The Covid-19 Challenge

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“We have family meals again, we spend time with our kids, we bake, we exercise…” says every positive family meme showing up on Facebook amongst the crazy time that is the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the village, someone dies, there’s a flood, a fire, a tragedy, and we draw together. 

“The village pulls together during hard times,” we are reminded by everyone we pass on the road.

            My younger daughter is currently sitting about five feet away from me (closer than the recommended 6, but hey, we’re all being quarantined together in this family) on the window sill smiling at me as I write and giving her mom high-fives as mom runs circles up and down our stairs (my turn is coming up and there is a blizzard going on outside right now).

Mom Running Stairs: Who needs a fancy gym membership with kids who like to "help."

            Though none of us have been perfect home-schooling parents in the midst of this (most of us are at least three generations out of practice), we have all spent more time with our kids working the alphabet, reading books, doing art, teaching our kids how to cook, teaching math how we learned it than we have during any other part of their lives.

Ellen loves her home economics class.

            In Italy, neighbors are singing with each other from their balconies unable to visit.  In the United States, we are face timing with neighbors, family members across the country, and sending texts just checking up on each other.  In warmer climates neighbors are setting up happy hours where they sit distant from each other having wine and watching their kids play in separate yards.  We are setting time aside in our stores to allow elders and those at risk to shop while the stores are not so crowded.  Mostly we are just setting aside time.

            Those of us who cannot stay at home because our jobs are deemed essential are being publicly appreciated for the first time in years.  Nurses, grocery store clerks, truckers, and teachers are all being hailed as superheroes who should receive raises at the very least.  We are realizing that the people we walked by everyday while they were just doing their jobs are much more important than we ever thought.

            What is going to happen once we get through this?  We will, after all, get through this just as our ancestors passed through the bubonic plague and Spanish flu.  The economy will get going again, we will go back to work, the stock market will rebound, but what will we do?  Will it be business as usual? 

            This is not a time for New Year’s resolutions.  It is a time for change of habit and change of heart.  I am going to see the people in my community as people and care for them as my neighbors regardless of political party.  I am going to continue to pray for my neighbors, community, and country.  And, I am going to continue to serve others not knowing what burdens they may be carrying.

            I’m also going to challenge you to do the same.  In the comments below, leave a little message of what you are doing in the midst of the pandemic to serve your family, neighbors, or community.  Then, if you feel so moved and challenged, make a pledge for what you will continue to do after the danger is gone.  Then challenge others.

            Villages, after all, pull together in times of tragedy and challenge.

Family project while out on "recess."

                       

Einkorn: A return to gluten bread.

“I’m about to introduce you to a miracle product…”

Einkorn bread: flour, water, and salt.

            I always feel like when I talk about Einkorn that I am in some kind of an infomercial.  Just so you know, I don’t own stocks in any companies that sell einkorn, I don’t own a farm that grows einkorn (yet), I don’t sell einkorn baked goods (yet), but it is something that has really helped my family.

            Shortly after we got married, Myra started showing symptoms that were in the flu/cold category.  She was often fatigued, congested, and got headaches.  I was not willing to believe that it was an allergy to me or that her frequent naps were an avoidance strategy.  So, we started ruling things out.

            A mold testing kit proved that our trailer that we were living in was perhaps not the healthiest environment for us.  Her symptoms could have been the result of black mold and maybe I wasn’t reacting due to my years of allergy shots.   We moved.  We carted all of our stuff the twenty feet into a newly refurbished apartment, and somehow, the symptoms followed us.

            Years passed with no relief.  Myra headed off to grad school in Juneau where she ran into a fellow grad student who had suffered from similar symptoms.

            “I’m allergic to gluten,” she explained to Myra.  “I am completely gluten free now, and I don’t have any more problems.”

            While at school, Myra changed diets with amazing results.  She came home recharged and excited about her discovery.

            “So, I have gone gluten free,” she exclaimed with excitement to me.

            “Huh,” I said pulling two fresh loaves of bread from the oven, “what exactly does that mean?”

            “Well, I just can’t eat anything with gluten in it,” she responded.

            “Like what?” I asked as I began mixing up a batch of sourdough pancakes for the next morning.

            “Stuff with wheat,” Myra said nonchalantly.

            You know what has wheat in it?  Everything.  Everything has wheat in it.  Pasta, bread, cereal, flour tortillas, a lot of processed foods (we didn’t eat many of those anyway), pretty much everything we ate had some form of gluten in it.  I went into mourning.

            We began experimenting with gluten free products… some we just threw out and ate the box instead since the packaging was more palatable.  We bought blends of gluten free flour (some are really good I have to mention that in fairness) and it was like trying to make bread out of wallpaper paste.  Pie crusts fell apart and could not be rolled without sticking to the rolling pin for eternity.  Myra’s chocolate chip cookies (the best in the world) were a thing of the past… that whole better to love and lost than not to love at all idea… yeah, that’s dumb.

            Gluten free products have come a long way, and I have to admit, it is possible to make a pretty decent pizza crust gluten free, but it still does not quite have the right texture.

            Then came my binge watching of food documentaries on Netflix.  I don’t recommend this unless you want to completely change how you are eating.  I came across one entitled Sustainable that focused on organic agriculture in contrast to our current factory farm methods.  One of the guys on there was growing something called Einkorn and a Chicago based baker was using it to bake breads that people who have gluten allergies could digest without suffering any symptoms they did when they ate modern bread.

