Letters (February 24, 2016)

Support helps raise $1,100 for KLLS

The Hillsboro High School Leos chapter is grateful for the way the community supported last week?s fundraiser for the Kansas Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Several businesses, including Rod?s Tire, Main Street Cafe, Dale?s Grocery Store and Ampride/Coop?erative Grain & Supply, donated items that were raffled at the basketball game.

Together, we were able to raise more than $1,100 in support of KLLS.

Kyle Unruh,

HHS Leo Club president

What happened

to our bread?

In Hillsboro, we live in the heartland that grows wonderful wheat. I am a producer and love the sight of golden grain blowing in the wind.

But is it my imagination or not that the bread available (made from our wheat) is just not delicious any more?

It seems that grocery store/commercial bread has deteriorated into a dry paste over the last two decades. Not only that, but when one buys a big loaf of bread it becomes even more dried out and tasteless before it is finished. So half of the loaf of bread goes in the trash. What a waste of money!

If my observation has some truth, I wish someone would explain why we seemed to have denied ourselves of really fresh, soft and good-tasting bread? Is it banned ingredients that used to be in bread? Added nutrients? Cost? Bad bakers?

Why can?t we turn my wheat into good bread for Kansans?

When I am among the wheat fields, I expect good bread, but I find few sources of edible and varietal breads despite a desperate search. Dillons used to be my go-to place?but that seems to have, for the most part, gone down the same path as the big commercial bakers.

One can find a few small bread bakeries in south central Kansas, but it takes a big effort to find variety and freshness.

Every year when I return to rice-eating Japan, I can feast on the best, fresh, soft, delicious, warm bread of many European varieties (and they import wheat!).

Tokyo has the advantage that European trained small Japanese bakers pop up everywhere and succeed based on its population density. That would not be possible in parts of Kansas, but even the mass bakeries that supply the grocery stores make breads highly superior to what is available in Kansas stores.

I also can buy half loaves of eight very large slices, making it possible to buy fresh every or every other day on the way home. Rarely does the bread go into the trash. The bread costs more?but little waste.

I guess you wonder why this is so important. Well, I would prefer a good piece of bread over any cake or sweet.

Since I don?t bake, I have to rely on the professionals for this experience.

So do we need to revolutionize making good bread available for all the peoples among the wheat fields? Or am I alone in this?

Charlotte Kennedy Takahashi

Hillsboro

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