The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1910-03-04
AL WAYS MEMS WORK
WOMEN IN FRENCH PROVINCE
NEVER. MAKE BREAD.
Norman Peasants Wearing Heavy
Wooden Shoes Kneed the Douah
by Dancing About in it.
Made in Barn,

It is not hard to persuade Norman
peasant to believe anything strange OF
outrageous of that extraordinary coun:
try, America, but he. always finds il
difficult to understand how it can be
true that American women make
bread.
The men of America must be brutea
he thinks, for although a farmers
wife in the north of France may do q
good part of the heavy work about the
farm. she never thinks of making the
bread. That is mans work, and it is
carried on. not in the kitchen, but in
the stable.
The Norman peasant eats an aston
fishing quantity Of bread. He has lit
tie else-excapt cider-for his break
fast and supper, and it is a very i'm
portant part of his MONDAY meal al
we'll.
And such Queer-looking bread as II
is. The '1oaves' are as round and az
palely yellow as the full moon; they
are often three feet in circumference
and eight or ten inches thick. Seeing
one of them for the first time you
would be likely to take it for large
cheese.
Breadmakins being only a monthly
occurrence in a Norman household
the operations must be on q scale OF
considerable Magnitude if the family
supply is to be sufficient to last for
four weeks. The dough is always
mixed in the center of an inclosed
space upon the floor of the barn.
At other times cats, dogs and poul
try enjoy the freedom of this space,
but when breakmaking is toward,
these are evieted and the floor ia
swept-let us hope very thoroughly.
There is no dough pan or trough.
The -four and water are poured to.
gether upon tho floor, and the farmer
and his sons CT hired laborers beat
the mass into the proper consistency
with heavy clubs, widely flattened. at
the ends, until they look something
like roughly shaped snow shovels.
Then a lump OF leaven is added, and
the mass is givsn 10 or IL hours to
RISE"
Next it must be kneaded, a process
which is accomplished with the feet.
shOd in heavy sabots, or wooden
shoes-not the everyday shoes, which
are painted black, but made of un-
stained whitewood-the men leap into
the midst of the dough. They jump
about with agility; they stamp and
kick the spongy stuff; they dance
clumsy jigs in it, the stittening dough
clinging tenaciously to their shoes.
It is the hardest of hard work, re-
quiring endurance as we'll as strength,
and before it is time to stop, more
than one of the men will be stagger-
ing to and fro in the pasty mass,
thoroughly exhausted.
The dough is allowed to rise a
second time; is again soundly beaten
with the f1attened clubs; is then put
into great round pans and baked in
the massive brick oven which stands
in almost every Norman stable.
The bread which results is firm,
close in texture, and rather dingy in
color, sweet but dry, and decidedly
palatable even to those who have seen
it made.
AS the month draws to a close, the
outer crust becomes so thick and hard
that it can only be penetrated by a
saw kept for that purpose. But this
horny shell has it's use, for it keeps
the interior of the loaf fairly soft and
fresh, sometimes for several months.
youths Companion.