This past Wednesday noon the men’s fellowship at College Mennonite Church was favored by a unique lecture by Rachel on baking bread. She didn’t just talk about bread baking, but she made bread before us.
Rachel is a daughter of long-term Mennonite missionaries in Belgian where she learned to appreciate quality bread made by real bakers.
The missionary family lived in a large house on the square of a Belgian town. A baker on the square made bread and marketed it to the community, including the missionaries and the youth camp they hosted in their their house from time to time.
With many tears and fond memories Rachel has left her Belgian home behind for a new home in Goshen. Through time, marriage, and mothering Rachel with a small staff, low budget, and faithful clientele now has her own bakery connected to Goshen’s Farmer’s Market.
As the old fool understood it, yeast in the air turns flour and water into sourdough. Rachel disclosed that she has her own mother lump of sourdough that is thirteen years old.
I came home from the Men’s Fellowship to discover that Eldon by fortuity had purchased a loaf of walnut sourdough bread from Rachel’s bakery. To my taste the flavor of the bread was unmatched.
Rachel ended her lecture with spiritual and practical learning gained from baking bread. This reminded the Old Fool of the place in the Bible of leavened and unleavened bread and leaven.
I have always felt that baking bread was a holy experience and as one that made bread for many years for my family, it many times turned into a meditative quiet time as I kneaded the bread by hand.
I wondered who would comment on the Rachel’s Bakery post and was not surprised that it turned out to be you!
My mother baked bread when I was a boy but when we kids tasted bakery bread we preferred that. For shame! Today, I’d like to have changed that.
Hmm… I remember encountering Rachel in the early 90’s while I was at Goshen College. Appreciated the post…