3 ms·
Minor point but there's a reason that lots more people don't make their own. Read and a lot of it comes down to time. If 15 mins to 3 hours to make bread is wor
by robbiep 14y ago
Minor point but there's a reason that lots more people don't make their own. Read and a lot of it comes down to time. If 15 mins to 3 hours to make bread is worth less to you than the 2-3$ for a loaf of bread then good for you; otherwise it doesn't make much sense.
And it you get a breadmaking machine then I would argue that it's likely to be less environmentally friendly: a small oven is less efficient than a large one; plus the resources to make an electronic item vs centralised distribution.
I really don't see how making your own bread can be argued to be both environmentally friendly and cheaper, but am happy to be enlightened
- noahth 14y agoWhen I was coming up with quick examples earlier, I was thinking more of packaging than energy costs, and most store-bought bread is wrapped in non-recyclable plastic. I do wish we had the tools and information to make better calculations of these kinds of trade-offs. I could also contend that the quality of fresh homemade bread beats the crap out of what $2 gets you at Safeway. But the point I'm most interested in discussing is the idea of maximizing the economic value of your time. In some cases this can be a useful heuristic, but the trick is knowing where and where not to apply it. If you were to apply that line of reasoning to every moment of your life, I doubt that the results would be satisfactory. Personally I'm more of a Gross National Happiness type. Of course, you're welcome to prove me wrong too :)
- Tloewald 14y agoJust in terms of power efficiency, I doubt baking your own bread is a win (I earned my spending money in high school baking bread from scratch). It takes maybe fifteen minutes (aside from waiting) to make bread dough and shape it into loaves when you're experienced, so time isn't such a big factor.
- eru 14y agoMaking your own bread can be much tastier than store bought loaves. Especially if you catch your own sourdough, and the alternative is buying British bread.
- Tloewald 14y agoI'm certainly not against baking your own bread, I just doubt it's beneficial to the environment. A good naighborhood bakery is probably an all round win.