Tante Lina’s Bakery

Tucker with Breadboard

Like Father Christmas himself, Tucker came over for our Friday Night Gathering with a big cloth sack that looked enticingly lumpy and full of hidden surprises.  It contained his “show and tell” for the evening – a weekly event that he began several years ago.  Each Friday he shares something from his seemingly endless trove of treasures.  Tucker is a Collector Extraordinaire and I think our Friday Nighters are the only people outside his family and closest friends who have any idea of the width and breadth of his interests and accumulation.

First out of the bag came a photo album from Carol and Tucker’s first trip to visit the relatives in Germany.  It was 1970 and they looked oh so young!  “I think we were 22,” he said.  He showed us the big stone building that had been his great-grandfather’s bakery and then belonged to his great aunt, Tante Lina.  She was there, in many of the pictures – a short woman standing tall.  I didn’t ask Tucker, but she looked like a force to reckon with.

Mark with Rolling Pin

Once we had been introduced to the ‘setting,’ out came a large round bread board with a handle – wooden and all of a piece.  It looked and felt as though it had supported many hundreds of loaves.  I think everyone in the room coveted that bread board!  Then came the rolling pins – longer than the one you might still use in your kitchen – all solid pieces of wood, some with handles, some without.

Finally, there came the metal “stamps” – I’m sure they have a name, but I don’t know it.  They reminded me a lot of my grandfather’s cattle branding iron, but these were used to label the weights of each loaf – 1K (one kilo), 2K (two kilos) and, my favorite 1-1/2 K! Like old-fashioned moveable type, they read right-to-left until they were imprinted on the bread.  Fabulous!

1-1/2 Kilo Stamp (upside down and backwards)

I’m not clear if the bakery was still in use when Carol and Tucker made that first trip or when, exactly, he acquired these mementos.   Whenever it was, I’m so glad he shared them.  And last night seemed perfect.  As we were oohing and aahing, Nyel’s bread dough was rising in the kitchen!  About a kilo (2.20 pounds), maybe and the perfect accompaniment to our meals for the next few days.  And with every bite, we’ll be thinking of Tante Lina’s Bakery, even though we never had the pleasure of seeing it first-hand!

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