2925. The bread maker © Bruce Goodman 5 December 2023

This is the sixth of a week’s retelling of traditional folk tales. Hopefully the stories are not well-known ones. They will be told in my own words, so some details perhaps might be changed a bit here and there. My favourite type of folk tales are the ones that don’t try to teach us all a good lesson! A (rather simple) woman loved to make bread. She was told that the secret of a good loaf was to knead the dough until her backside was dripping with sweat. She tried it for hours, often slapping her naked bottom with a floury hand to see if it had begun to sweat. Eventually she gave up kneading without the sweaty behind and baked the bread. The bread was an absolute success. Such was her reputation that she was employed by the king and queen to be the kingdom’s official baker every time there was a State Dinner. Heads of State frequently complimented the bread maker on her nice buns. Contact Author Back to Index Next Story Previous Story