The sign advertised pastries “made from scratch” and I wondered for the first time about the origin of this phrase. Surely it must sound odd to an ESL student, not unlike saying made from itch? Did it have something to do with the scraping of a bowl by hand?
As it turns out the term ‘from scratch’ actually originates in 18th century sports, referring to a starting line that was literally scratched into the ground (for a race or boxing match), where participants begin with no advantage. This evolved to mean starting from nothing or the most elementary materials, without pre-made ingredients or components.
I suppose you could say that this post was made from scratch. What are your favourite businesses making products from scratch? Let me know in the comments.
Bonnie Havilah
2025-09-27 at 7:22 AMI always wonder how far did they scratch, Plucking the wheat from the fields, grinding the wheat,
milking and churning the butter, growing and collecting the herbs or honey collecting, collecting berries, among the thorns etc. Maybe the itch followed…