This pandemic has not only divided us up into the obvious political camps, but created unexpected common ground, despite very divergent situations.

Take for example the “sourdoughers” phenomenon, wherein young middle class parents with 1.5 kids who could work from home, and old retirees like us on a fixed income and time on our hands, both found ourselves stuck at home brewing up sourdough starter, due to COVID confinement and yeast shortages.  We’re not demographics you would normally associate together!  I didn’t even realize it was a thing when we first fired up the sourdough lab, and how it was already becoming a cliché.

In contrast, there are the many less fortunate people who either couldn’t afford to stay home during the pandemic, or could afford to work from home while overwhelmed at the same time with caregiving.  Not to mention people from all walks of life who face loss of jobs and income, homelessness, and death because of the pandemic and other disasters.

Not to beat a dead metaphor, but we’re all in the same Titanic together, whether a high class passenger or a worker in steerage; there are supposedly only a few lifeboats to go around, and only for the privileged few, and even fewer still actually make it.  The only difference is, there’s still time to turn this boat around and change the outcome, if our “leadership” would take its head out of its a$$ and lead by example.

In short, I’ve become very aware of how fortunate we are to be able to afford to stay home, stay safe, and produce some of our own food while sitting out this crisis.  This virus is no respecter of persons or situations.  It can randomly affect anyone, regardless of income, age, or circumstances.  As it happens, ironically our modest situation turned out to be an advantage, but most people are not in our position.

So when I go on about breads and produce, I don’t mean to be insensitive.  I know everyone is facing stressful concerns.  We each have different strategies for getting through this.  Ours is to try to maintain some kind of consistent, productive routine while we’re stuck isolated at home.  And I attempt to write about it, in the hopes that it might encourage someone else.  I know how lucky we are to have a home and be able to stay there indefinitely.

And with that, back to our usual slide show of veggies, flowers, and homebaked concoctions.

This is E’s delicious savory “breakfast” pie, before and after.

The garden continues to produce pretty stuff, including an eggplant flower!  An actual eggplant might be too much to ask.  But we keep at it.