So, you want to start a revolution… There’s a wonderful meme (yes, we’re cool, we know what memes are😂) that goes something like this: Get married. Have children. Go to church. Be a rebel. The very idea of not being totally dependent on our government, three-letter organizations, big pharma, and big food is unthinkable to a subsect of our society. It’s not our fault, though; most of us grew up in a world where the bigger organizations and systems could, to some extent, be trusted. Our parents believed it, and our grandparents believed it. We are a product of our upbringings when it comes to who we trust, all the way down to the food we eat—including bread. 

But I don’t think we have to tell you that the age of blindly trusting the “experts” is coming to an end. We see it all around us; increased homeschooling numbers, more people switching out toxic products with clean ones, a lower trust in government, and loud cheers when someone says Make America Healthy Again. Oh, and more people are making their own bread! 

Bread & Revolution

So how does bread relate to revolution? The simple fact is that our big organizations and overlords in the government rely heavily on us being reliant. They can only flourish when we are subject to them and wholly dependent on them. They’ll only change and fall if we learn to say “no” and become independent from them.

Store-bought bread is manufactured in bulk, with pesticide saturated wheat, and a laundry list of ingredients we were never meant to eat. The food pyramid tricked us, the food producers lied, the government all but criminalized the farmer. But if you make your own bread. If you start with pesticide-free grains (or the closest you can get), if you combine ingredients by hand, if you stop for a moment and let it rise, and then bake it to crispy perfection and spread it with lots of butter, then you can thumb your nose at a system that never had your health or best interest at heart. 

Be a rebel. Bake bread.

Reclaim Your Food

Making our own bread is a small but mighty baby step towards food independence. It’s also a simple way to reclaim our food. So much is out of our control, and our food is increasingly becoming more and more poisonous because we have lost our say in what happens to it from seed to grocery store. Three quarters of the time, we have no idea where our food even came from, let alone what it’s come into contact with. Buying your own wheat berries, grinding your own flour, and hand making your own bread puts 90% of the bread process right back into your hands. You become the bread boss instead of the government or a company blinded by bottom lines.

Survival

Bread equals survival. Nearly every culture has a history of bread. While it’s not the most nutritious food you can eat, it offers carbs, is a great vehicle for nutritious butter, and is therefore a staple born from eras of starvation and economic hard times. Simple ingredients made bread a “poor man’s” go-to and all of this boils down to the fact that knowing how to make bread, alongside starting a fire, is a vital survival skill. 

Bread Community

Don’t you just love the person who hands you a loaf of bread or offers to split their dinner roll with you? They’re the best! In the Bible, we read about the Last Supper, and other key times where Christ broke bread with His companions. Even 2,000 years ago, bread was part of community—and that hasn’t changed a bit. When you learn to make bread, odds are, you join a Facebook group to get advice. Or you ask your mom or grandma to teach you. When you make bread, you can get your children involved and gift it to new neighbors, new moms, and anyone recovering from surgery. It’s also the ultimate contribution to family and friend dinners. 

Over a loaf of bread, you can build community and connect to the people around you.

Excuse for Dinner

If you really want to encourage community and reconnect to the people you love, host a dinner! Make it all about the bread, or just be sure it’s on the menu. Making bread is a great excuse to invite everyone over for good food and conversation. 

Bread is an Opportunity for Prayer & Patience

Bread is a great opportunity for prayer. Nearly every step of making bread requires a moment of waiting. Wait for the yeast to get foamy, wait for the dough to rise, wait for the bread to bake. In all these quiet moments of waiting, we’re given an opportunity to pray. 

What’s more, it’s a great time to practice your patience. Bread cannot be rushed. For anyone who watches The Great British Bake Off, we know the cardinal sin of bread baking is under-proving it. Lord have mercy if you under prove. As with anything worth doing, bread is worth doing well, with patience. Take your time, go slowly and intentionally, and let it rise. 

So, you say again “what does bread have to do with a revolution?” Our response: it’s an opportunity for you to do all the things your government, three-letter organizations, and big pharma overlords do not want you to do. It’s pushing back, in a small way, against the systems that want to control us. Make this one skill your own little act of rebellion in a world that wants to control you and keep you down. 

But beyond that, making your own bread and sharing it with those around you is a way to resurrect and win back the American culture—of love, patriotism, and self-sufficiency—that has been slowly slipping away over the past few decades. 

Start a revolution. Save America. Bake bread.

For some of our favorite bread recipes check out our recipes page on AmericanMom!