A new companion

Something lovely happened to day that made me realise it was high time I started to record some of the delights of this period of my life. An unusually-inviting envelope arrived in the post, addressed to Off the Rails Bakery in ornate bright blue lettering, bordered by strips of bee stickers. Inside I found a picture of Falling Foss, with a note that began, ‘Dear Sourdough Lady! A greeting from two great fans of your Russian Rye bread.’ It’s wonderful when you connect with other lovers of good bread. Sam and Saskia had been searching for good bread on their holiday from the Netherlands, when their hosts in Lealholm had told them about my little bakery. On their first visit, when they chose the rye loaf, I told them I had never understood until I made it how, in Russian novels I had read, an old woman would unwrap a loaf from a cloth and cut a slice from it on her lap. The next time they came, Sam told me he happened to be reading Anna Karenina and, just after hearing me talk about it, he had hit upon a passage describing just that! Later, I heard how Sam, long-time baker of his own bread, had been living opposite a derelict mill when Saskia had moved in. Initially she had found the view very gloomy, but her complaints ceased when some enterprising people had moved into the mill and renovated it, enabling Sam’s bread to benefit from the freshest-possible flour.

A companion is literally someone you share bread with. To my mind, some of the best companions are those with whom you share the love of Real Bread!