The Staff of Life
The Irish have a weird thing about sliced bread.
It baffles me. Yes, I have a couple of loaves in the spare freezer which should last us a good while. I use sliced bread for making toast and maybe the odd sandwich but it hardly forms the basis for the daily menu.
A few years ago we had a bit of snow in March. It was given the tacky name of “The Beast from the East” [they love tabloid headlines]. There were images on television of people panic buying and what were they stocking up on? Bread! People leaving the supermarket with trolleys packed to the gunwales with sliced bread. Pictures inside the shops showed empty bread shelves while all the other shelves were foully stocked and untouched.
I have visions of households where the cupboards are stuffed with sliced bread, all going stale and probably mouldy, while the occupants starve for want of a decent meal. Bread doesn’t keep long unless it’s frozen. Mind you, it keeps a lot longer than the Good Old Days when bread tasted like bread and went stale after a day or less, but that’s where chemicals help.
There is a bit of a flap on here. There are dire warnings afoot that there may be snow tomorrow. Now, according to my favourite weather forecasting site [windy.com] it’s unlikely to last very long as by the end of the week temperatures will be back in double figures. Snow doesn’t like double figures. Naturally the meeja are loving this with scary hints of massive snowfalls. Naturally there is a section of society going into full panic mode and I am hearing tales of panic buying. What are they stocking up on? Sliced bread of course!
I was never one for stocking up in fear of a shortage. I have enough food here in the house to last us a week or so, between tins and stuff in the freezer. We have a varied diet that ranges from the carnivorous to the vegan. Strangely enough, bread doesn’t feature very strongly on that menu and we can do without [provided we have one slice of bread for Herself’s morning slice of toast and marmalade].
So why stock up on bread? Whiskey, I can understand. Tobacco too. If we ran low on fags Herself might panic a bit. I go by the old adage –
Man cannot live on bread alone….
He needs his drop of alcohol and tobacco too.
In the USA south east snow is not common, but does fall occasionally. When snow is predicted there is a rush to supermarket to purchase milk, eggs, and bread. Apparently we are all suppose to make French toast.
There is a story that a TV weather forecaster was friends with the owner of a local grocery store. The store owner was having a bad month and was concerned he might have to close the store. To help him out the weather forecaster when on the air that night with a forecast of snow. Everyone rushed to grocery store to stock up and store was able to stay open.
Many people also stock up on beer, but then they tend to stock up on beer regardless of the weather forecast.
That’s the practice at my place. As soon as the first bottle comes out of the last six pack, time for another case.
If yu want info on Irish weather you won’t better the Irish Met Offices web-site.
Windy.com uses the same database as Met Eireann. I just prefer to do my own analysis of the data.
Buying factory made sliced bread in Ireland is weird.
I have been to a few countries and none of them come close to having the variety, deliciousness and quality of Irish bread, – farls, scones, tatty scones, barnbrack, vids bread, soda bread, wheaten loaf, and on and on. Made with wheat, oat or rye flour
Out of the oven a short while, thickly sliced,slathered with butter, maybe with real bacon, dropping fat, on top, or just dipped into a mug of tea.
Like Pavlov’s dog I am drooling.
Which Ireland are ou talking about? My Ireland sells only the factory stuff. Maybe there is the odd bakery somewhere but not around here. There is a petrol station on the way up to Dublin with a big sign outside – “Genuine French Bead – Baked here on the premises”…..
You can’t get a more accurate weather forecast than this: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1676199-mildly-interesting
Indeed. I use the granite post outside the door for the same purpose. At the moment it’s cold and wet.