Last night, webmaster Ben connected me to the Ask_Molly emails but before I begin to weigh in on your questions, let me share with you a slice of life at the farm.

A small eternity ago a couple of months ago, I was given a baggie full of starter mix for something called Tyranny Bread Amish Friendship Bread from one of Ben’s friends who lives in Boston.

This foamy bag of sugar, milk, flour and yeast is mushed in its baggie for ten days before use. Extra sugar, flour and milk are added on day five with two loaves of a sort of cinnamon coffee cake the reward on day ten.

Each time the yeasty mix is ready for baking, I end up with bread AND three new baggies of starter to share so others can have their own Tyranny Bread Amish Friendship Bread . This sharing is the nightmare friendship part of the bread.

For a few rounds of the bread cycle, this sharing was manageable fun. I foisted off gave a bag to everyone in the Green Hope Farm office. The post office was also a good dump gifting zone because I never knew who I might run into. There was always someone who would in a weak moment of zero foresight do as I did and gladly receive friendship in a baggie.

In a light bulb moment of desperation I sent Jim to his school to share baggies of the starter. I expected this lifeline to last for months as he has fifty colleagues. What I failed to consider was that once he gave starter baggies to even a couple of his fellow teachers, they too would have their own baggies to share. This well of victims dried up very very fast.

In fact, Jim tells me that everywhere in the school there are platters of Friendship cake, Friendship cupcakes and Friendship loaves. Additionally, so many people have accosted him with friendship baggies he feels like running down the halls without meeting anyone’s eyes.

Do they all know that he started this complete preoccupation with a not very good bread and its problem progeny?

I must confess to considering asking if any of you wanted a baggie in with your orders of Flower Essences, but I didn’t want to make my solution your problem, nor did I want this very lively starter mix to explode in transit all over your Flower Essences.

Today is day ten of my latest bread cycle. That sounds creepy doesn’t it? To put it more politely- Yum Yum! Its time to get baking!

The original recipe called for a large box of instant vanilla pudding. You could probably track the movement of this bread dough epidemic by sales in instant vanilla pudding. When I went to a big chain grocery store to stock up on the pudding, I found the shelves bare where the pudding was usually shelved. Being an ace detective, I knew this meant the Friendship Bread outbreak had left our little village and gone on to ruin the lives and preoccupy the thoughts of people all over our region.

Suddenly that gift from Ben’s friend in Boston makes more sense. Of course, Matt needed to leave town and visit friends in the countryside with his baggies of starter. There probably isn’t a single gullible person in Boston who doesn’t have the millstone of Tyranny Bread Amish Friendship Bread hanging around his or her neck.

People of Boston, I sympathize!

So anyways, I have decided to do what I should have done weeks ago. Today, Grace’s second birthday, I am making my last Tyranny Bread Amish Friendship Bread for a midmorning snack then I am throwing away the starter. By now I have adapted the recipe to nix the impossible to find instant vanilla pudding and to change it from bland bread into the excellent Fruit Cobbler from the Green Hope Farm Cookbook.

I will serve the fluffed up Tyranny Bread Amish Friendship Bread at the office birthday party. I will pretend to not notice people gagging at the idea of more Tyranny Bread Amish Friendship Bread.

Maybe they won’t recognize it in the cobbler disguise?

Fat chance of this as I shared last week’s faux Tyranny Bread Amish Friendship Bread/ Fruit Cobbler with them………In fact, this could be a photo of a left over piece of the cobbler. It is a much better cobbler when made according to the recipe in the cookbook and WITHOUT a baggie of friendship.

Oh well…..Who eats any of the snacks at a birthday party anyways?

After the party, I will throw all baggies of friendship away. All of them. Even the one I am supposed to save for myself for my next batch.

Webmaster Ben wants me to practice my hyperlink skills in my blogs so here are the Flower Essences I am going to take today to help me make the break. They are all linked to their pages on the website. Be impressed Ben. It is amazing I can think about anything else given all my problems with Tyranny Bread Amish Friendship Bread.

Alex Mackenzie Rose It is going to take courage to do what I need to do today and this Rose Essence will help me dump and run.

Heliotrope No guilt here as I find freedom from the bread- and yes, I will fix the picture of Heliotrope on the website as this is not really a photo of Heliotrope but Sedum with some Heliotrope almost not showing.

Love It and Leave It Never was there a better moment for this one as I literally love it and leave it!

Don’t Worry-Bee Happy Yes! I will not worry about the poor baggie of starter I am about to wash down the sink. I will remember that thanks to me, 6 zillion other baggies of friendship live on in my little village!

Gratitude I will try to remember this friendship with Tyranny Bread Amish Friendship Bread with a grateful heart. It thickened my waistline, it brought me friends who ran when they saw me with my baggies, but yes, it also gave me laughs. Thank you Tyranny Bread Amish Friendship Bread. It was nice to know you and to let you go.