            Einkorn is considered an ancient wheat (quite possibly the bread Christ broke at the last supper was made from Einkorn) and it has never been hybridized.  Don’t confuse hybridization with Genetically Modified.  They are two different animals.  We have Labrador retrieves due to hybridization after all, and any duck hunter will tell you that is a good and natural thing.

            Hybridization in animals and plants is basic selective genetics.  Plants and/or animals that have traits that are preferred are allowed to reproduce.  That explains why labs have webbed feet and a water-repellent coat.  Generations of dogs that demonstrated these characteristics were bred to bring about future generations characterized by those specific traits.

            Genetically modified organisms come from the lab.  No mood music is needed to bring about these altered offspring (sorry Barry Manilow).  Scientists inject information at the genetic level from a fish into a tomato and bam, you have a tomato that does not bruise in shipment.  No offense was meant to geneticists in the simplification of this process, but that is enough of a gist for this blog.

            So, technically speaking, modern day wheat farmers are not modern day Prometheuses (Prometheusi?) creating new life in a lab.  They are like horse breeders trying to produce the fastest horse through selective breeding.  In this case though, wheat has been bred to be uniform, quick growing, bulk producing, easily harvested grain.

            A side result, however, is that modern wheat is not as healthy of a food source as ancient wheats like Einkorn.  Modern wheat has a lower protein content and a higher starch content (carbohydrates).  According to Bartolucci, “Einkorn contains roughly 30 percent more protein than modern wheat and more protein than any other grain, while having 15 percent less starch…”

            In case I am starting to sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher to you, Einkorn is good for you in comparison to modern wheat.

            So, I figured, if it is better for those with gluten allergies (everyone really) than it must have less gluten.  That thought pattern is incorrect though.  Anyone who has baked with “regular” modern wheat understands that gluten is what sticks the dough together.  The longer einkorn is kneaded, the stickier it becomes (aka develops gluten).  It comes back to the protein though.  The higher protein lower starch make-up of the gluten is a more suitable food source for the human body to digest.  Our bodies break down this protein better than the starch in modern wheat.

            I googled sources of Einkorn flour and came across Jovial foods (I’ll put a link to their website in resources section on the sidebar).  Jovial was started by a husband and wife team whose daughter was allergic to gluten.  She (Carla Bartolucci) began experimenting with Einkorn, and her daughter’s symptoms went away.  I ordered enough flour to do a little experimentation and a cook book.

We have pretty much loved everything we have tried from this book.

            This is the only cook book that I have ever read and found myself getting emotional.  Some may say that is reason enough to revoke my man card, but I feel I still have enough credit on it to overcome a few tears shed in reading about how Einkorn could possibly help my girls (Ellen struggles from eczema which can be exacerbated by modern wheat). 

            I began the week-long process of establishing a sourdough starter (fermented grains are also thought to be more easily digested) so that I could bake bread.  The flour, though when mixed with water is stickier than sin, is a joy to bake with.  It has a very fine texture that feels incredibly smooth when worked.  The dough, when kneaded, becomes silky.  The first loaf I baked was made up of very few ingredients all of which I could pronounce: flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter (fermented flour with wild yeast activated in water).

            I put it in the oven and hoped it would be the answer.  Myra must have felt like a guinea pig as she took her first bite.

            “So,” I looked at her as though she would grow a second head, “how do you feel?”

            “Fine,” she said taking a second bite, “this is really good.”

            Einkorn lends a little bit of a nutty flavor to bread which is very pleasing.

            “Any symptoms?”

            “Jason, I’ve had two bites and it has been less than one minute,” she sighed.

            “Okay, so I’ll ask in another couple minutes,” this was a scientific study after all.

            A couple hours passed and no symptoms.  Other slices of bread, and Myra was not congested or fatigued.  I made sourdough cinnamon rolls (the cookbook has a recipe for the best cinnamon rolls I have ever eaten), chocolate cupcakes (egg free and dairy free for our family), pancakes, pizza, and crackers (didn’t even realize I could make those at home).  Each time Myra tasted something new, I would internally take note and look for symptoms, but she felt fine, and the flavor was better than the modern wheat recipes I used to make.

            One of my fears with going back to bread was that I would gain a bunch of the weight back that I had recently lost, but the higher protein content and lower carbohydrate content have meant that I have stayed exactly the same.  My body must be getting more of what it needs from this bread without all the junk it does not need.

            We do still eat gluten free foods.  We have a gluten free pancake recipe we like, I make gluten free cornbread, our spaghetti is gluten free, but we finally have good bread back.  There is a reason that Christ chose bread as he drove home the message of the last supper, and I doubt it is just because he had an extra loaf handy. 

            I am not a doctor or a dietician.  I won’t promise you that Einkorn will work for you, and if you have been diagnosed with celiac disease, I highly recommend you talk with your doctor before doing your own experimentation.  I will say it was the answer for us.  No more gluten allergies associated with bread, and Ellen’s skin is clear.  Baking is a joy again.

What would we do without help in the kitchen?

Bartolucci, Carla. Einkorn Recipes For Nature’s Original Wheat. Clarkson Potter, 2015.