Yesterday’s bread, a Rosemary Olive Oil Bread, was particularly good so when it came time for breakfast this morning there was nothing left. I thought about having a piece of store bought bread with the rest of my meal, but when I looked at the measly plastic wrapped rectangle of a loaf I decided against it. When you get used to making things yourself, mass-produced things start to seem like a very poor substitute for the real deal.
I told my mom about this and she said that everyone on the Irish loop* used to make their own bread, at first just because bakers bread was not available there. When store bought bread came around people referred to as the “bakers fog”, because it was insubstantial and left you feeling hungry. Everyone agreed it was just a pale comparison. You wouldn’t buy it unless you ran out of the good stuff. It’s not hard to see why; they made their bread themselves so it was customized to their exact tastes, it was always fresh and sometimes wood fired. It allowed for variation based on seasonal ingredients, creativity, not to mention the fulfilling experience of making the bread and sharing it. One more skill to take pride in, one more act to enjoy, something to add to yourself instead of another daily task removed from your direct experience.
I think the “baker’s fog” is a great metaphor for a lot of things these days. We take for granted that we are constantly encouraged to buy and surrounded in things which are uniform, cheap to produce and fast. It’s hard to see (or taste) how hollow some of these mass-produced, prepackaged foods and objects are unless you have something to compare hand made to. Otherwise how are you supposed to see through all this fog!
We think of a lot of food preparation as a chore, but what is a chore? Something you’d rather not have to do? A waste of time? Based on my experience and family stories I view some tasks in a very different light. There is hard work, boring work and then there is nurturing work, gentle work, things that involve all of your senses and pique your attention. Intimate details become important, so does what you are doing right at that instant, right now. These things make us feel alive. Losing this connection is a poor substitute for convenience.
Sometimes making something fast and easy, cutting corners, or getting rid of a task all together is actually the loss of a more fulfilling experience. If things are too easy they become boring and unrewarding. From the outside a skill might seem mysterious or unattainable, but in reality all they take is time and patience. If we have no relationship or connection to our food (or objects), it’s just sustenance and it could be a much deeper experience.
PS: homemade bread = no plastic bread bags or extra shipping necessary! (except for the flour and other ingredients which had to come from somewhere of course. That said try to get it local.)
**The Irish Loop is a group of culturally rich communities of irish descent on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland.
