Am I the only one who is constantly tidying up recklessly discarded shoes from the front entrance? Here I am again picking up my son’s grubby, child-beaten school shoes. I open the shoe cupboard and am hit by the most awful stench. I sniff the shoes in my hands. Boy, my son’s feet must have stunk at school today. But no. The putrid smell isn’t the shoes; it’s coming from the cupboard. Oh no – it’s the rewena bread!

The other night I boiled a potato in unsalted water, just like the my Nanna’s rewena recipe said. I mashed it and added a teaspoon of sugar and some flour, then put it on the hot water cylinder to ferment overnight. Unfortunately the hot water cylinder is in the stinky shoe cupboard. Goodness knows what sort of spores are floating around in there. Whatever they are, they are NOT GOOD. One night in the stinky shoe cupboard and my innocent potato water, sugar and flour has fermented into a thick, stinking cheesy mass – gross.

I’m trying to make a healthier version of rewena. It’s the yummiest bread – completely yeast free – made with white flour and fermented potato water which gives it a lovely sour taste. For my first attempt a few weeks ago I used a mix of wholegrain and spelt flour. It tasted quite good even though it was rather solid and shaped like a flying saucer. I even forced my husband’s Nanna, who made rewena every few days for most of her life, to try it. “Mmm, it’s nice,” she mumbled politely as she chewed her way through a solid slice. “I’ll show you how to do it.” True to her word, when we popped in to see her a few days later she had made up the ‘bug’ (that’s what the fermented potato mix is called) to show me how it should really look. The trouble is, I can’t use my hot water cylinder to keep it warm. I’m just not caring for my ‘bug’ as I should!

Right now I’ve put my latest ‘bug’ in the oven to warm up. I hope I don’t kill it by over-heating it! After 24 hours there are only a few fermenting bubbles. I’m sure there are meant to be more. If I can get it bubbling a bit more I’m sure my bread will rise better. Has anyone got any suggestions??

My other stories:

Recipe and Links

Results of my attempts to make a nutritious rewena bread