The Keeper of the Bread

By Suzanne

My grandmother grew up on a farm in the hollers of West Virginia, and when she was a little girl it was her job to make bread every day. Every day. She learned to make bread from her mother, and her mother learned it from her mother before her, and so on. She taught her daughters to make bread, and when my mother was a young bride brought to West Virginia by my dad, my grandmother taught my mother to make that bread.

When I was nine years old, my mother taught me to make the bread. I made bread periodically as a teenager -- it wasn't "my job" like it was my grandmother's job. We mostly bought bread at the store, but whenever anyone in the house -- my mother, my sister, or I -- made that bread, everyone was excited and it went fast.

When I got married, one of the first things I bought was a bag of flour and bread pans.  I had never been in charge of grocery shopping before, so I didn't really think too hard about how long flour could last and how much flour is really needed to make bread for just two people. I bought a 25 pound bag of flour. I have a family of five now and I still don't buy flour in 25 pound bags! That bag of flour lasted a long time! But I made a lot of bread, trying to use up that 25 pound bag, and I fell in love with baking.

My brother has a son, and my sister has five sons, and yes, of course, we can and should teach our sons to cook and to bake (my 12-year-old son loves to be in the kitchen), but there is just something about a bread recipe that has been passed down from mother to daughter for over 100 years in my family that makes it special that I have a daughter. 

She is the only granddaughter in the family. She's nine now, and the other day I told her, "It's time for you to learn how to make bread." She asked where the recipe was. I told her, "There is no written recipe. I'm going to teach you and you're going to remember it for the rest of your life and someday you're going to teach it to your daughter."

She looked a little doubtful at the prospect of actually remembering a recipe for that long, then she said, "Are you sure you're the right person to teach me how to make bread? Aren't you the one who blew up the bread pan??" Okay, yes, that did happen. It was an oven malfunction, I swear! The oven got too hot one day due to a temperature problem with the thermostat and when I took the pan out, the glass bread pan exploded everywhere and I was finding tiny bits of glass in corners for weeks. I reminded her that I'd made hundreds, maybe thousands of loaves of bread over the years and had only blown up one pan.

So we got started and I had her doing every step on her own, me just watching. She started stirring in the flour and she was getting a little tired of stirring and she said, "Don't we have electronics for this now?" Well, yes, in fact we HAVE a bread machine.  My husband bought it for me, and I tried it out a few times, but it's just not homemade bread if it isn't made by hand, and that machine is collecting dust somewhere in my cabinets.

Making bread from scratch without using a bread machine is a lot of work, but there are several benefits -- for one thing, kneading bread is great exercise and good stress relief -- but more importantly, putting your fist into the dough is like touching the past.  People, particularly women, have done this very thing, stuck their fist into dough and kneaded it to a perfect elastic ball, for thousands of years. My mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and my great-great-grandmother made this bread, stuck their fist into this dough. There are few things left in this sophisticated day and age that are more elemental, more intrinsic to human existence, more real, than making bread.

I explained all of this to my daughter, and her eyes glazed over slightly, then I pointed out, "You are the only granddaughter, remember? That makes you The Keeper of the Bread." Now that made sense to her, and suddenly she was very proud. And once she got into it, she thought kneading was fun. All that punching, you know. The bread turned out wonderful, and she couldn't stop reminding her brothers that she'd made it, all by herself. She can't wait to bake again.

Do you have any special traditions that have been passed down for generations in your family? Or have you started any special traditions of your own?

Suzanne has been married for over 20 years and lives in small-town North Carolina with her three children.

Comments

[Analee]

what a great tradition!

[Laurie]

My mother-in-law has all boys, and she has a recipe that has been passed down from daughter to daughter throughout the years. Last year she showed me the recipe and made me promise to keep it going with my own children. I love traditions like this!

[Suzanne]

Thanks! I actually have pictures of her making her first-time bread on my blog (click the link below on my name--it'll go to the entry on my blog with the pictures).

[naomi]

I WISH we had a family tradition like yours!... How absolutely precious, and valuable. Thank you for sharing your family tradition; I can just picture the beautiful expression your daughter must have had on her face as you explained, and she realised, the uniqueness of her position, and the special gift that comes with it. May you have many more generations of girls that have this same privilege... Naomi

[Tracy]

Very cool story Suzanne! And hey, if you want to pass on the recipe, I sure wouldn't mind.

[Robin P]

I have no idea how that link disappeared but if you want to read that post it's called Sweet Traditions and it was from Sept 16, 2004

[Robin P]

I had tears pouring down my face while reading this. What a lovely post,Suzanne. Last September I wrote about teaching Lillianna to make taglach for Rosh Hashanah. You can read it if you would like.

http://roughdraft.typepad.com/dotmoms/2004/09/sweet_tradition.html

On a bread note, my dad was the manager of a Jewish bakery so we had fresh bread,rolls and bagels every day until he died when I was 24 years old. I had no idea that people were eating bread that was baked YESTERDAY! That's what we fed the birds!
When Rich and I got married and I started buying bread, I began to keep bread for a week! It was shocking.

I think your tradition of being the Keeper of the Bread is beautiful. Your daughter will pass it down too. Let's hope they stay away from modern electronic gadgets. Some things are better when done the old fashioned way.

Do you guys churn your own butter too? That would be delicious!!!!!