For Nancy DePas Reinertsen and Ralph Reinertsen, baking with Flour Power, Slow Food East End’s community powered baking co-operative, has been their way to connect to their community through food. They’ve been baking bread loaves every other week since the program began this past spring as a way for members of the community to provide home-baked loaves of bread to local food pantries.
Nancy and Ralph were both teachers before recently retiring, and they’ve both seen firsthand how many people in our communities can use a little extra help getting food on the table. Baking her four loaves of bread has become a regular weekend ritual, but it’s also become about more than just feeding others.
The way it works is this: anyone with a few hours to spare and an oven to bake can sign up to bake bread. Chef David Chaffin, board member and experienced baker, developed a simple, healthy recipe that everyone can bake. As Nancy says: “It’s a foolproof recipe.” Made with half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour, the bread has honey and molasses in it which not only add a delicious flavor but keep the bread shelf-stable – so it’s available to anyone coming to the food pantry even a few days after it’s been delivered.
“It nourishes the soul because I feel so good about doing this, and it nourishes the body,” she says, adding: “My house smells like heaven!”
Nancy has been baking for years with a sourdough starter she created 20 years ago using East End air to bring it to life. But she doesn’t need that to bake these loaves, and you don’t need to be an experienced baker to take part in Flour Power.
After watching the how-to video, and with the recipe in hand, home bakers across the East End of Long Island bake four loaves of bread every other Monday. Three of them will be picked up by a volunteer and brought to pantries like the North Fork Spanish Apostolate in Riverhead, and the fourth is for the baker to eat!
“Flour Power is a really wonderful way to connect to people,” says Nancy. We agree, and we think you will too. We hope you’ll join us in keeping the program going. Register today for the next baking cycle. We’ll provide the recipe; you’ll get to spend a few hours doing kneading bread dough and helping feed your community.