WHERE DID ALL THE GOOD BREADS GO?
I was introduced to Pepperidge Farm Bread by Thirza Ferris, an Irish immigrant from County Sligo. She would buy the Connecticut bread “unsliced” and make her fantastic stuffing for the Thanksgiving turkey every year. That year was some time in the early l950′s. She would cut off the crust, crumble the bread up with her fingers, add a little butter and chopped onion, salt and pepper, resulting in the most glorious fluffy light colored, best tasting stuffing in the world. Unfortunately Margaret Rudkin’s Pepperidge Farm bakery was bought by Campbell Soup in the early 1960′s. Since then, the bread’s taste and consistency has changed, but very gradually. So small were the changes you would hardly recognize it.
The same goes for Levy’s Jewish Rye Bread, with or without seeds. The bread was firmly delicious with a little ham and Swiss cheese and Gulden’s mustard inside. The changes in taste and consistency happened fast. Levy’s Jewish Rye is now a soft, mushy consistency, something like the old Silvercup or Wonder Bread. Levy’s was purchased by Arnold Bakery more recently.
The bread that seemed to make life worthwhile in the 1990′s and 2000’s was Beyond Bread in Old Greenwich. Harvey Edwards, the baker and man who owned Beyond Bread was a very special guy. When he first thought about opening a bread store he knew the only oven he would bake his bread in was an oven imported from Italy at a tremendous cost to him. He sold his french bread and rolls to many stores and restaurants around town. For years, the teenagers who were out late roaming Old Greenwich would stop by Harvey’s back door and be treated to leftovers from the day before. His back door was always opened to the neighborhood kids.
Michelle, Harvey’s wife, said Harvey got very sick, had some difficulty breathing and she had to close the doors to the store. She thought Harvey got his lung disease from working and breathing in flour for so many years. Flour in the lungs can be as damaging as asbestos. He also smoked. Harvey will be missed as a great baker and as a humanitarian.
Good things in life don’t seem to go on forever. Some good things are sold to big companies and repackaged and can’t maintain the original high quality – like Pepperidge Farm Bread and Levy’s Jewish Rye Bread. And then there are good things, like Harvey Edward’s Beyond Bread on Sound Beach Avenue, that probably will not be bought and repackaged. We can only remember the many good years Harvey has given us when we sipped cappuccino and ate a buttered roll on one of his little round tables.
Tags: Baker, Harvey Edwards, Levy's Jewish Rye Bread, Pepperide Farm Bread
February 27th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Marge, what a lovely article on Harvey, thank you. After a month and a half in the hospital, he finally got rid of his pneumonia ( caused by flour, not tobacco, Harvey never smoked, he was an athlete,remember? I was the bad one!), his heartbeat is fine, and he can walk and drive again. He is doing super. Love ya! Michele
PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!