Remember when Facebook was just a place to post about your morning coffee and your evening meal. Remember when looking up a recipe on-line didn't require fighting off pop-up ads like a ninja while scrolling through a 10-page lamentation on the meaning of life? Remember when...
I grew up outside of a small rural village in Ohio. It is near where my mom grew up and my dad's dad served as the pastor of a Brethren church. My dad grew up in Muncie IN and was in the Airforce when he and mom began dating back in the late 50's.
I learned everything I know about baking from my mom and my High School Home Economics' teacher. When I reached my 40's I visited an Amish community for the first time. Everyone always raves about Amish food... but what I found was basic home cooking, and not always from scratch. Times have changed and the Amish communities have embraced technology by licensing their recipes to factories that now mass produce noodles and baked goods. What was once fresh and flavorful is now the same as everything else in the grocery store.
It's been a point of contention with me since I began baking for business. I don't want my products to taste like anything you can buy in a store.
I want people to receive fresh goods that remind them of a mom, or grandma, or aunt or dad who cooked in the home they felt safe in, the home where they felt cared for and loved. We all have that place. That place where, no matter your worries or stress, you are comfortable falling asleep on the couch to the gentle hum of the world turning around you. That place was home, where I was welcomed to take a nap after kindergarten. Where the smell of the iron wafted in the air, with a steady pssssh of steam and a creak of the ironing board as mom worked. And the t.v. played Days of Our Lives "Likes sands through an hourglass..."
Everything changes. We don't iron our clothes any longer. Day's of Our Lives is no longer on network television. Schools no longer offer home economics classes. My body is not in Kindergarten anymore (though my mind tends to hang out there once in a while). What hasn't changed for me is that scratch made, home baked, small batch cooking still matters. And everyone needs a place where they feel safe, cared for and loved. I may try to access my My Space page.
-Kathleen
Home Baker & Tea Enthusiast
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