Issue 1: Lands of Lost Borders + White Sourdough
A compelling cycling travel narrative and a classic fermented loaf of bread
Welcome to Good Book/Good Bread! Every two weeks, I recommend a book I love, and bake a delicious bread that fits with an aspect of the story. This week: Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris and white sourdough using Tartine’s country loaf recipe. Haven’t subscribed yet? Sign up here!
Part 1: Good Book
In a nutshell
Lands of Lost Borders is a travel narrative about Kate Harris and her friend Mel cycling the Silk Road from Turkey to Tibet. Kate, who grew up in Ontario, was enamoured with explorers like Marco Polo, Magellan, and Darwin from a young age. Realizing that vintage of explorer no longer existed, Kate set out to become a different kind. She pursued science at university, with dreams of one day becoming an astronaut and travelling to Mars.
Before beginning grad school at Oxford, she and her friend Mel cycle a short section of the Silk Road, an ancient trade route connecting China and the West. This leaves a lasting impression on her, and after realizing during her Ph.D. at MIT that the academic course she is on no longer feels right, she leaves the program and sets out to cycle the full Silk Road—10,000 kilometres over 10 months.
Three things I loved about it
Kate’s description of the dynamics with an adventure partner are so honest. The pair trade off being the motivated one, like one morning where Kate reads a sleeping-bag bound Mel a few lines of inspiring poetry while making them coffee along the Black Sea in Turkey. They have moments of tension, from one suffering in the elements more than the other, to varying degrees of social endurance with people they meet along the way. It’s refreshing to read about the interpersonal conflicts that are seemingly inevitable on any kind of adventure, even with someone you really like.
It’s been so long since many of us travelled to another country, or immersed ourselves in different cultures. I really appreciated Kate’s descriptions of the kindness of the locals they meet on their trip, and how these interactions influenced the course of their adventure. All the way across the Silk Road, generous people invite them into their homes and families. In one country, the families they stayed with one night would call ahead to their friends in the next town on the route, ensuring Kate and Mel always had somewhere lined up to stay. It reminded me how important being open to new people can be to memorable travels—or just everyday life.
I loved the backstory of Kate’s early fixation on explorers. Even more, I appreciated that she includes in the book the path to her giving up her dream of becoming an astronaut. A lot of adventure books just focus on the action, but it makes for a richer story where the reader can understand the catalyst. There is a lot of bravery in changing direction and being true to yourself, and in setting out on this adventure, Kate gets much closer to becoming the explorer of wild places her younger self wanted to be.
Quote I liked:
“Deserts have long been landscapes of elevation, as though the clean-bitten clarity of so much space heightens receptivity to frequencies otherwise missed in the white noise of normal life.”
And, if you like Lands of Lost Borders, read this:
You & a Bike & a Road by Eleanor Davis
Miles from Nowhere by Barbara Savage
On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moore
Part 2: Good Bread
Classic white sourdough loaf
Why this bread for this book?
I found the undercurrent in this book was making life decisions in alignment with who you are. That is catalyst for Kate leaving MIT and setting out on this year-long cycling trip and the foundation of her narrative; what is more foundational than a loaf of white sourdough bread?
Plus, Kate lives in an off the grid cabin near the Yukon, where Gold Rush miners would carry a pouch of sourdough starter, which was quite resistant to the cold temperatures, over the Chilkoot trail.
Source recipe and any additions
For this bread I used Chad Robertson’s Tartine country loaf recipe. This is the base of most of the sourdough I bake, and then I adapt or add ingredients. For this loaf, I omitted the 100g of whole wheat Robertson calls for and instead used 100% white flour. I made the leaven in the morning, went skiing, and came home and did the bulk fermentation at night. I find that timing works well when you want to make sourdough, but don’t want to be home all day.
One loaf I left plain, seen above, and the other I rolled in sesame seeds before I left them to rise. I baked both loaves the next morning, enjoying the aroma in my cabin as an atmospheric river rolled into B.C.’s south coast.
Hot tip for cold kitchens: If your kitchen is drafty like mine in the winter, pre-heat your oven for three minutes, turn it off, and let the bread proof in there.
Works well as:
Grilled cheese
Toasted with avacado, lemon and sea salt
Homemade bread crumbs or croutons