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<div class="dave-kitchen">
<!-- MASTHEAD -->
<div class="dk-masthead">
<div class="dk-masthead-title">The Kitchen Counter</div>
<div class="dk-masthead-tagline">Letters from readers who found something worth passing on</div>
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<div class="dk-inner">
<!-- ARTICLE OPEN -->
<div class="dk-article-open">
<div class="dk-kicker">A Reader Letter</div>
<h1 class="dk-headline">Four days last week I couldn't get a sandwich into my lunchbox. My wife counted it up. We threw away $47 in bread.</h1>
<div class="dk-byline">By <strong>Dave Miller</strong></div>
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<div class="dk-story-img">
<img src="REPLACE_IMAGE_01_HERO_DAVE_KITCHEN.jpg" alt="Dave Miller at his kitchen counter early morning">
<div class="dk-caption">Dave at the kitchen counter, 4:45 in the morning.</div>
</div>
<p class="dk-p">I'm 58. I've been getting up at a quarter to five in the morning for 32 years. Same job. I work over at the plant. Diane packs my lunch the night before most weeks, but she started working Saturdays at her sister's shop so now I do it myself before I leave.</p>
<p class="dk-p">I'm not writing this because I want to. I'm writing this because Diane made me. Four days last week I couldn't get a sandwich in my lunchbox. Four days in a row. I want to tell you about it.</p>
<div class="dk-day">Monday</div>
<div class="dk-story-img">
<img src="REPLACE_IMAGE_02_FROZEN_LOAF.jpg" alt="Rock-hard frozen loaf on cutting board">
<div class="dk-caption">The knife bounced off it.</div>
</div>
<p class="dk-p">Diane had put the bread in the freezer Sunday night because we weren't going to eat it fast enough. I open the freezer at five in the morning and pull it out. Try to cut a slice. The knife bounces. I try to pull two slices apart with my hands and half the loaf comes off in a chunk.</p>
<p class="dk-p">I put it in the microwave. Now it's wet on the outside and still froze in the middle. Threw the whole thing in the trash. Grabbed a bag of chips and left.</p>
<p class="dk-p">Bought a hot dog at the gas station at 11:30. Six bucks.</p>
<div class="dk-day">Tuesday</div>
<div class="dk-story-img">
<img src="REPLACE_IMAGE_03_SOGGY_PLASTIC.jpg" alt="Wonder Bread bag with condensation inside">
<div class="dk-caption">Wet on the outside, dry in the middle. Two ham sandwiches in the trash.</div>
</div>
<p class="dk-p">Diane picked up a loaf of Wonder Bread on the way home from work. Made me two ham sandwiches Monday night, put them in the lunchbox in a Ziploc.</p>
<p class="dk-p">I opened the Ziploc at noon Tuesday. The bread was wet. I don't know how else to say it. The plastic had been sweating in my lunchbox since five in the morning and the bread was soft on the outside and dry in the middle at the same time. I ate one bite and threw both sandwiches out.</p>
<p class="dk-p">Went across the street for a sub. Nine bucks.</p>
<div class="dk-day">Wednesday</div>
<div class="dk-story-img">
<img src="REPLACE_IMAGE_04_MOLDY_BREAD.jpg" alt="Green mold spots on white bread slices">
<div class="dk-caption">Bag had been open two days.</div>
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<p class="dk-p">Wednesday morning I pull out the Wonder Bread and there's fuzz on the top slice. Little green spots. Bag had been open two days.</p>
<p class="dk-p">Diane threw the whole loaf out. Seven dollars gone.</p>
<p class="dk-p">I said forget it and grabbed a granola bar. Ate two vending machine sandwiches at work. Twelve bucks.</p>
<div class="dk-pullquote">Two loaves in the trash. Twenty-seven dollars on gas station lunches. And it was only Wednesday.</div>
<div class="dk-day">Thursday</div>
<div class="dk-story-img">
<img src="REPLACE_IMAGE_05_INGREDIENT_LIST.jpg" alt="Hand holding Sara Lee loaf showing ingredient list">
<div class="dk-caption">Twenty-seven ingredients. I recognized four.</div>
</div>
<p class="dk-p">Diane came home Wednesday night with a big soft loaf of Sara Lee. Said this one stays fresh for three weeks. Says so on the bag.</p>
<p class="dk-p">I flipped the bag over Thursday morning while the coffee was going. I read the back. I don't know why I'd never done that before. Twenty-seven ingredients. Twenty-seven. I know what flour is. I know what water is. I know what yeast is.</p>
<p class="dk-p">I did not know what mono- and diglycerides were. I did not know what calcium propionate was. There was one on there called azodicarbonamide. I looked it up on my phone standing right there at the counter.</p>
