In praise of crumbs

Caterina

I found the article below in an Italian environmental magazine that I subscribe to and when I read it I was really moved by the simple wisdom it contained. I contacted the author, who is happy for this to be copied freely, as he does not believe in copyright. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did, perhaps we can all become crumb-collectors!

Love

Caterina xxx

In Praise of Crumbs

It does not take a lot to be happy. We have all the necessary ingredients. Perhaps we have forgotten the recipe, or someone might want to lead us to believe that happiness is a cake that needs complex instrumentation to be properly cooked. In reality, life is so abundant that in order to be happy it is sufficient to have the crumbs.

Play this game. Pick up your breadcrumbs. Yes, your crumbs, all the breadcrumbs that you make in twenty days. Every time you cut bread store the crumbs away, before storing the tablecloth away recover all the crumbs. It is not difficult, it is sufficient to make it a habit of it and to own a suitable container. Within a week you will already have a good amount of crumbs which you can use in various ways: put them in your vegetable pureed soup, put them in your chick pea pies, put them in your chestnut pies, put them in your custards, put then in your mix to stuff vegetables, put them in your salads.

When you become crumb experts, when, therefore, you understand the great importance of crumbs, then the game will become more interesting, because the recovery of crumbs will need to be extended. You will become crumb-seekers and your little bag will always be full of golden dust.

In the homes of friends, relatives and acquaintances, you will be recovering crumbs. In restaurants, canteens, in a caf!, you will be recovering crumbs. If you go, trustful, towards crumbs, crumbs will show you the way, will help you to understand.

Crumbs are minute fragments, so small that it is not worth taking them into consideration, so small that we can only throw them away. This disgraceful and destructive thought is perhaps the basis of consumerism and superficiality that led us to today’s chasm.

Through a sort of colonial-patriarchal arrogance we have always thrown away crumbs, we have never found crumbs to be enough for us. We have always considered them, together with everything that is small, insignificantly important, totally unacceptable, due to our greatness.

To pick up crumbs, on the contrary, is a creative act, because it stimulates us to research new ways of recycling, reusing and recovering them. Crumbs, too, are much lighter than the whole original loaf, therefore much more easily transportable, manageable, storable, cookable.

Other animals treat crumbs with much more respect and intelligence. I have seen dogs, cats, mice and other lovely elements eat crumbs with the same attention and diligence that they use when they chew on larger pieces. Animals, therefore, demonstrate a notable ecological wisdom. They know the importance of crumbs. In an eco-happy society it is acceptable to throw crumbs only to offer them to sparrows, pigeons and other habitual consumers.

Instead of eating animals, then, we ought to learn the lesson about crumbs and move to a simpler, truly easy, truy happy, truly frugal nutrition.

Article published in AAM Terra Nuova June 2009, No. 240, page 100. Extract from the booklet “Facile Felice Frugale” (“Easy Happy Frugal”) entirely realised with recovered materials by Troglodita Tribe Spaf (Societa` per azioni felici). You can order the booklet via internet www.trogloditatribe.wordpress.com .

Translation by Caterina

maltesers_2

A wonderful MS OS philosophy.

Caterina

Glad you liked it! I sent it to the Real Bread campaign people and they loved it, in fact they are going to publish it in their e-newsletter, which by coincidence is also called The Breadcrumb!

I have really started collecting crumbs and have already had them in soup and salad!

Stephen_Leak

Almost Zen.

FairyElephant_2

Ooh Caterina! What a lovely piece. Ever since I started making my own bread after Christmas, I collect all the crumbs into a plastic box whenever I cut it, and there are quite a few! DH thought I was quite mad until I showed him how many uses you can put to these little things which otherwise would be thrown away and wasted!

I don't think I would go so far as to collect them from restaurant and cafes though - I'd probably forget them afterwards and end up with crumb-filled handbag and pockets!

Winky,_The_House_Elf

OH is Dutch, and when we are playing gin-rummy, he often mutters "Crumbs are bread too" when he scores a small point. Apparantly it is one of his mothers favourite expressions, about being greatful for the small things in life. I think its so sweet.

Winky x

queen_of_string

Food for thought thank you.

Caterina

I am so glad that you all like it, I found it incredibly inspirational. The same people have also written another article that is a bit more difficult to translate but it is all about praising the Italian habit of "scarpetta" (literal translation: little shoe).

For the non-Italians among you, scarpetta is the act of mopping up juices and sauces from the plate with a piece (or more) of bread once you have finished eating the main food.

If I get around to translating it I shall put it here, it is also very good, very OS and very inspirational.

Confuzzled

Caterina wrote: »

For the non-Italians among you, scarpetta is the act of mopping up juices and sauces from the plate with a piece (or more) of bread once you have finished eating the main food.

l.

thanks for sharing that was truly inspirational and i shall have to read it to my daughter tomorrow as she's very big on recycling and this will tie nicely into that without making mum look too tightfisted

i've taught her the fine art of scarpetta as you call it, not only moping sauces and such like up with bread but also how to properly lick a plate/bowl clean (at home!) without getting her hair in it and how to slyly use ones fingers (if she runs out of bread) if we're in a restaurant and it's too good to waste

maybe i should print this out and send it to my ex mil, i have to choke back the comment whenever i visit because she always throws away so much food, even if i comment 'oh save that,we'll nibble on it later' or 'we'll have that for breakfast' she's tossing it away. she was a war baby too you wouldn't think she'd be so wasteful!

anyway thanks for sharing that made me smile :T

vatic

Caterina, thanks so much for sharing that. It's a wonderful philosophy for life and food, something the Italians definitely have gotten right! I agree with others that it's very inspirational. I used to just compost my crumbs because I didn't like the idea of them "going to waste", now I'll be saving them for later nibbles

catznine

Thanks for that Caterina! I thought I was alone in my crumb collecting! I keep a ziplock bag in the freezer and add all my crumbs to that. Another bag contains crusts ready to blitz in the processor. When I have enough I use them as a topping for my families favourite courgette and tomato bake. Also the tightwad gazette recipe for crumb cookies is very good. I had never thought to add them to soups though!:T