BREAKING BREAD

 

BREAD!  Can you think of a more universally loved component of a meal than bread? Italians love their focaccia and ciabatta, The French their baguettes and pain au levain, Indians their naan, Mexicans their tortillas and the list goes on and on. Bread finds its place at breakfast lunch and dinner.

It is believed that bread first appeared about 4000 years ago in Egypt and probably as a by-product of beer making.  There is no shortage of metaphors and spiritual references to bread. In Hebrew texts God feeds his people with manna from heaven. Christians have Jesus as “the bread of life.” The word Bethlehem means “house of bread.”  Our word companion is derived from a Latin phrase, “com pan” which translates to “bread with.” How comforting is it to break bread with a companion?  Suffice it to say that bread plays a significant role in almost every culture and religion.

Many of you in Wahkiakum County remember the bread we sold for several years at the Puget Island Farmers Market.  It got to the point where the production schedule conflicted with our Bed and Breakfast business which was our real “bread and butter” so to speak.  The farm market hours conflicted with the most popular day and time that most of our guests check in.  Although we have been absent from the market, we haven’t exactly been loafing. We have continued baking for our guests, for special orders and have even taught many of you how to bake bread at one of our cooking classes.  During this time Don has continued to learn more about the art, craft and science of bread baking as a member of the Bread Bakers Guild of America. Visits to such luminary bakeries as ACME  in Berkeley, TARTINE in San Francisco and KEN’S ARTISAN BAKERY in Portland have inspired us to try new recipes and techniques that challenge us to build a better loaf of bread. 

All of this is just a long way of saying, “We’re back in the bread business.”  But we are back with a new model because the scheduling conflict that caused us to leave the market still exists. So here is what we are proposing. As our schedule permits, we will make bread available for pick up after 3 PM on Tuesdays at The Inn At Crippen Creek Farm or at Skamokawa Resort if that is more convenient.   We will notify you via email (you can subscribe to our newsletter on this page.)  of our bread offerings and occasional specialty items (such as eggs, sausage and produce)  for the following week.  You can then email your order to theinn@crippencreek.com  or phone us at 360-795-0585 no later than 3 p.m. Saturday to place your order. Rome was not built in a day and neither are our breads. Some of them take 3 days to build. That slow fermentation is where all the  flavor comes from. We use flour from Shepherd's Grain, an alliance of local Pacific Northwest farms that are economically sustainable, Food Alliance certified and practice direct seed farming.

We are going to kick off our re-start with our newest creation, a French Country Levain.  In France this would be known as a pain au levain. This hand crafted bread is naturally leavened with wild yeast and slowly fermented. So basically this is sourdough but that term is misleading because this dough is tangy, not sour so it pairs well with almost any meal.  This slow natural method makes the bread more digestible, gives it a longer shelf life and a truly superior taste.  This will be our only offering for the first month  and we will expand our choices as your demands and the whims of the baker dictate. As we are a small batch bakery our quantities are limited so call early to place your order. What would you like to see us offer? Focaccia, ciabatta, baguettes, bagels, rye bread, cinnamon rolls?