Bread has a long history. It allowed the Egyptians to create civilization, the Romans perfected bread and it was a staple allowing their legions to conquer the known world. Bread shouldn’t be boring, dry or full of air. Real bread is rich, moist and hearty; the perfect stuff for conquering the world. In the past, lighter breads were preferred because it was harder to cut them with impurities, and may be why we still today prefer white bread, even though darker whole grains are healthier. During World War II and the need to transport bread across the world in large quantities so the process of industrialization was speeded up and softeners and preservatives were added to the loaves to give them a longer shelf life. We also added nutrients and chemicals to make the bread healthier because we had

stripped out most of the natural nutrition. This ultimately lead, of course, to Wonder Bread. Have you read the list of ingredients in there? Real bread needs to only have five ingredients: fresh-ground flour, water, yeast, honey and salt. When we moved from Seattle this was one of the only downfalls of Bremerton, the lack of excellent bread. This has changed; Luigi’s has opened at 2712 15th St. in Bremerton. Fantastic wonderful breads are now baked in Bremerton. If you want to fight commercial industrialization and conquer the world yourself, put down that plastic bag and the encased loaf of chemicals and buy a loaf of life-afirming bread.

GRAHAM SKELLY

Bremerton