Polly's Plastic Lakeland Bags...

My Mum is great. She's kind, generous, funny, warm, a good cook, a great babysitter, Mum, Granny, friend, etc. Sometimes however, she can be somewhat over enthusiastic about certain things and when presented with the result of this enthusiasm, I don't always know quite how to react.

One of the latest objects of this enthusiasm is a simple storage device called the Bread Bag produced by Lakeland Plastics. Little more than a white cotton draw string bag which is lined with plastic, this item received little more than a cursory glance. Horror of horrors, she'd actually bought four of the blessed things and presented me with two of them, one medium and one large sized.

In the same breath I was informed that she no longer needed the fancy stoneware bread crock that I'd bought her once upon a time and that I could have it for whatever I decided to do with it. Fair enough, I thought, as we'd both had similar problems with the storage of bread in said article - ie the bread went mouldy within a couple of days occupation. Currently my bread crock holds enormous quantities of rice, keeps it dry, pest free and easily accessible. To be honest, it's a godsend!

So, without more adieu, I decided there and then that the newer, slightly larger stoneware bread crock would make a fantastic place in which to store root vegetables like spuds. These too have proved problematic, in that they're inclined to sprout at the slightest opportunity, so far the bread crock seems to have this particular issue under control.

So what of the plastic lined cotton bag? Well, eventually I decided to try it out. I did so somewhat relunctantly, as I truly didn't have any faith in the things but didn't want to upset my Mum. Rather than be accused of spurning her generosity I stuffed a Tiger Loaf from Tesco's into it and hoped for the best, nearly one week later it remained soft and fluffy, no evidence of age to make it taste stale and certainly there was no sign of mould. I was surprised, no actually I was shocked!

My next experiment was a soda bread cake. As delicious as it was, I deliberated and decided that out of sight was indeed a case of out of mind. Wholewheat soda bread is delicious, especially with a layer of butter upon it and reeks havoc on any healthy eating plan, so it had to be vanished - or else face the consequences. Where better to stuff it than into Lakeland's bread bag, whereupon it languished for the best part of a week before being rediscovered. Aw, so what? Well, normally soda bread lasts no more than 24 hours before it becomes stale and unpalatably dry but not in this case. I was actually amazed this time...

Over the past few weeks I have stuffed various different bread products into my Lakeland Bread Bags ranging from soda bread to pitta bread, tiger bread to donuts and each one has remained soft and fresh for inordinate lengths of time. I don't know how they stay fresh, they just do and whoever invented this solution to an age old problem needs a pat on the back and a round of applause.

My recommendation would be for anyone who likes their bread, especially if they live alone or as part of a small family, is to go out and try the Lakeland Bread Bag for yourselves. It works for me and hopefully it'll work for you!