Israel 2004 Bread

Bread – the most important staple in a human’s diet – is made from flour that has been milled from wheat or barley. It is not a coincidence that wheat and barley are at the top of the list of the seven species that characterize Eretz Israel (Deuteronomy 8:8).  The word for bread was used in Hebrew, Arabic and in other languages as a general word for food.
 
Wild wheat and barley grew in Eretz Israel and ancient man, twenty thousand years ago, already included them in his diet. During the agricultural revolution, approximately 9000 years ago, man began to grow wheat and barley, mill the grains, knead dough and bake bread. The grains were also eaten when they were green and soft or after being roasted on the fire. Cultivation of the different grains is dependent on rain since it is not possible to irrigate such large areas of land.
 
It is said in the Bible: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread" (Genesis 3:19). Man worked hard for a slice of bread. At the beginning of the winter the fields were ploughed and seeds sown; in the spring the crop was reaped and gathered to the threshing floor, where the hard work was done: the grains were threshed with a stick, or threshing board, in order to separate the grains from the straw and chop the straw; the mixture was thrown in the air by a wooden fork so that the straw and chaff would be flown away by the wind and the seeds would fall down; the grains were then sieved to get rid of the chaff and stones. The amount of crop was measured and stored in bins. The grains were grounded with millstones and the flour was kneaded into dough – it was only then that bread was baked. In Biblical times bread was more like the thin flat pita bread we know today.
 
Today, the farmers' work is a lot easier. They use tractors and combine harvesters to plough the fields, reap the crop and separate the grain from the straw. The crop is stored in huge silos, the milling is done in mechanical flour mills and the baking by modernized bakeries.
 
Wheat is preferable to barley, in so far as nutritional value and ease of milling, but wheat requires better soil and climate conditions. Wheat was therefore grown in the central and northern valleys and hills of the country where there was enough rain. Barley was grown mainly in semi-arid areas like the northern Negev and eastern Sameria.
 
Most of today’s grains are imported because the yield of local crops is too small.  The variety of types of breads produced today is enormous, including whole wheat bread, rye bread, and low calorie bread. This is due to the refinement of tastes of the customers and quality of Israeli cuisine.
 
Description of the stamps:
 

NIS 1.50 Stamp

 

This stamp represents the crop growing in the fields. The stamp depicts an ear of wheat clearly showing the grains.  Above is a sheaf of wheat with an iron sickle of the type used for thousands of years to cut the crop by hand.
 

NIS 2.40 Stamp

 

This stamp represents the threshing and milling process. The stamp shows a round basalt hand mill of the type used to ground grains for nearly two thousand years.  A wooden fork is show on the top of the stamp. This was typically used in the north of Israel for throwing the crop into the air to separate the grain from the straw by wind power.
 

NIS 2.70 Stamp

 
This stamp represents the baking of the bread. The stamp shows a loaf of bread in the oven and above it a long-handed wooden bread shovel. This was used to place the bread in the oven and take it out after baking.