Baking for houses during lockdown.

[BlueSea68]

Today we had been left a bag of cookies with stay safe written on the bag and it seems as though many others in our village had received these.

I am in the extremely vulnerable category and I threw them into the bin because I don't trust anything that a random person has baked and touched but it seems as though I am in the minority as the Facebook group is heaving with thanks to the mysterious baker.

I'm just wondering if others have received things like this and I wanted to ask if you yourself would trust it and eat it?

It has made me feel conflicted and guilty.

Not a chance would I. My doctor's surgery posted a thanks on Facebook for a homemade cake they'd been given iced and everything, at least a cookie is eaten straight from the oven.

I wouldn't eat an anonymous cookie at the best of times!

I wouldn't eat an anonymous cookie at the best of times!

I was thinking the same. And to be honest, at the moment, even if I did know who had made these things, I wouldn’t want them.

Don’t feel guilty, you didn’t ask for them.

No 🤮People will say thanks, I would, but I wouldn’t eat them.

I saw stuff on BBC about how lovely it was to leave xyz on people's doorsteps.

Don't really get how if it's a 5yo or whatever then the current rules don't apply!

Guess they like a feelgood story.

I was watching something on Covid-19 that said it's actually safer contact when ingested as the stomach acids will take care of it. It's when it's passed to the throat and not washed down is when it's more likely to infect.

HOWEVER, not a chance in hell would I eat home baking from someone I didn't know. Or even certain people I DO know.

Cats on countertops, cluttered, dirty kitchens, people who don't wash their hands... the list is endless. Nope. I bake and giveaway goods all the time to friends and neighbours (who want them) but I'm an absolute clean freak in the kitchen (sadly not really the rest of my house ) and with a lot of baked goods there's no need to touch them anyway. Banana loaves, cupcakes or gingerbread loaves for example only touch the bowl, spook, whisk and baking paper etc.

How kind of the random baker, it was a nice thought, but I'd have binned them immediately too. With or without the current crisis, and I don't think I'm particularly vulnerable. You've no idea about someone else's kitchen hygiene.

I suppose at the best of times, we buy stuff from bake sales and so on without worrying too much but for some reason the fact that it was just left on the doorstep makes it seem pretty dodgy to me. I'd have chucked them in the bin too.

Yep I'd have chucked them too! But I would've said a big thank you on a community page

Ugh no thanks

Ds’s mate texted him the other night and said come outside. He’d parked at the end of the drive and had fashioned a delivery system to maintain social distancing (he had a saucepan duct taped to a ski pole hanging out of the car window). In the saucepan was a ziplock baggy of homemade cookies. He was driving round town delivering to his friends. No chat, no socializing, just delivering cookies that he’d spent the afternoon baking. (We aren’t on lockdown btw). Anonymous cookies are a bit weirder.

A lady I help out in my neighbourhood baked me a jelly slice and a cake.

I ate it without a second thought. I like to live on the wild side though. Sometimes I even buy a sandwich from the servo.

@wtf well you do know who she is and where it came from? Random doorstep biscuits is a different situation altogether.

Even before all this I wouldn't eat random cookies due to food allergies. But now, they wouldn't come in the house.
And tbh it's not essentials, exercise or medical need, so I'm sorry but the generous cookie leaver is also flouting the rules.
My sister copes by trying to help others - she's in her late 60s and her hubby is in his 70s and has COPD and she's wandering around with apple pies for 'the old people' - I just wish she'd stay home and safe. And since she also goes out shopping and to pay bills because she doesn't do anything online she may be taking those old people, and her hubby, more than apple pies. She won't be told.

@biscuitsanddiddums
That's so surreal!!

Nope, they'd be binned!

I love baking and spent yesterday making some lovely things for Easter. Normally I send DH to work with a parcel of goodies (he’s on nights) to share with his colleagues (emergency services - his team do love cakes ) and drop some off next door to my lovely neighbours. This time however it seemed best not to share them. It’s just too risky. However now I have to eat all the cake 😂

I would have thrown in the bin too. With or without covid. Anonymous is weird!

Baking really makes me happy and I made a chocolate cake last week. I sent three of my neighbours a text saying - I absolutely don’t mind and understand if you don’t want any but if you do please say. They all said yes. I live alone and been self isolating for 3 weeks at the time, which they all knew. they have all been in my flat and seen I am a very clean and tidy person. And I delivered the cake in glass container wearing gloves. But i would still have understood if they said no. I made w fruit cake this week so I can store it until a time I see my family. Offering cake once was fine but if I start doing it every week it would be weird!
And it’s definitely weird to do it without asking/knowing the person

Thank you for your replies, I feel better about what I have done now. I will leave a message on the community page and stop feeling guilty.

Yeah, I agree half the people saying thanks will have also binned them. But they shouldn’t have as it just encourages the anonymous baker and it’s a bloody waste of ingredients, particularly when people are struggling to get hold of flour.

A lovely gesture, but I would not eat it (especially if in vulnerable category.)
I happily eat home baking normally and I'm not generally squeemish about that sort of thing. However it seems a bit odd to not get within 2m of a neighour/close friend and yet put something in my mouth that someone else had recently touched! Worse that it's a stranger.

I think a casserole/stew/curry made by a friend or relative is fine as it would get heated up (killing any viruses). However home baking won't get heated up again once passed over.

But no doubt very well meant...

I'm quite an easy going person, I'm not obsessed with sterilization like the average MNetter seems to be.

But no way would I eat random stranger cookies. My DH probably would, though.

I'd be really grateful and eat them. I know I'm in the minority though! My neighbour left a full roast dinner on our doorstep last Sunday!

No, there's no way I would eat them, even if I did know who they were from. On Mother's day my cousin posted a picture on fb of some scones her children had made and dropped off at her mum's as a consolation prize for not seeing them. Her children would've had their hands in them. They might as well have stuck their fingers in her mouth, kind of defeats the object of social distancing.

I wouldn't eat anonymous home baking. But I wouldn't leave a message on a website telling others. Its a kind thought.