Obama bread

Obama bread

While on vacation last week in Dublin, the capital city of the republic of Ireland, I was touring the aisles of a local grocery store when I spotted a loaf of bread “Created to Celebrate the Visit of Barack Obama to Ireland.” Made by the Soul Bakery, in Dublin, this “Hi-Fibre Fruit Healthy Irish Bread Fit For A President” had a label listing the ingredients and so I bought it.

As my edible souvenir made its way through security in the Dublin Airport, I saw in the food court an exhibition of photographs highlighting various aspects of Irish life. Amid pictures of school children, people working, and horse races, there were photos, taken in May 2011, of the American President and the First Lady drinking dark pints of Guinness—Michelle appeared to be tolerating hers—and of the President addressing masses of people in the heart of Dublin.

Our Irish guide on our city walking tour described just how significant President Obama’s visit had been to the citizens of this small nation. It was more than the euphoria of welcoming the first black President of the United States and the pride of having another Irish person in the White House—Obama’s maternal heritage includes Ireland, which led to the nickname “O’bama” and the joke that O’bama is the greatest black Irish export after Guinness. It was the fact that Irish people could relate to African-Americans, both of whom suffered oppression and discrimination in what for some of our ancestors was the Promised Land but which for all those individuals enslaved or indentured proved to be just another Pharaonic Egypt.

President Obama’s visit also helped to demonstrate that peace is here to stay in Ireland. The recent peace, still in its infancy, is being tested by economic hard times and the occasional attempts by one or more persons to kill it. For centuries Ireland has been to Protestants and Catholics what the Middle East is to Jews and Muslims—a locus of systemic injustice and dehumanizing hatred which has turned neighborhood playgrounds into battlegrounds. While Harriet Tubman was the Moses of her people, President Barack Obama embodies the spirit of Miriam who rallied the masses to leave behind what is comfortably familiar but mere survival and to venture into the great unknown which holds the possibility of every body thriving.

What will it take for me and for us women to stop being our own worst enemies and start having our own and each other’s interests at heart? To quit pretending we like each other—which is not the point—and to love ourselves, care for our bodies in simple healthy ways, support one another through difficult choices and hard times, and honor our many differences?

What will it take for males to break the yoke of expectations placed on you from the moment your gender is identified? To lay down once and for all the burden of always appearing strong and never showing weakness, hiding your feelings and not crying, mocking intimacy and being shamed of loving yourself? To simply be yourself—which is way more than to “be a man”—and encourage one other, especially in a group, to be at peace with who God created each of you to be?

Can we in households and communities in overly-developed areas of the world enjoy living with less? Less things and more sharing? Smaller landholdings and larger communal spaces? Decreased carbon-based energy and increased human body energy? Shrinking our personal incomes and expanding the economies of people in under-developed parts of the world? Not just for a year or so but from here on out?

Can we imagine a new whole world?

Let’s learn from the Irish and create a recipe that combines wholewheat flour stone ground from soft wheat grain without any bleaching agents, oats high in fiber, hardy rye flour and flaked malted grains with a crunchy texture, soya bran rich with protein, brown linseed or flaxseed which is one of the oldest crops on earth and was cultivated in ancient North Africa, sesame seeds which are the oldest oilseed crop and able to survive drought, sunflower seeds full of vitamins and fiber, poppy seeds which have been harvested by various civilizations for thousands of years, good ole baking powder and baking soda and salt, an egg laid by one of many hens who happily live in the shade and protection of trees preserved and developed by the Woodland Trust here in the UK, buttermilk homemade with organic milk from contented cows, fair-trade or locally-sourced honey, nutritious oil, sultanas or golden raisins which originated from ancient Turkey, and clean water:

OBAMA BREAD

Grease one regular loaf pan and preheat oven 190 C or 375 F.

Note: A cup is a tad less than 250 ml or about the size of a teacup.

In a small bowl, soak 1/2 cup sultanas (golden raisins) in 1/2 cup hot water and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together:

1 and 1/2 cups wholewheat flour

1/2 cup fine oats (or oat bran)

3 Tablespoons malt flour

2 Tablespoons soya bran

1 Tablespoon brown linseeds (flaxseeds)

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds

1 Tablespoon sunflower seeds (de-shelled)

1 teaspoon poppy seeds

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

In a medium bowl, whisk together:

1 egg

2/3 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup oil

Pour the medium bowl mixture and the small bowl of sultanas and water into the large bowl and whisk together just until evenly mixed—do not over-mix.

Put batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 190 C or 375 F for 35 to 40 minutes, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

This quick soda bread recipe was adapted (and taste-tested) by Lindsay Louise Biddle from the “Hi-Fibre Fruit Healthy Irish Bread Fit For A President” (made with yeast) by the Soul Bakery, in Dublin, Ireland, “Created to Celebrate the Visit of Barack Obama to Ireland.”