A Few years ago whilst staying in a rural gite in the south of France Lucy had an accident involving a dog, a trampoline, a couple of glasses of wine and her ankle. As I can't drive most of our supplies were from the local shop and by local I mean a 20 minute bicycle ride to a village of about 3 houses where a usually quite bored French girl would temporaily perk up at the sight of a customer whom she was not actually related to, bringing in some actual money. I always bought bread and felt we were doomed in our little Gite if none of it was in the larder.
Reenactment has sparked even more appreciation of bread, and a real empathy for how important it was to our ancestors, it is THE staple food, it keeps a few days, is filling and a source of carbohydrate, is easily transportable and at any temperature, and did I say.. it is filling. To a hungry soldier it is chunks of goodness, and it goes well with anything, or nothing.
Bread and peace! was shouted by soldiers who had had enough of a campaign, Rome was famously pacified by 'Bread and circuses'. Most revolutions have been fed (no pun intended) on food shortages and the food most missed is bread. Whenever there is a disaster one of the first things given out to people is bread.
When I buy food for lunch at work now it usually revolves around a bread roll of some kind, not a filled roll, just the bread, no butter, just tearing chunks off. I feel if I was a soldier I would be content as long as I had a days supply of bread but without it would feel at a real loss.
Heres to bread!
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