The Amish Have the Recipe for Sustainability

Last weekend a fellow parent of my son's soccer team offered me a

batch of Amish friendship bread. Being chosen as a 'friend' in real-life (vs social media land) still holds a special feeling to it and I was all too excited to take my zipper bag of 'starter dough' home and take care of it to produce bread.

As the week wore on, we each (my two youngest sons and I) took turns 'mashing' the dough on the specified day, and enjoyed adding the milk, flour, and sugar on the day specified. We shared in amazement that the recipe specifically says to NOT REFRIGERATE the dough, even though we had just added milk that we expected would curdle. Sure enough the next day, the bag showed signs of clumps, but we diligently followed the instruction to release the air from that bag that was caused by fermentation, and mashed the dough once again. Finally, the tenth day arrived and we were excited to bake our bread.

Dutifully, I followed the instructions by putting the dough a plastic bowl and added ingredients. The next step stopped me in my tracks...

measure out one cup each and place in four separate ziplock bags.

Three of the bags are to be passed on to "friends" while the fourth bag is to be retained and used again as a starter for the process to begin again.

In our day of technology, we speak many words to talk about sustainability... growth... innovation... In that moment, when measuring out one cup for each of my "friendship" bags, I realized that the Amish have perfected what we are just now trying to implement...In this simple recipe, they:

• foster sustainability: thinking of others' bread, before they prepare their own;
• establish a solution for a future problem as a 'way of doing business'; and
• nurture a 'network' of friendships.

As we ate our sweet, dense, moist coffee-cake-like bread, made from the dough remaining in the bowl after separating the portion, I considered the Amish and the lesson I learned from their Amish bread. And then I remembered one line in the recipe..."pass on the recipe to share it because only the Amish know how to make the starter dough." This reminded me that no matter how serene I imagined their simple life, they still found a way to ensure job security and their way of life.

My realization of this cleverness made the bread even sweeter:) I can't wait to pass on my friendship bread starters!