Thousand Bites of Bread is a project dedicated to teaching about better bread choices. I do this through writing about farmers and millers who are striving for a better food system that integrates rotational and cover crops into sustainable practices. More importantly, I teach how to use these grains to make great bread at home.

Why did I take on this endeavor? My oldest child struggled with digestive problems for a few years and a doctor suggested we give up wheat. I come from a Levantine, bread-at-every-meal family and was not keen to cave to the latest health scare. Instead of taking bread off of our table entirely, I opted for learning how to make slowly fermented bread with four simple ingredients. Now thriving teens, both my children relish our daily bread.

This is a record of how I educated myself about bread. I searched for ways to make better grain choices, and how to bake bread with long sourdough fermentations. Here, I share what I have learned (and continue to learn) along the way. This endeavor has helped me feed my family the very best, and I hope it does the same for you.

Each month, I also publish what breads I am making, and I link to the farms and mills that provide the excellent building blocks of my bread.

Other things I offer:

• For a basic, no-knead recipe to get you started, try my Communal Table Bread recipe. You can find an easy downloadable version, along with a timing sheet, here.
• If you would like to be part of my mailing list where I send out periodic recipes and news from the world of grain and flour, please go here.
• You can buy my book Mama Bread: The Art of Naturally-Leavened Whole Grain Bread At Home (released December 2023). It’s a collection of my most beloved bread recipes that I’ve developed over many years of home baking and teaching others.
• I teach a class through Airbnb that takes you through each stage of the bread baking process.
• The Flour Hour is an on-line experience that I offer through Airbnb that teaches a rundown of milling throughout history, as well as helping you understand flour choices today.
• I have a shop where you can buy books, classes, and even my dried sourdough starter.
• Join my online community of home bakers interested in nourishing and delighting friends and family with bread.

Our Daily Bread
By Adrian J.S. Hale

Now you are a microcosm
of the tumbling
universe, carried by
time’s debris to sustain
and delight.
I dip my finger in,
cradle you with my senses
as you reach for me

with your sweet
malty scent—
Your grasses
and oceans
and a million
living molecules
that feed and transform
and become.

Someday we will cut
into this, slice away
thick hearty pieces,
take bites we think
we can swallow,
nourish our heartbreak—
heels of crust waiting
to be gnawed.

We’ve already yielded
to this mystery of holding
together and pushing outward,
the quotidian balance
our bodies allow
after the crush of furrows,
our selves worked
until ready for fire.

Take this—
a thousand bites
of bread and devour
long eons of toil
and hunger, morning’s
darkness, awakened
in wild necessity for
a taste of you.