Blog archive: March 2010

Manna bread is dense, mildly sweet, moist and delicious in a wholesome, good-for-you way that regular sliced bread can’t touch. It’s comforting to eat because it tastes like it’s homemade, and because the recipe is so ancient it taps into deep unconscious aspects of our palates. It feels so natural. Also known as Essene bread, it’s described in the Bible.

You can make this bread at home, and I included a recipe for it in my cook book ‘Fresh & Wild: A Real Food Adventure’. It’s fairly time-consuming to make, and involves forward planning, as you sprout the grain for a week, and then bake it overnight on a superlow heat.

Manna Organics offers nine varieties of ready-made Manna bread, from cakey flavors like Carrot and Raisin to the more savory Whole Rye and Multigrain. My favorite is Fig Fennel Flax for it’s originality, and I love Fruit and Nut too. They’re all good, in fact, they’re just as good as my own home-made Essene bread.

The family-run company also offers a variety of sourdough breads that are as dense and beautiful. Like manna bread, the grains are fermented while they sprout, naturally releasing vitamins and other nutrients and partially breaking down the starches. This makes all their breads low glyceamic, which means they’re won’t give you a sugar rush.

Instead, they’ll gently sustain you until it’s time for you next meal, nourishing you with a complex array of naturally occurring micro-nutrients and enzymes. They’re yeast-free, sugar-free and salt-free, contain no flour, no oils, no fats or sweeteners. Of course they don’t contain any chemical additives, and they’re very high in fiber and protein… and did I mention they taste great?!