May 1st, 2025
Dear Panarians,
How quickly a new year feels as though it is nearly half-way through!
I have at last got a definite date for publication of my book, occurring in late June. See my heading BOOK NEWS, below.
From the forthcoming book this newsletter has two excerpts: the recipe for making those adorable little crunchy sticks from Italy, grissini, so suitable for the aperitivo; and a snippet from one of the book’s history chapters.
NEW DATES
May
- Sat 3rd — Woodfired Oven · 1 day
- Sat 10th — Open Afternoon – All Welcome
- Sat 17th — French Baking with Sourdough · 2 day
- Sat 31st — Basic Bread Baking · 1 day
June
- Tue 3rd — Sourdough Baking · 1 day
- Sat 14th — Pizza & Italian Baking · 1 day
July
- Sat 19th — Basic Bread Baking · 1 day
- Tue 29th — Italian Baking · 1 day
September
- Sat 6th — French Baking with Sourdough · 2 day
- Sat 20th — Baking Skills · 3 day
- Sat 27th — Woodfired Oven · 1 day
October
- Sat 4th — Pizza & Italian Baking · 1 day
- Tue 14th — French Baking · 1 day
- Sat 25th — Sourdough Baking · 1 day
November
- Sat 8th — Going Professional · 3 day
- Sat 22nd — Sweet Doughs Christmas Baking · 1 day
Book News
At last the book is fully written and edited. The editorial work was more demanding than expected, and it turned out that my original version was too large and had to be trimmed. Then illness occurred with the editorial team causing it all to stall towards the end of the year.
Now it is with the book designer, whose vision for it I am sure will make it a thing of beauty.
It will become available to buy during the last week of June, its actual ‘launch’ occurring on Friday June 27th.
My next newsletter – soon – will tell you about the launch event, and those who may wish to attend will be asked to do RSVP since there is limited space at the venue.
Information will be given about how to pre-order the book so that you can be sure to get your copy. That will involve a link to the publisher’s website.
A HISTORY SNIPPET from the book: the origin of our currency
An early form of law to control the pricing of bread was the Assize of Bread, an on-going series of statutes that created the laws regulating bread weights from the 13th century for over 500 years. Much information about mediaeval flour and bread types can be obtained by studying it.
While investigating the early phase of the Assize of Bread, I gained an insight into the origin of our currency and the establishment of the English pound, later to be called ‘pound sterling’. At the time of the Assize the silver penny was often the sole coinage used, and it had been the most popular form of currency for the preceding six centuries. Towards the end of the period sometimes the royal mints struck half-pennies and farthings. The penny was introduced during the 8th century by the great King Offa of Mercia. The pound mentioned above was a pound weight of silver, to be divided into 240 silver pennies (and 12 pennies made a shilling, with 20 shillings to the pound). The penny weight of silver had been calculated as 32 grains of wheat, dry, and taken from the middle of the ear. It stands as yet another example of the deep role that wheat has played in our civilisation.
BAKER’S TOPIC – MAKING ‘grissini’
Click here to learn more.
