A growing problem in Denbigh

Jack Benjamin | Apr 01, 2020

With a sudden shortage of yeast in grocery stores across Ontario coming about as the result of self-isolation and a resurgence of home baking, a store in Griffith, just north of Denbigh, found a new supplier of yeast had some for sale, so they took an order from the dePaola yeast company out of Clinton Street in Toronto.

A group of bakers from Denbigh rushed out to get the yeast. One of them was Jody Browne.

“I bought two packages and brought it home, and followed a standard recipe for a raisin bread that I made a few years ago and thought I would make now with my twins, Brian and Bella. We mixed the yeast in with water and it started bubbling even before we added sugar,” Jodie, earlier this week.

“When we added the sugar, it started foaming so we quickly added four cups of flour and some raisins. It started to rise almost immediately so we added more flour, but soon it began overflowing the bowl onto the floor of the house. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

With the floor getting covered in a foaming mass, Jody got a broom and a pail and began shoveling the mixture into the pail and tossing it out the front door onto the year.

I filled that pail many times before I got most of it out in the yard, and I had to keep scooping it out of different corners of the house with a shovel before I got it all outside. It was scary, like a fungus growing in my house, she said. “It was only after I had cleaned out the house t when I noticed what was going on outside.”

By that time the front lawn was covered in a growing mass of light brown dough. A couple of neighbours had also started making bread and their lawns were covered as well. All three of the houses are located on Bridge Street, the main street in town, which was starting to be blocked. The fire department was called and they brought out their hoses to water down the mass to try and dissipate the yeast but that only made matters worse.

Finally, township snow ploughs were called in and they shoveled it into a pile like it was so much snow. They then pushed onto the ice on Denbigh Lake. Not knowing what to do someone tossed firecracker into the mass of brown foaming dough and it caught fire. The fire spread through the dough and lit the sky. The heat finally killed the yeast, and the surface of what was by now a 25 metre radius round loaf, burned for exactly 35 minutes. Fire crews watched it burn, making sure the fire did not spread, with hoses available but not used for fear it would just make it rise.

After the fire went, the smoke cleared to reveal a massive loaf of raisin bread. It was dark brown, but strangely it did not appear burnt. Bella and Brian Browne ran onto the approached the loaf and tore of chunks and started eating, much to Jody Brownes dismay. She ran to grab the bread from them, fearing it must be toxic, when they said it was delicious, the best raisin bread they had ever tasted. Brian handed Jody a piece and she tried a small bite and smiled. It was indeed delicious. Soon, the fire chief tried some, followed by the crew. Within minutes the entire town was breaking bread together. The loaf was so large they could share a community meal while maintaining a two metre COVID-29 safety gap between them.

They ate the bread until they were all full. A wind then picked up and the ice began to groan underneath their feet so everyone scrambled to shore. Within minutes the ice had broken up and the loaf of bread had disappeared into the lake, leavening no trace.

The News tried calling the DePaola yeast company in Toronto but there was no listing, not website, not even a Facebook or Instagram page. It was as if they never existed. Using what they called “an abundance of caution”, the store in Griffith destroyed the rest of the yeast in a fire. They said they called the DePaola yeast company for an explanation but could not find them either.

“It was as if they never existed” said the store owner Julie Barston.

(Dedicated to the memory of Tomie DePaola, author of Strega Nona, who died on March 31 at the age of 85)