Food Connection

Simon Levine 2012

Hometown: Louisville, KY

Major at Earlham: History

Interests: Journalism, WECI news director, blogging, cooking, sustainable living

Simon Levine '12 is passionate about bread. This tall, smiling history major talks about his studies, about his interests and many other topics, but somehow the conversation always winds back around to his love for bread-making.

Levine lives at Miller Farm, a college-based intentional community with a focus on sustainable agriculture. At the farm, the community of about a dozen students share the task of meal preparation and at least four nights a week sit and eat together.

Farm residents also host Farm Day each Saturday to involve the broader Earlham and Richmond communities in the activities of planting, caring for livestock and sometimes a cooking workshop. The event ends with a free vegetarian lunch for all the guests.

"It's important for people to have a connection with their food," Levine says. However, Levine is an example of more than a connection, but a love affair. He spends at least ten hours a week baking bread and perfecting his recipes. His interest began about eight months ago when he set out to make bread that he always enjoyed while growing up. Levine calls it "artisan" bread - or bread made by hand. "It has a crunchy, chewy crust," Levine says.

That first loaf was "pretty dense and the crust was too tough." Since that initial attempt, he has experimented with sourdough starter and baker's yeast and spent many, many hours with flour on his shirt and dough in his hands. Levine's specialties include the baguette, a sweet honey whole wheat bread and stuffed rolls.

Plans for the future could find Levine working as a journalist. He's interested in conflict journalism and working in Africa. However, another dream involves bread baking and selling. "I have this idea for a food cart as the base to sell my bread in a large city."