There is evidence that 10-15,000 years ago, in order to preserve fruit and vegetables, we started to ferment, mill grain, bake and generally create longer lasting foods with improved tastes and textures. This was original food processing in a healthy and delicious way!

The 1970’s heralded the arrival of what is now termed as Ultra Processed Food which is something that we cannot create in a standard kitchen. For example some of the ingredients in this new type of food, are thickeners, emulsifi ers and gelling agents, which improve  www.dovelybakery.co.uk the sensory properties of food, and cannot be found on our kitchen shelves. Thinking about this biologically, our guts have not evolved as fast as ultra-processed food. Evolution takes hundreds of thousands of years and thousands of generations.

Our guts require a high fi bre, chemical-free and high plant diet. The human race is intended to be a forager, hunter and gatherer, living on roots, plants, fruit and nuts with some bonuses of eggs and meat if we manage to get them, plus occasions of fasting. Chemicals and refi ned sugar are not part of this. It is hardly a surprise that many of us suffer the effects of ill health stemming from an imbalanced gut. Our guts needs to have a healthy amount of benefi cial bacteria. Many of the chemical additives found in ultra-processed food kill these bacteria, leaving our immunity depleted and generally giving us ill health, short and long term.

The creation of sourdough bread has been practiced for 5000 years, with zero artifi cial additives, using a wild yeast starter (the Dovely Bakery one is named Breddie Mercury) which requires feeding to keep the wild yeast colony alive. This is instead of using commercial yeast. When this starter is mixed with the organic fl ours and water, and kept slightly warm, the activity creates air pockets in the dough which creates the rise. Everything is natural and the fl our is organic, the bread is high in fi bre and gives you slow release energy. The sugars and gluten naturally present in the wheat are reduced due to the fermentation process, which digests it in advance of the bake. This is a natural process, of course, which is of even greater benefi t to your health.

Our sourdough bread is baked on hot stones, as it always was, and is available to you on order, from Wednesday through to Saturday each week. Dovely Bakery also does Pop-Up Saturdays, every second Saturday of the month, where you can sample delicious bread, buns and much more. 

Dovely Bakery, The Granary, 35 High Street, Titchmarsh, NN15 3DF Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. • www.dovelybakery.co.uk