The children, for the most part, just seemed taken with the spectacle and the opportunity to throw anything in the fire — bread, potato chip bags, licorice.
Tolkien's anti-materialistic worldview, in which he extolled the wonders of growing things and of the ordinary – "stone, and wood, and iron; tree and grass; house and fire; bread and wine", as he put it in his 1947 essay On Fairy-Stories – also dovetailed with the countercultural values.
"When there was a Stark at Winterfell... travelers could find fire, bread, and salt at many an inn and holdfast.
(Burning gorse generates so much heat that it was the fuel of choice to fire medieval bread ovens).
Wild mashups of Ewan MacGregor firing garlic bread from trebuchets shot to the top of enemy subreddits.
As are trucks and cars, woodpiles, sheds, a small sawmill and a wood-fired bread oven.
And it is the venue for a wide array of community events, ranging from wood-fired bread bakes to conferences on human rights journalism, from jazz concerts to encounters with writers.
A central theme emerging from this fertile mix focuses on food culture: the constellation of community garden, farmers market, wood-fired bread oven, and cafe has established the conditions for active inquiry into the practical requirements of sustainable local food systems.
That and a chunk of fire-toasted bread, and all is good.
Fire and bread had special importance and were taken along to the house of the newly married couple.
