Most of us can remember being told, in Sunday school or RE lessons, something along the lines that "the Bible isn't a single book; it's 66 different books, including history books, poetry books, and books of moral instruction". Very rarely did that list include "cookery books". Nevertheless, the good people at Food for Life Baking Co Inc of Corona, California have not let themselves be restricted by such narrow hermeneutics. In the noble tradition of literal biblical interpretation, they are proud to supply "Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread" to a health food shop near you. The orange wrapper explains that, in chapter 4 and verse 9, Ezekiel instructs us to "Take also unto thee wheat and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it...". And that is precisely what they have done. The result is a product which the wrapper proudly declares reveals the "miracle of the sprouts", which apparently means that "this unique bread is made from freshly sprouted live grains and contains absolutely no flour".
Needless to say, when my family and I discovered Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread in our local health food shop, we couldn't resist the temptation to try it. An early warning should have sounded when it took all four of us to move a loaf from the shelf into our trolley. But, undeterred, we took it home and began to work our way through. Several weeks - and dental appointments - later, we had the loaf surrounded, and within a couple of months we had polished it off.
So, ye of little faith, if perchance you are planning to bake some bread and you are searching for a recipe, you could do a lot worse than turning to the Good Book, and the prophet Ezekiel in particular. After all, according to the folks at Food for Life, "this biblical bread truly is the staff of life". Amen to that.
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