local grain, milled on site, sourdough, wood-fired oven artisan bakery

Where else is there a bakery (or restaurant) that sources grains grown within 100 miles, purchased a stone mill for onsite grinding, has a custom-built wood-fired oven, and makes/tends his own sourdough starter for the artisan, hand-crafted loaves?

Wow. Just wow.

It's like something straight out of The Third Plate by Dan Barber. Only better than some of his examples in the book.

Read about this new place opening up in Spokane, Washington next month:  Ready to rise: Culture Breads is preparing to open in Spokane’s South Perry neighborhood.



One snippet from the article:

“Roller-milling makes business sense, but not the best sense for flavor and nutrients,” said Thompson Duffy, who compares a wheat berry to an egg: the bran is like the shell, the endosperm is the white, and the germ is the yolk.

When wheat berries are crushed in a stone mill, like the one he has, all three components are pulverized together, retaining the nutrients and flavor. Oils released by the bran and germ, however, give the flour a shorter shelf life. If it’s not used quickly, the product turns rancid.

There's so much more to what he's doing at Culture Breads than that. What a brilliant thing.

Where else you ask?  

Here's a baker (MacReady Bread Company) who uses local ancient grains that are stone ground by Meuer Farm.

No pizza oven  But they use ancient grains milled on a special ordered stone mill.

And to top it off, they aren't located in a trendy large city.  The farm is rather rural (compared to the thousands of farms that are much closer to Madison or Milwaukee).

I'm not trying to disparage Culture Breads, they sound awesome.  I'm just happy that we have something cool too...

Mike that's awesome! As I posted, I was kind of hoping others would chime in about this stuff happening in other places. I'm not exactly a bread expert and don't usually pick up on bread or bakery news.

It's because I don't eat bread due to gluten-sensitivity issues, though it was interesting to read how a normally gluten-sensitive family can eat Thompson Duffy's bread without any problems. I've been wanting to try to some homemade sourdough, maybe with einkorn or fresher grains, and see if I can tolerate it myself, but haven't found the bandwidth to do that just yet. Some day...

Yeah, the Meuer Farm folks were at the Garden Expo in Madison a month ago and gave a presentation on ancient grains and how they mill them.  They said that many folks with gluten issues can eat some of their flour.  So maybe there's hope...

Hopefully others chime in with their local grain to loaf examples.

Heritage farms in waco texas. Sorghum is pressed by horse. Made into syrup same method as maple syrup.

Water wheel stone grinds flour and  grits. I wish i got better pics. You can walk in and see all the gears and cogs powering multiple devices.

Cafe on site using their breads and other items from the farm.

They offer classes in forging, pottery, basketry, and weaving.  They go full circle, from wool to yarn to finished product.

Cheese cave 17ft under ground with 100's of cheeses they make.

Great place to spend a day.

Tabor Bakery in Portland, OR, is all organic, everything's sourdough, and they use sprouted ancient grains (locally sourced) including Einkhorn, which my gluten-free husband can eat!

Also into community-building. Every other week they have live tango lessons at night when the bakery is closed. Ole!

I love these examples!

wayne, your photos are great and Heritage Farms in Waco sounds epic.

Jacqueline, Tabor Bakery sounds fun, and good to hear Joseph can eat Einkorn! I bought some Einkorn flour, meaning to ferment it and try it myself, but haven't yet.

Gosh, it's nice to hear of such excellent food and community businesses! Gives me hope.

I make sourdough bread from hand milled flour. My new place is going to have a wood burning oven as part of the summer kitchen. I buy my wheat though. Im in the design phase for the summer kitchen, but it is where we will make cheese, bread, smoked and cured meats, do our canning, dehydrate herbs, do our butchering, boil maple sap, and the cellar underneath will be for storing cheese and hard cider. My main concern is to ensure that there is arched support in the cellar to carry the weight of the bread oven, sugar arch, smokehouse, and a pioneer maid stove.