A screenshot of a now-viral Facebook post showing Roberta Wright pulling a loaf of bread from her mailbox on a hot Houston day. Wright says the picture only tells half the story.
Roberta Wright via Facebook
Wright, a retired educator and administrator at HISD, came up with the idea amid the searing temperatures burning at her Montgomery County home.
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Wright had her husband take photos of her getting the loaf of bread from the mailbox at their house. When she posted them to Facebook, it caught wind of her church’s pastor, Howard E. Caesar. Caesar, the former Unity Church minister, reposted the two photos to his page and watched it take off. As of Friday, it had been shared more than 11,000 times.
“Apparently, she was even contacted by people in France, where her book was pretty well received,” Caesar said.
And now for the less magical side of it all: is it even possible to bake bread in a mailbox when the outside temperature is over 100 degrees? Unfortunately, for those of us with a flair for the theater, the answer is no. In fact, Wright said her daughter was hesitant about the whole thing popping up.
“Technically, I checked it in the mailbox and then finished baking it inside,” she said. “My daughter told me to be careful how I say this because I didn’t technically bake it in a mailbox, but I just loved the illusion.”
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The term “leaving” in breadmaking refers to the point at which the yeast causes the dough to ferment, causing it to rise. As soon as it has risen, a baker puts it in the oven. There is a wide range of temperatures for proofing bread, from 50 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
Meanwhile, Wright is excited about the potential attention it will bring to her children’s book, Out of This World Granny. She said if she could get even a tiny fraction of the people who’ve followed her story to buy the book, she’d be grateful.