Bobcat- Still thinking about the substance of the narrative. I note your point regards the size of the baskets used to collect the fragments, the "provision basket" being large enough to hall Paul up the wall in Damascus, and the "basket" a smaller size to carry on a journey.
The 7 and 12 baskets appear to me to relate to time periods, 7 days, and 12 months. I wonder if the 5 plus 7 loaves which equal 12 refer to the "loaves of the presents" in general terms and the 5th and 7th loaves refer to positions held by the heads of the 12 tribes. I am trying to remeber where I have come across this before, I think there is a connection in the monastic documents from the Dead Sea Scrolls?
prologos- I agree with your point that the supernatural story of the feedings didnot happen, however I am not dismissing the event information due to it's written appearance. I believe that the gospels contain a true and accurate account of the historic events of this period and for numerous reasons, the main one as you note, they are clovered and hidden. In order to understand the true meaning of the text we need additional knowledge which if the early church would have had, and probably still do, but the need for the cash was better accomplished by the use of the myth than the factual events.