Heartbreak and Hope in the Bread World

As you can see above (clockwise from the top left) we had huge caverns, from which we made boxes of chicken feed and stuffing bread, and we sent piles of it to the hogs, but finally we are getting an open, but not too open and relatively consistent crumb. We aren't ready to declare victory, but you should be seeing more Sourdough and French Bread on the shelves these days.

I have always said that it is impossible to be a cocky bread baker because the bread will humble you. In the past few weeks, the bread has nearly brought us to our knees and broken our hearts. Seriously, some days we wanted to cry. But this week, we seem to be making progress in producing the bread the way we want it.

Since we moved into the new space, we've had trouble with huge holes in the bread (actually, we've always had that problem but it became worse). When we first re-opened, we had serious trouble with the oatmeal bread. We were able to diminish the holes to what we euphemistically called "Smiles" — still annoying but very much better. Then about a month or so ago, Sourdough and French bread began to act up (though truth be told, our Sourdough has never been as consistent and beautiful as we want). The more we worked on the problem, the worse it got.

There are so many interacting factors in producing beautiful, classic Sourdough bread. What we are trying to achieve in Sourdough is a beautiful loaf with a balance that brings forward the "taste of the grain" (that nutty, toasty taste) with a nice acidic note to act as a foil. One consequence of fermenting the dough to achieve that results in a relatively open "crumb" (baker talk for everything but the crust). Well, we were getting a super open crumb with giant caverns in the bread. No place for respectable jam or butter.

We has so many factors to consider. What to mix, how to mix, time and temperature of the mix, of the fermentation, and the final proofing (or rising) how and whether to "punch" or fold the dough, how to form the loaves, and adjust the steam, temperature and time in the oven. We had to learn again how to reliably feed and maintain the sour starter which can get quite crabby if you change its routine.

Holiday Menu

In the meantime, there is a wonderful food holiday on the way so here is our Thanksgiving product list!

It is always a good idea to order ahead.

Generally, we are open 7 days a week. However, we will be closed on Thanksgiving day and the Friday after (11/28 and 11/29). We will re-open on Saturday 11/30/19.

We look forward to seeing you soon. And if you can't get into the store, we send best wishes to our friends all over the world!

Judy