<p class="dk-p">They banned it in Europe. It's in almost every white bread on the shelf here.</p>
<p class="dk-p">I ate the sandwich anyway. I had to go to work.</p>
<div class="dk-day">Friday</div>
<div class="dk-story-img">
<img src="REPLACE_IMAGE_06_TIRED_TRUCK.jpg" alt="Man in pickup truck with headache">
<div class="dk-caption">Sat in the truck at lunch and didn't even try to eat.</div>
</div>
<p class="dk-p">Friday I woke up with a headache. Not a hangover headache. I don't drink much. This was like somebody put a belt around my head and pulled it tight. Stomach felt off. Didn't want breakfast.</p>
<p class="dk-p">Got through the day. Sat in the truck at lunch and didn't even try to eat. Called Diane and told her I felt like garbage.</p>
<p class="dk-p">She sat down Sunday night and added it up on the back of an envelope. Nine dollar frozen loaf in the trash. Seven dollar moldy loaf in the trash. Gas station hot dog. Sub place. Two vending machine sandwiches. Sara Lee loaf we didn't want to touch anymore. Forty-seven dollars.</p>
<p class="dk-p"><strong>In bread. In four days.</strong></p>
<div class="dk-day">Saturday</div>
<div class="dk-story-img">
<img src="REPLACE_IMAGE_07_FACEBOOK_POST.jpg" alt="Facebook post about Hollis Brenner on phone">
<div class="dk-caption">Diane's friend from church sent her the post.</div>
</div>
<p class="dk-p">Saturday morning Diane's friend from church sent her a Facebook post. Some baker up in New York state closing his doors after 42 years. Making cotton bread bags with beeswax the way his grandmother used to. Bread stays soft on the counter five to seven days. No plastic. No fridge. No twenty-seven-ingredient loaf.</p>
<p class="dk-p">His name is Hollis Brenner. Bakery's been open since 1982. He was closing when the last bag sold.</p>
<p class="dk-p">Diane ordered two.</p>
<div class="dk-story-img">
<img src="REPLACE_IMAGE_08_BRENNER_BAG.jpg" alt="Brenner Bakery beeswax cotton bread bag on counter">
<div class="dk-caption">Same loaf, same counter, four days later. Still soft.</div>
</div>
<p class="dk-p">They came Tuesday. We put a fresh loaf in one, left it on the counter. No fridge. No plastic. Wednesday, soft. Thursday, soft. Friday, soft. Saturday morning I made toast off the same loaf and it tasted like bread.</p>
<div class="dk-pullquote">I don't know when bread got this way. All I know is my dad kept a loaf on the counter in a linen bag and it lasted a week.</div>
<p class="dk-p">I don't know why my head hurt last Friday. I'm not a doctor. All I know is I switched what I was eating and it stopped.</p>
<p class="dk-p">Forty-seven dollars in four days. The bag was $34.95 for two. We haven't thrown a loaf of bread out since it got here.</p>
<p class="dk-p">His name is Hollis Brenner. He's closing when the last bag is sold. No next batch. If Diane's friend hadn't sent her that post I'd still be buying gas station hot dogs.</p>
<p class="dk-p">I don't write things like this. Diane said other guys should know. So here it is.</p>
<div class="dk-signoff">— Dave</div>
<!-- CTA BLOCK -->
<div class="dk-cta">
<div class="dk-cta-headline">See the Facebook post Diane's friend sent</div>
<div class="dk-cta-sub">Buy 1 Get 1 Free while the last batch lasts. When they are gone, they are gone.</div>
<a href="https://brennerbakery.com/products/premium-100-cotton-beewax-bread-bag" class="dk-cta-btn">See the Bag</a>
</div>
<!-- COMMENTS -->
<div class="dk-comments">
<div class="dk-comments-header">312 Comments</div>
<div class="dk-comment">
<div class="dk-avatar">M</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Margaret Ellison</span><span class="dk-comment-time">1h</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">Dave this is my husband. Word for word. He's a foreman and he packs his own lunch and half the time I find sandwiches in the trash on Tuesday. Ordering two right now.</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 47</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<div class="dk-avatar">D</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Dennis R.</span><span class="dk-comment-time">3h</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">Azodicarbonamide. My doctor told me two years ago to stop eating any bread with that in it. Almost every white bread on the shelf has it. Nobody talks about it.