sandra Hooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history of bread and bread making

[MJ West · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, bit pedestrian and a bit preachy on some things presented as facts that might only be opinion

[Stamatis Remoundos]

Nice adventure in the breadmaking world

[Gareth Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fun book. A quick read and one that always gets me into the mood to bake bread

[Steve Chilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Penn continues with his obsessions. Now it is a loaf of bread (after a bike and a tree). He describes the history of agriculture and baking bread. He also learns how to use pre-industrial techniques to grow wheat and produce his own bread. A good read for fans of bread making and who also like reading and discovering the history of things.

[Caroline 'relaxing with my rescue dogs' · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not what I was expecting it was more of a story on bread but fascinating never the less. It was a very relaxing and informative read.

I learnt a lot.

I was given an advance copy by the publisher and netgalley but the review is entirely my own