Bread of heaven just down the road from Paradise MI. Really!.

It's a long journey going nowhere.

Every nation has its own tastes. Britain likes its fry ups; sausage egg and bacon, fish and chips, France likes savoury; olives, cheese and wine. America likes sweet. I say that because when we go shopping we have a game called "Avoid the High Fructose Corn Syrup." It has a very distinctive taste, and it's in just about everything. I imagine Americans don't really taste it any more because the food manufacturers put it in just about everything. In fact, when it's not in a product that fact is proudly proclaimed on the label, as in certain makes of bread.

Not your usual product.

Now we have a particular problem with bread. Over here it's nearly always sweet. Which is fine if you want jam on it, but not so tasty as part of a beef sandwich. We've made our own bread for donkey's years, and have never used any sweetening in it. So hence, the "Avoid the High Fructose Corn Syrup" game is serious when buying bread. Rye bread is usually the best bet, but we've even found that too sweet on occasions.

The water in the plastic bag over the door is to stop flies. Apparently it works.

 So imagine our delight when we're rolling along the highway and we suddenly spot  a sign: "Homemade Sourdough Bread" We'd gone a mile or two before the penny dropped, so we executed an about turn (not easy when your vehicle's thirty five feet long) and returned to the vendors

Loaves ready to prove.

And what a treasure we found! Inside the unassuming door worked a couple who made proper bread because they liked it. They started off just selling a few, but then, not surprisingly, word got round and their business grew - too much in fact. They were supplying so many outlets that it stopped being fun, so they pulled in their horns and now sell at the local farmers market and to passing trade - like us.

Wholemeal in this batch.

 It goes without saying that we spent a long time discussing the fine details of bread making, and we went away very happily with three lovely loaves of hand made bread.

Cheese rolled into the ones underneath.

All kneaded by hand.

If we'd been bowling along the road intent on reaching our destination we'd never have turned back, and would have missed out on a delightful chance encounter. There's a metaphor for life there somewhere I think.

And yes, later we slathered butter on our wholemeal sourdough, closed our eyes and savoured the taste - of baked flour, water and salt. And it was very, very, good.

One of the better "No High Fructose Corn Syrup" loaves we bought from the supermarket contains:

Whole white wheat flour, unbleached enriched wheat flour (flour, malted barley flour, reduced iron, niacin, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, water, sugar, oats, yeast, wheat gluten, hazelnuts, soybean oil, salt, sunflower seeds, calcium propionate, monoglycerides, oatem, calcium sulfate, grain vinegar, citric acid, soy lecithin, calcium carbonate, nuts, whey, soy flour nonfat milk.
So after flour and water there's sugar. And it tastes horrible with vegemite.

http://www.exploringthenorth.com/northstar/bakery.html