True bread from heaven

When I lived in west-central Illinois in the mid 1970’s, I discovered on the shelves of our local Kroger store Rosen’s Light Jewish Rye Bread, with caraway seeds, thin sliced. It was so tasty, it immediately became my favorite bread, ever.

How good was it? Well, let me tell you about the time I hosted a cook-out for a lot of people on the big lawn in front of my apartment building. As it sometimes happens, we ran out of hot dog buns.  While someone made a quick run to a store, I went inside and brought out a loaf of Rosen’s rye which I left on the table next to the grill in case someone couldn’t wait for the replacement buns to arrive.

My attention was diverted to something else for a few minutes, but when I returned to where the hot dogs and hamburgers were being grilled, I found two of our party guests standing there eating the rye bread, plain, all by itself.  That’s how good that bread is.

Continuing to live in the Midwest, I always found Rosen’s bread in local Kroger stores, but then about ten years ago, Kroger began carrying some counterfeit brand called “Private Selection,” but it was so much like my favorite that I was sure Rosen’s was the bakery that produced it for them under private label.

Then earlier this year, I suddenly couldn’t find that rye at my local Kroger, nor any other Kroger that I went to or called on the phone. In response to my inquiries I was told that Kroger regional management in Detroit had decided to discontinue carrying that rye bread. No amount of complaining or cajoling or threatening that office moved them to restore my favorite rye bread to the shelves.

What was I supposed to do without my favorite bread that I'd been consuming for more than forty years? With what was I now supposed to eat with potato soup? What could I toast that wouldn’t be an insult to my eggs? Could I even think of making a braunschweiger sandwich on some other bread?

Finally I called Rosen’s headquarters in Chicago and asked them to tell me the nearest place I could buy their products. I said I was willing to drive two to four hours to a store that sold their wonderful rye. I was told that the closest place to me is a Jewel-Osco grocery store in Chesterton, Indiana.  I saw a day trip in my future.

But then, through the miracle of UPS and a loving wife, today there arrived on my doorstep a large box containing six loaves of Rosen’s Light Jewish Rye Bread, with caraway seeds, thin sliced, directly from their bakery in Cudahy, Wisconsin. Because the shipping cost more than the total cost of the bread, those loaves are worth about $6.00 each.

But a sandwich of braunschweiger on rye (that is, Rosen’s Light Jewish Rye Bread, with caraway seeds, thin sliced) for my lunch today – and the promise of more of those to come – proves the value of those loaves is priceless.

Thank you, JB.

(Potato soup tomorrow night.)