Anadama Bread, Celebrating Women’s Rights in New England

Anadama Bread, Celebrating Women’s Rights in New England

Anadama Bread, is a traditional New England Bread.

The light outside the door of my house is brilliant and the sky too is brilliant in it’s blueness. We have had months of horrific heat and endless heavy rains, air so thick, heavy, and stagnant, that it has been unbreathable for over a month… But today, I hear the birds singing and the sky has few clouds there is a sweet breeze, and it isn’t too hot. It is absolute beautiful perfection. I will sit outside for a while later. But I have been busy.

Last night, I watched a story out of Texas, that filled me with horror. A new law on the books. Homesteaders are often wary of new things myself included perhaps… We live a very old fashioned life. People assume I have a very backwater perspective because of what I do. I was raised by the first woman pepsi cola truck driver, and a father that for all the other baggage did at least 1 important thing right. He told me I could be and do whatever I wanted when I grew up. I don’t think he expected me to want a big piece of land like this and to live as self sufficiently as I can. I don’t think such a challenging way of life is what they wanted for me. They raised me in a Buddhist hippy commune in one of the most liberal cities in the country… Today, I made Anadama Bread, a New England tradition and specialty, to celebrate, that this new sick twisted bullshit masquerading as a new law in Texas and is really just systematic opression of women does not impact me. My mother marched for my rights in the 70s. My father, donned a Pussy hat, and went to the more recent women’s marches to make sure that in my life I could always do whatever I wanted with my life. I could always choose whatever I want for myself and my body. That I should never see my life destroyed by some accident or terrible violent event for the remainder of my lifetime. I am so grateful to both of them for that.

The fathers of the women of Texas let them down yesterday, the husbands and brothers, the men of Texas failed all women across this nation yesterday. Jesus, also failed the women of Texas. Everyone including Joe Biden, who has not yet stacked the court has failed the women of Texas. And this new and terrible law is going to catch on like wild fire at Mount Shasta. This is a tragic day an entire nation has failed it’s women. A Taliban like movement, has stolen the right of sovereign autonomous equal human beings and has taken their autonomy over their own bodies away. The day so beautiful on one level is in point of fact the ugliest day I have seen in my lifetime. because this was a decided issue. Back alley abortions were a thing of the past…. Now they are new and in vogue again. And yes, I am as an old fashioned homesteader deeply opposed to this new law as well as highly suspicious of it.

We live in an unchecked extremist capitalist system. People will do anything to earn a buck. Some, even buy companies, bleed them dry for personal profit then declare them bankrupt to hide from creditors and to avoid being responsible for the debts of the business they bought. In a world where that happens and a law this draconian makes no exceptions for rape victims, and does not exempt rapists from collecting from anyone who assists their victims, we have now monetized violence against women in Texas. Even if you are opposed to human rights for women, you must admit any law written in such a way as to not protect itself from being used as a business model for rapists is a poorly written law. It can now literally become a situation where men commit rape, assume their victim will abort should she get pregnant, report her an hour after the rape and should she turn up pregnant and seek an abortion, she has already been reported and the rapist then will sue her uber driver, her friends and family who offer advise, her rape crisis counselor, the counselor she discusses her desire to abort her rapist’s baby with, the doctor and nurses who perform the procedure, etc…. Now if you rape a woman in Texas, if she becomes pregnant you can literally profit 10s of thousands of dollars for your violent crime.

So today, I make Anadama bread, and I celebrate, that I am still a free woman with basic human rights not to be hunted like an animal, not controlled like something in a cage, not dictated to like a child unable to think around corners. I celebrate that my equality to any and every man, in this wonderful region of the country remains unchallenged. But I cry for my sisters in Texas as well.

I run a small B&B, here in MA. So to the women of Texas, I remind them, I can’t help them with abortions because it opens me up to lawsuit. But my door is always open to any Texas woman who needs to have a special “business” meeting or students coming here to “look at colleges,” Just mention in your email, that you want “apple pie,” for breakfast, and your stay will be free. Because we all have a duty to use our privilege in this life to help those who don’t share it. Just be sure you have a covid test no older than 24 hours coming from Texas, and that you have proof of vaccination. What has happened, is not the fault of one party or the other. Both parties have let the women of states across this country down I see Democrats, doing nothing more than running their mouths while half of this country loses the right to grow up to be anything they want in life. They run their mouths while freedom is stolen from women. It isn’t helpful, it isn’t useful, it accomplishes nothing, and it allows this to happen not only in Texas, but all across the country. Here however, I will remain safe. Here I can help women go to their business meetings look at colleges and eat some good old apple pie here in apple country.

So I make my Anadama bread, and I celebrate being a New England woman, I celebrate being one of only a few women left with basic human rights in this country.

Anadama Bread, can be made in a bread maker set to a basic white bread. For a medium sized loaf, set to basic white, medium crust, medium loaf size. In your bread machine, before you plug it in and set it, add:

1 cup water
4 tablespoons of Maple Syrup (some use molasses instead, neither way is wrong but maple is more NE.)
1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice
3 cups standard white flour
3/4s cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup polenta*
1 1/2 teaspoons of pink salt (2 teaspoons if your butter is unsalted.)
3 tablespoons earth balance butter (or regular non vegan butter)
1 1/2 teaspoons of dry yeast

*Polenta is just a grainy cornmeal. We grind it here on sight from dried corn cournals, the same cournals we use to make popcorn. If you don’t have a mini mill of your own you can purchase polenta online, or from the grocery store most probably.

Add the ingredients in the order listed if you are using a bread machine. Put the butter and salt in separate corners, make an indent into the center of the flour layers, and add the dry yeast. Plug in, set, and turn on your bread machine. Come back a few hours later, remove the bread allow it to cool, add whatever you want on top of it, and eat it. That is all there is to it. it is so simple a caveman in Texas could make it. Well… Maybe not… Since the passing of this law it seems pretty obvious, that they aren’t even smart enough to manage such a simple process. They aren’t strong enough to protect their daughters, and they aren’t generous enough to encourage their girls to be what ever they want in life. They can’t even evidently handle in their deep weakness, to stand toe to toe with free women, they can only feel manly through the victimization of their women robbing them of their self control. I mean how weak does a man have to be to compete with women for jobs and education only after hobbling women in the worst possible way. Real men, men with functional penises, respect women, and can handle competing with them on equal footing. Real men celebrate women’s achievements and recognize they can only make those achievements if they aren’t bound by an unwanted, unplanned pregnancy that can also be the result of rape or incest. Real men want to play the game on a level playing field.

So today, I celebrate my New England men, who protect my right to a level playing field. Thank you gentlemen. Truly, thank you.

I encourage everyone to travel in states and to spend their tourist money in states that do not hobble and encumber their women in the way Texas’s new law does.

I miss you Ruth Bader Ginsberg. I miss you so so much.

Thank you for reading
Amanda of Wildflower Farm