Proctor School students learn the rise and fall of bread baking
Cara Spilsbury
TOPSFIELD | Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at the Proctor School were entertained at a recent event by doing somethig most people would find as exciting as watching paint dry.
They watched bread rise.
They sat mesmerized by Paula Gray of the King Arthur Flour Company of Norwich, Vt., the oldest food company in the country, during the Life Skills Bread Baking Program that the company offers free to area schools.
Gray was the company's equivalent of Emerill Lagasse or the Naked Chef, as she made the subtleties of baking bread fun and engaging to her audience.
As part of the program, the students will not only get to make their own loaf of bread at home with their families, but they will also make an additional loaf to donate to Our Neighbor's Table, a food pantry in Amesbury.
"We have a really neat chance to do something great with this flour," said PTO enrichment co-chair Susan Mellinger at the start of the assembly.
Two students helped with the stirring, pouring and kneading as Gray divulged the secrets to making a delicious loaf of bread.
"If you don't add salt, do you know what's going to happen?" Gray asked the cafeteria full of future bakers. "You'll have beautiful bread that tastes like a Styrofoam cup."
After the program, every student got to take home goody bags filled with all the necessary bread-baking items: two bags of flour, yeast, a dough scraper and a plastic bag | all assembled by 12 volunteers from the Topsfield Elementary School PTO.
King Arthur Flour donated all the supplies and rans the event for free.
Gray, who told her audience that she might have the best job on the planet, enjoys bringing the wonders of baking and the goodness of charity to students as far away as West Virginia.
"It's a great thing that allows the kids to feel good about themselves because they've learned a new skill, and they get to feel good about giving back to the community," Gray said.
She also likes that the kids get to see what goes into the food they're eating, and they get to spend quality time with their families while they bake at home.
Juliette Rehak, a fourth-grader chosen to be one of Gray's demonstrators, got to stir through sticky, thick mixtures, make a braided loaf of bread, and even punch down an airy wad of dough, much to the delight of her classmates.
She also got to proudly flaunt her new baking knowledge.
"We learned that yeast likes sugar," Juliette explained, "and that you have to add salt to your bread."
