It’s National Banana Bread Day . . . and even though it’s DELICIOUS, I bet there won’t be many people out there celebrating. But there was a time when banana bread was a GLOBAL PHENOMENON.
Remember four years ago, when the pandemic was first setting in . . . everyone was under lockdown . . . and there was nothing to do except wait in long lines outside CVS for toilet paper, and watch “Tiger King”?
You may have blocked this from your memory, but that was also a time of peak banana bread. In the spring of 2020, Google searches for banana bread were up 54% worldwide, and EVERYONE was making it.
At the time, one person Tweeted, “Why is everyone making banana bread . . . like specifically banana bread? I get baking is fun to cure boredom, but why banana bread? It’s all I’ve seen people make!”
Another said, “Anyone else in their kitchen sipping red wine and aggressively baking banana bread at 9:40 P.M.?” And another asked, “Is Covid-19 sponsored by banana bread?”
Instagram was flooded with people sharing “THE best” banana bread recipes . . . and Chrissy Teigen was using it to barter for lettuce in a parking lot.
(It says something about the power of banana bread that our passion was THIS intense, and yet, many of us couldn’t smell or taste anything.)
So, now that we’re FOUR YEARS into everyone making banana bread . . . has the world mastered banana bread? Do we have a banana bread that can CURE CANCER?
No, unfortunately. We moved on to sourdough . . . kombucha . . . puzzles . . . board games . . . virtual Zoom parties . . . reorganizing closets . . . working out in the living room . . . and drinking . . . before finally going back outside again.
And the wonder of banana bread was gone. But don’t let it become forgotten.
Celebrate National Banana Bread Day.