It's a little involved, but not complicated. First you have to figure out what days Rosemary will be baking. Then you have to drive up the hill to her in-laws' roadside farm stand at the right time: it has to be after she sets the new loaves out for the day but before they've all sold out. A little past noon seems to work well. $3.50 per loaf, white, wheat, or with various seasonings and flavorings.
Of course, then you have a loaf of bread that's as fresh as a new morning, sometimes still warm, and has very little if any sugar in it and not much salt. The last problem is to not eat it all right away. You wouldn't think you'd be tempted to eat a whole loaf of bread at once, but it's so good you want to keep going.
Today's loaf will probably be gone by sundown. That's why there wouldn't be any point to chemical additives—Rosemary's bread doesn't last long enough for preservatives to do any good, for instance.
Mike
[Ed. Note: Mike's on break right now, taking a few days off to work on his book. This little squib is just so the sound of crickets around here doesn't get too loud.]
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Featured Comments from:
I can almost smell the baking bread. And a photo project!
[Unfortunately, Mennonites don't generally like having their pictures taken. So, probably not a photo project. --Mike]
Posted by: Glenn Allenspach | Wednesday, 05 July 2023 at 03:40 PM
I slice our homemade bread and freeze the leftovers, then pull out individual slices as needed and toast them. If I ate an entire sourdough boule every day, well, I'd weigh more than I do now.....
Posted by: Ken Bennett | Wednesday, 05 July 2023 at 03:49 PM
The staff of life.
Posted by: Robert Roaldi | Wednesday, 05 July 2023 at 04:04 PM
A photoshoot in your home a still life, cutting board, knife, loaf of bread sunlight through a window.
Posted by: JoeB | Wednesday, 05 July 2023 at 04:41 PM
During the 1940s the bakery would slice a freshly baked loaf any ickness tou wanted. When we got home my grandma would make fried balogna sandwiches. I still fry balogna for breakfast 😍
Posted by: c.d.embrey | Wednesday, 05 July 2023 at 09:41 PM
My mother complained that one time she set a fesh loaf in the pram beside me. By the time she got home the whole centre of the loaf was gone.
Not as bad as the day I ate 1/2 a bar of soap which was still on WW II U.K.rationing that day
Posted by: Thomas Mc Cann | Thursday, 06 July 2023 at 04:25 AM
I have vivid memories of a dawn, many years ago, when we were getting back to the camp after a funny summer night in company of other campers, with whom I was enjoying a couple of weeks. In the path we smelt a bakery which was just finishing baking the bread, and of course we had to get there and get a few loafs. Their taste will remain in my head forever.
Posted by: Cateto | Thursday, 06 July 2023 at 07:17 AM
German here:
Freezing fresh bread and later toasting it?
Thats barbaric!
;)
Posted by: Marc | Thursday, 06 July 2023 at 08:15 AM
I have the same problem when I go out to buy a dozen freshly baked bagels from our local bagel bakery. I never make it home without eating at least one!
Posted by: Steve Rosenblum | Thursday, 06 July 2023 at 11:11 AM
Diane (my other half) occasionally makes bread like that. Yum.
Posted by: James Bullard | Thursday, 06 July 2023 at 11:22 AM
Fresh bread is such wonderful stuff, yeah. Really good bread, fresh, is utterly amazing. (Mediocre bread fresh isn't bad.)
Posted by: David Dyer-Bennet | Thursday, 06 July 2023 at 01:34 PM
Sounds wonderful, and at a great price.
Here, in a small town in southwest New Hampshire, we are lucky to have a young couple that opened a bakery about a year ago. Our planning is only a tad easier than yours, as they open the store only on weekend mornings. They are otherwise busy with farmer's markets this time of year. As for timing, there is a sweet spot between when the crowd dies down and they run out of product. The "summah folk" make the crowds particularly large this time of year.
We avoid the temptation to eat it all in one sitting by (as others do) putting half a loaf in the freezer and getting it our at mid-week.
