The Staff of Life

Bread is called the "staff of life" because it is a very basic food that supports life and has been consumed by people for thousands of years.  Bread is eaten more than any other food in the world. It sustains life.

The Bible mentions the word bread 361 times!  It is an important staple to both the Israelites in the Old Testament AND to people today.  I was just reading about bread in the Book of Ezekiel:

“Son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and in horror, because bread and water will be scarce; and they will be appalled with one another and waste away in their iniquity."  Ezekiel 4:16-17

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the verse above states that Ezekiel was predicting the siege of Jerusalem because of the people's sins.  It was going to be bad.  Real bad.  Things were so bad that man was baking bread over human dung! Nasty. People were hungry.  During the siege, the supply lines were cut off.  Bread was scarce, but "God would not only take away from the bread its power to nourish, so that they should eat and not be satisfied, but He would take away the bread itself."

When you are hungry, the simplest of things - like bread, are so satisfying.  I love good bread.  We got a great loaf of french bread the other day from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.  It is actually made in Jeanerette, Louisiana by LeJeune's Bakery.  It is wrapped in white paper with a blue printed label.

The name LeJeune is a popular French surname and comes from the french word jeune which means "young."  But LeJeune's Bakery is not young.  If you look at the label below, it says, "Baking the same French Bread since 1884."  Five generations of LeJeune's have baked this bread using the same recipe and production method. I think that is incredible!

Another thing that caught my eye is right in the center of the photo below.  The Ingredients.  They consist of 7 items: Flour, Water, Lard, Yeast, Salt, Sugar, and Malt. Do you notice something?  Simple.  Wholesome.  Good.  I can pronounce each word.  The longest word has two syllables.  That is a rarity if you compare it to  the ingredients on a loaf of bread on the grocery aisle.

We try to ration it, but good bread gets eaten quickly.  I kept making bread & butter sandwiches and then topped a slice with some of our tangerine marmalade.  That is some good snacking right there.

If you go to the LeJeune Bakery website, you can read about this family business in small town Jeanerette.  Click on the Bread Making Process on the left side of the page and you can watch the way they make bread.  I didn't see any automation or robots.  Just family members taking pride in what they do while making a quality product and carrying on a family tradition.  That's something to be proud of!