Give us this day our daily bread

On Sunday as I put away the chickens at work I walked toward the bake houses and was faced with a glorious smell, the smell of baking bread. I can't even describe it but when I smell it pours into every sense. The smell brings cheer, the sight as it comes out of the oven, the sound as we tap it on the bottom to be sure that it is done, the feel of its crust and weight in your hand and the best part the taste of it as you take a bite of that heavenly bread. It is a part of our everyday life and though many do not eat it any more for one reason or another what it has meant to history is just as important.

Flour made from wheat, barley, rye, certain kinds of corn and other grains have been being made into bread. Credit for domesticating wheat has been given to Western Asia. From there it moved west. Somewhere someone, most sources claim Egypt, thought while chewing it "I wonder what would happen if I beat it? What if I make it into a paste and bake it?" During this process eventually liquid bread or beer was made.

Top left: cheat bread made with wheat and flint corn flour, one slice fried in vinegar.  Bottom left: cheat bread dough. Right: cheat bread with butter.

Bread and beer were so essential to life, when the table was set the first things put on the table were salt, bread and beer if available.  Bread would be cooked once a week. A housewife would bake enough loaves to last and by the end of the week it would be quite stale. To remedy this a housewife might fry it in oil or butter, and vinegar. She could also put a dish of something on top and let the juices seep into the bread.

Flint corn bread made with the grits of the corn, salt and flour of the corn. 

It's nutritional importance is recognized through time. In prisons, prisoners would be forced to survive on bread and water. Enough, by today's standards, to keep you alive but not enough to keep up your strength for long. In the bible it is mentioned in different chapters. The Lord's Prayer says "Give us this day our daily bread." In the New Testament Jesus says to his disciples "Eat this bread, a symbol of my body, eat it in memory of me." In the Old Testament bread is mentioned in the laws of passover, and other services. Even today from the grinding of the flour to baking of the bread it is still part of our language.  The head of the house is the bread winner. When we are "milling around", we are waiting for our flour for our bread. "Nose to the grind stone" we are making sure we don't set fire to our flour, so we can bring home the flour.

Grinding corn in a stone ground water mill.

So here is to the substance that feeds our daily needs. I think I will go make a sandwich.