Whole Wheat Bread

Every week the aroma of fresh baked bread would waft through air around our home in Cottonwood, Utah. Mom baked eight loaves a week and it was the best whole wheat bread you ever tasted. All of the neighborhood kids would come from miles around to get a piece of that bread hot out of the oven. We would slather it with butter and honey or homemade jam. I remember mom baked that bread in juice cans so it would bake standing up in the oven and she could bake more bread that way.

Mom and Dad were very much into the home storage movement that was happening in the church back then. There was a commercial on TV back then about Wonder Bread. It said, "Wonder Bread builds bodies 12 ways." Dad would say, "Wonder Bread was mattress stuffing and whole wheat builds bodies 24 ways". "Wheat for man", dad would say, quoting the Word of Wisdom. Mom and dad even sold grain mills. The All Grain mill was the brand they sold. Dad was proud that the mill had real stones, made better flour and was quieter than the other brands that were out there. I remember one evening mom and dad had a couple in our home that they were selling a grain mill to. It was a little dusty, so mom moistened a paper towel with her mouth and wiped it down. dad fussed with mom a little about that.

On Saturdays mom would send me down in the basement to had grind some cracked wheat for cracked wheat mush. I felt proud to use my muscles as I swung the handle of the grinder around and around. I loved cracked wheat mush with honey.

-Darell