Posted by: Frank Gorga | Thursday, 06 July 2023 at 02:28 PM
For several years I’ve been baking my own bread. Whole wheat plus other grains, nuts, and fiber. We are long past the urges to consume a loaf before the day is over. Let it properly cool on a rack, then slice. Like Ken I freeze a couple of loaves and take out a slice or two as needed. It’s better than anything we can buy at the store. I know what’s in, and what is not in my bread.
Posted by: David L | Thursday, 06 July 2023 at 10:21 PM
This is why I always go to the bakery on Saturdaymornings: fresh bread. Luckily a nice 5 minute walk. And first thing I do when I get home is treat myself to a fresh slice with honey and some fresh coffee.
It's always been one of a few breakpoints when looking for houses: is there a proper bakery nearby?
Posted by: Lars Jansen | Friday, 07 July 2023 at 05:07 AM
Whether true or not, I read somewhere that (chemical) preservatives were added to bread once sliced bread was introduced; slicing vastly increases the surface area open to the elements.
My bread of choice is often a good baguette or two - NOT from Wegmans. Four City Bread makes the best here, but Trader Joe’s is a close second. I slice, wrap and refrigerate or freeze what I can’t use in a day or so.
Posted by: Earl Dunbar | Friday, 07 July 2023 at 08:59 AM
"Unfortunately, Mennonites don't generally like having their pictures taken. . . "
Who says you have to take photos of the people?
Why not show the process with only their hands showing, for example?
Mixing the dough; adding any ingredients and blending them in with the dough; various "tools" they use to make and bake the bread; a nice shot of the bread in the oven when it's finished, including (hopefully) a little steam coming off the bread; and so on.
I'm sure you could come up with additional shots. Plus, the baker could see the result of your digital photo immediately to make sure there wasn't too much of them showing in the photo. You could do it!
Posted by: Dave | Friday, 07 July 2023 at 09:35 AM
I buy primarily frozen bread dough 3 or more loaves at a time. When I want bread, I put a loaf in a pan in the microwave, give it 20 seconds and leave it overnight. In the morning it has risen a couple of inches above the pan. Heat up the convection oven to 350 and bake for 35 minutes. Smells great and has that same appeal of fresh bread just out of the oven. Best with real butter.
Posted by: phil | Friday, 07 July 2023 at 03:51 PM
Surprised that an old hound dawg darkroom photographer hasn’t taken to bread-baking like a duck to water - bit more tactile, bit more heat, and the lights are on - it’s all hands-on chemistry - oh and you eat the output not look at it.
[I was into bread-baking for a while, but it was way back in the '80s. Now, bread isn't really on my diet. It's a highly processed food, so it doesn't really fit the brief for WFPB. --Mike]
Posted by: Bear. | Friday, 07 July 2023 at 11:31 PM
Here is an obvious photographic reference!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bread-Book-Kenneth-Josephson/dp/1477312005.
Posted by: Brian Adams | Saturday, 08 July 2023 at 04:43 AM
Mike,
I make sourdough bread at least once a week, typically about 50% whole grain where I've milled the grain myself (I've been doing a lot of kamut lately). While it's not WFPB exactly, it's nowhere what I would call highly processed. Four ingredients: flour(s), water, salt, and starter.
And it's frickin delicious...
Posted by: Jim K | Saturday, 08 July 2023 at 07:57 PM
Having been on a smoke filled swing for an agriculture client through the Finger Lakes in the last couple weeks, I would have been delighted to have known about the location and been able to stop off to buy some bread. If I was in fact there at the right time.
Based in Albany of the benefits of doing corporate and editorial photography all over NY except NYC is that I often detour around while on assignment to favorite bakeries, breweries and wineries, cheese shops, syrup and cider makers, etc, etc, returning home with a car full of lights and cameras, as well as unique food and drink.
Definitely a perk of self employment.
Posted by: MitchW | Monday, 10 July 2023 at 08:48 AM