Bread.
It has long been the center of our lives for centuries.
Did it all start Biblically?
I mean, the Lord’s Prayer makes a clear request.”
“Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)
But it appears Matt was a little willy-nilly on this. A few verses earlier, he wrote:
“Man shall not live by bread alone.” (Matthew 4:4)
Nonetheless, an old English proverb states:
“Bread is the staff of life.”
Well, I know one thing about myself. I like bread. All sorts of bread.
Growing up, we had white bread. Soft, white bread. In our house, we had Wonder Bread, or the “store brand” bread. Whatever was cheaper, I’m sure.
But every so often, a coupon must have appeared in the Sunday paper. And on those rare occasions, a loaf of Pepperidge Farm bread would show up on our counter. Lo and Behold. Trumpets would sound. Angels would sing.
Oh, how I used to love Pepperidge Farm bread. During the holidays, it might come in the form of those “Party Rye” breads and end up in some yummy recipe with cheese broiled on top.
Or, in the everyday life of things, the thin white bread loaf would appear. Maybe Mom picked it up from the “day old” shelf at Liberal’s Grocery Store. I don’t know. But I loved it all the same. Ham salad on that thin white toast was my favorite.
Anyway. I am mentioning this good bread because of a woman named Margaret Rudkin.
I recently came across an article that was reprinted from a 1939 issue of Reader’s Digest, which was all about Margaret Rudkin. She is the one who invented Pepperidge Farm products. From humble beginnings.
She was a nice lady, so the story goes. Personable, energetic, and a head full of red hair. She began baking her own bread in the summer of 1937 to try to feed her 9-year-old son back to health.
The articles stated:
“In her own kitchen, she ground wheat in a coffee mill. This preserved the bran and essential B vitamins lost in commercial white flour. She added fresh table butter and fresh whole milk, then kneaded the mixture by hand. Friends who tasted these early batches of bread asked her why she didn’t sell it.”
Rudkin started to consider things. There were hundreds of people in nearby Bridgeport who needed work. And things on Wall Street, which supplied their normal family income, were in a big downturn, to say the least. So one day, she thought maybe — just maybe — all this talk from her enthusiastic friends might be making sense.
Perhaps people wanted better bread.
She partitioned off part of the garage and pulled an old stove from the basement. And that’s how it started.
From the very start, she decided there would be no compromising on quality. She made the best loaf of bread she could conceive, then computed a price. It worked out to 25 cents. Commercial bakers told her people never would pay that. But she thought people would pay the money if the bread tasted worth 25 cents.
Local grocers in neighboring towns got the first loaves she baked. They sold out within an hour. Next, she took her bread to a large-scale grocer in New York. The manager cut her sales talk short and asked for a slice of the bread. He loved it and started buying. The grocery started off with a dozen loaves a day. Within a few months, this order shot up to 200 loaves daily.
And from there, Pepperidge Farm grew and grew.
Personally, I don’t think I’ve ever had a Pepperidge Farm thing that I didn’t like.
The invention of the Goldfish was magnificent. Parmesan Fish are the best.
So there it is. A bread story.
A party rye. Milano cookies. Goldfish extraordinaire.
All thanks to Margaret Rudkin and her bread-baking ways.
Man may not be able to live by bread alone, but a woman can make a fortune with it.
“”””””””””
“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” – American chef, James Beard
“”””””””””
“All sorrows are less with bread.” – Spanish proverb
“”””””””””
“Bread is the warmest, kindest of all words. Write it always with a capital letter, like your own name.” – Russian novelist, Fyodor Dostoevsky
“”””””””””
Bread alone? Only if it is good.
