Anyone can enjoy a slice of the breadmaking action

Re your article on breadmaking (Britain’s bitter bread battle: what a £5 sourdough loaf tells us about health, wealth and class, 20 March), I am a very ordinary person living a very ordinary life in a semi-detached house, caring for my grandchildren while their parents work. I make a loaf of organic sourdough bread every day for less than £1. The flour comes from Shipton Mill and is delivered to my door for free.

Sourdough is the most well‑behaved bread. It is not demanding and does not need exact timings. The slowness of the rise means you can forget it and it does not sink: a grace-filled bread.

It is a habit and a way of life. My Christmas present to my eldest son and his wife was to make them a loaf of sourdough every week for a year. They take it home with them when they collect their son. Just another ordinary day living an ordinary life – with decent bread.
Catherine Hunt
Bristol

• Your article dismisses home baking as an option for those who want good quality bread, quoting Chris Young, the coordinator of the Real Bread Campaign, as saying: “Someone working 14-hour shifts is going to struggle.” The article goes on to say: “Ditto people with limited cooking facilities or skills, or no access to good ingredients.”

Have you not heard of electric breadmakers? We make two to three loaves a week in our 25-year-old Panasonic. It takes two minutes to set up and bakes a better loaf than any of our local supermarkets sell, though we usually buy flour and yeast from them. Using it requires no skill. The cost of ingredients and electricity used is about £1 per 500g loaf.
John Boaler
Calne, Wiltshire

• While it’s lovely to support your local baker, we all know secretly that nothing tastes better than squidgy cheap bread full of preservatives. I lived in Paris 30 years ago and always remember seeing Parisians queueing up outside the M&S food hall to buy their lunchtime sandwiches.
Helen Clutton
Bristol

• In the 1950s, my auntie would make bread go further by leaving it until the next day. You could get more slices from a stale loaf. Bread that was too stale was put under the tap and then into the oven for crusty “fresh” bread. It really works.
Lesley Noblett
Cambridge

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