Fill your home with the delicious smell of freshly made bread, says Judith Taylor, our voice of farming from Ludham

January . . . dreaded by many, but I try to think positive. The smell of chimney smoke, clear frosty mornings, snow crunching underfoot, long walks with the dogs on our beautiful deserted beaches, snowdrops, marmalade, soup and stews and, don’t forget, the days are slowly getting longer!

There’s nothing better than coming in from outside on a freezing cold day to the smell of delicious soup and freshly baked bread wafting through the house. We’ve been eating bread for thousands of years - in the Stone Age they collected grains which they crushed and added water to. Later they heated it up on hot stones and made thick flat cakes. Until Egyptian times all bread was unleavened – similar to the pitta and naan bread of today. The Egyptians discovered a kind of yeast which they added to make bread rise. The Romans started to grind, mill and sieve grain to make fine flour. They used two large, flat stones – the bottom stone stayed in one place and the top stone rotated, grinding the grain between them – still more or less how we do it today.