</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 82</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<div class="dk-avatar">D</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Diane Miller</span><span class="dk-comment-time">4h</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">He forgot to tell you he laid on the couch all Friday night with a heating pad on his head. He also forgot to tell you our son Kevin ordered two more of the bags for his family in Georgia after I sent him the link. — Diane</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 128</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<div class="dk-avatar">B</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Bob Kowalczyk</span><span class="dk-comment-time">5h</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">Dave I drive a route truck. I have thrown so many sandwiches in gas station trash cans I could not even count. Wife ordered the Brenner bags last week. Bread on the counter Wednesday still soft Sunday. Not making this up.</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 61</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<div class="dk-avatar">S</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Sherri Ann Mills</span><span class="dk-comment-time">7h</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">My mother kept bread in a cotton bag on the counter my whole childhood. It lasted a week and nobody got sick. Something changed and nobody talks about it.</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 94</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<div class="dk-avatar">P</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Patricia H.</span><span class="dk-comment-time">10h</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">27 ingredients. My grandmother made bread with five. I do not know how we got here.</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 71</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<div class="dk-avatar">R</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Ray Thibodeau</span><span class="dk-comment-time">13h</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">Dave I'm 62. Been driving forklift 28 years. Same story every week. I stopped eating store bread last year and my headaches stopped. Not a coincidence.</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 55</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<div class="dk-avatar">D</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Deborah Whitaker</span><span class="dk-comment-time">17h</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">I read Carol Hayes' story a few weeks ago and ordered mine then. This is the second story I've read that hit me the same way. Ordering two more for my brother in Phoenix and my father-in-law in Tampa.</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 43</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<div class="dk-avatar">E</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Ellen McBride</span><span class="dk-comment-time">21h</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">Please tell Hollis and Cathy thank you. My husband hasn't complained about his lunch in ten days. That is not a small thing in this house.</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 58</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<div class="dk-avatar">T</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Tom G.</span><span class="dk-comment-time">1d</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">Subway took azodicarbonamide out of their bread in 2014 when the public found out. Nobody else did. It's still in almost every sandwich loaf on the shelf. Look it up yourself.</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 102</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<div class="dk-avatar">N</div>
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<div class="dk-comment-meta"><span class="dk-comment-name">Nancy Coleman</span><span class="dk-comment-time">1d</span></div>
<div class="dk-comment-text">I run a cooking club and I have now sent both the Carol Hayes story and this one to my whole mailing list. Half the club has already ordered. Dave you did the right thing writing this down.</div>
<div class="dk-comment-actions"><span>Like · 49</span><span>Reply</span></div>
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<!-- STICKY BOTTOM BAR -->
<div class="dk-sticky">
<div class="dk-sticky-text">Retirement Sale · 2 for $34.95<em>When they are gone, they are gone.</em></div>
<a href="https://brennerbakery.com/products/premium-100-cotton-beewax-bread-bag" class="dk-sticky-btn">Claim Now</a>
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