stating that it was possible that tree crops such as chestnuts and acorns might be made into acceptable human foods by machine manufacture in factories. Nevertheless, it was with some surprise that I found some Californians of 1927 turning out acceptable factory-made food products from the carob beans imported from Europe. In 1927 one Los Angeles company claimed an output of many loaves of carob bread a day.[1]
It is said that the carob makes excellent cereal, candy, and syrup[2]—a pound of syrup from a pound of beans—a fact that is almost staggering. The candy, which seemed also to have coconut in it, as well as the easily recognized carob flavor, was an instant success in my family; and we all liked the flavor of syrup made from carob. The analyses of carob (page 302), with its very high sugar
- ↑ I call this rainbow bread. I could never quite find the end of it. As the story came to me first it was one thousand loaves per day by one company, and I saw an airplane picture of a vast factory labeled "The Home of Carob Bread." It looked almost as large as an automobile factory. I tried to verify. I could never find that factory, but I was credibly informed that the bread industry had been primarily brought about by persons trying to sell new-planted carob land—new bait in an old, old, yet ever new game. Latest reports indicated (January, 1928) that the land-selling idea had collapsed and that the bread industry was surviving, 1,200 one and one-half pound loaves per day—25 per cent, carob in the recipe. Lest I should appear unsympathetic, I wish to state my belief that carob beans are good material for human food. This is true of at least two hundred other materials not now used to any large extent or not used at all for food in the United States. The question is, who can make us eat these new things? A pig or calf eats what is set before him. People in rich America eat what pleases them, and one of the last things any reformer can do is to change food habits. Apparently there is no reason other than inertia why carob bread should not come to great importance. Food factories now open the way (Cf. p. 153), but don't forget inertia.
- ↑ "Mr. Lawrence Holmes, a large grower at Arlington. California, wrote June 16, 1927:
"Every pound of carob makes a full pound of carob syrup, which I consider far superior in flavor to maple sugar. It is sweeter and goes further. It mixes exceedingly well with milk and preserves the milk to keep twice as long; and if one did not know that the milk was mixed with carob syrup, he would mistake it for a chocolate malted milk."
