Her Daily Bread

Posted by Chelsey Taylor on Jun 7, 2011 | 0 comments

Today we loaded up the bus and set out to a local woman’s house to see how traditional Cypriot bread is made.  The bakery is behind the woman’s house.  Her yard has orange and lemon trees, and corn growing in the back.

 

 

 

When we arrived, she was already in the process of making up today’s order.  We watched as she hurried around mixing dough and throwing loaves into an oven in the wall.  She moved quickly and I kind of felt like we were in the way at first.  After she finished her morning order, she slowed down, offered us some Cyprus coffee, cheese and (of course) bread, and gave us a demonstration of the process.

 

We were filming this for a segment of our documentary, so after we set up the cameras we were ready to roll.  The lady spoke only Greek; luckily Constantina (one of the GLS people) was there to interpret for us.  She began by mixing up flour, yeast and water in a huge mixer.  Then she would take a knife and hack off a piece of the dough and flop it on the table.  She kneaded it and shaped the bread into different loaves depending on what kind it was going to be.  The round bread she made was for sandwiches because it was easy to cut.  She rolled the loaves in sesame seeds to add more flavor. Some loaves she left plain because she explained that some people couldn’t eat sesame seed for their health.  Then she covered the bread with a blanket and left it to sit for about an hour to dry.  After the bread sits, she bakes it in one of her two ovens for another hour.

 

She spoke to us about learning to make bread from her mother.  She seemed a little disappointed when we asked if her daughter would take over the business in the future.  She replied that her daughter knew how to bake, but had her own job elsewhere.  She said people now days are too busy with the Internet to learn to bake bread.  I suppose this is true, as I am sitting here typing a blog instead of doing any baking of my own.

 

 

 

This woman bakes about 40 loaves of bread every day by herself.  She has no help except for a lady she hired only ten days ago, who still hasn’t learned all the tricks of bread making.  She spoke about other girls who have helped her in the past but said that they never stay around for long.  On Wednesdays and Saturdays she takes her bread to a local farmers market to sell.

 

 

 

I am pretty sure most of the bread I eat in America is not made by hand, and I don’t even know if there is a bakery that makes bread in my city.  In a way I think this is sad, because it means that some of the traditions of our ancestors have been forgotten due to technology.  On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to stand near a hot oven for so many long hours a day.