100% Preservatif Free

Years ago, when I ran away to Paris and did a language immersion program, we had several people in our class with birthdays the same week. A classmate and I brought a cake to class to celebrate. As with all things, this was a learning opportunity, and our instructor Anne asked the class how birthdays were celebrated in each of our countries.

One of my fellow American classmates—let’s call her Barbara—talked about the custom of blowing out candles on cakes. But, she said, the cakes were horrible. Nothing compared to the delicious French gâteaux. Anne asked why the cakes were so bad. And Barbara, a retiree from Northern California, said it was all the preservatives in cakes. Except that’s not what she said.

In French, there are several faux amis (false friends)—words that look similar to English words but do not mean the same thing. Preservatifs are actually condoms. So, while the rest of the class cracked up and Anne no doubt wondered why those crazy Americans were putting condoms in their cakes, Barbara looked on mystified.

I thought of this the other day when JoAnn and I were talking about organic vs. non-organic ingredients. Organic vs. cage free eggs. And so on.

Gluten-free ingredients are expensive, and adding organic to the mix drives up the cost even more. We want to bring the best possible products to the market, but we don’t want people who need to eat gluten-free to be denied because of price.

That’s a delicate balance that we are still navigating. We can say, however, that we will use only quality ingredients from trusted suppliers. They may not always be 100 percent organic. But they will always be 100 percent condom-free.