Curated news and information worth Sharing
In this section of the site you'll find news and information we come across related to local businesses in Lafayette Colorado as well as local food initiatives along the Front Range and beyond.

Gravy Podcast: Making That Dough

More inspiration :) Love the stories and the background on the cottage food bakery movement they threaded into the story:

In “Making That Dough,” the fourth episode in her five-part series for Gravy, producer Irina Zhorov explores the business of cottage bakeries—and how small-scale bakers make amazing loaves out of home kitchens and converted garages.

High Desert Seed + Garden

I've been in research mode here in the Colorado region looking for farms dealing in small grains and made another new discovery, High Desert Seed + Garden out in Montrose, Colorado. While not necessarily a farm that is selling berries, they are growing and selling regionally suited seeds that farmers can buy and grow:

This years winner for most most photographed crop! Announcing Dolma, a hulless black barley that hails from Tibet.

There are not many established markets for finding and buying regional grain to use for our bakery, so I am trying to build out our database so that any food-based companies that end trying to find these grain purveyors like we are at least have a place to start.

Grains From The Plains Wheat Harvest Festival

Grains from the Plains is one of our very own grain chain farmers here in Colorado. We are also going to be using some of their wheat for cottage bakery. We plan on attending their Wheat Harvest Festival on July 16th outside of Hugo, CO:

Please join us for our Wheat Harvest Festival!! We will have one of our hogs roasted and fresh baked buns from our wheat. We will also have micro greens from @ahavahfarm. This is a real local farm-to-table agrotourism event.

Wilmington Bread Company on Instagram

Surprisingly these started-a-bakery-out-of-my-home stories where their businesses grew into a brick-and-mortar space keep popping up. Many of them at least try to source their grains and flour locally. Inspiring on both fronts:

I’ve been waiting for the “right” moment to share some exciting news about the future of Wilmington Bread Company and finally decided that there’s really no such thing so here we go! We signed a lease a while back and have been building out a new production space that will allow us to better serve the community of Wilmington and surrounding areas. I also left my career as a CPA and am now dedicated to producing naturally leavened bread full-time! Finally, we have brought on a couple of new team members that we will introduce soon. The new space will be primarily production to start but may eventually expand to online order pickup and/or light retail.

Buckwheat Artisan Sourdough Bread with Proof Bread

I must warn you about the information and educational rabbit hole that is Jon from Proof Bread. Long, unscripted videos talking about all sorts of aspects of starting and running a bakery. I've posted about Proof a while back, but it was worth sharing again with a recent video.

Latest addition to our database: Lumi Baking Co

So I am sensing a theme in my news feed postings, and I don't image it will be changing any time soon 😁 That theme is inspiration! Just came across another cottage food bakery that is a stone's throw from us here in Lafayette, Colorado. Lumi Baking Co. in Kremmling, Colorado! Don't let the "cottage" part fool you though, there is some very experienced talent at the helm in the form of Diana Bush. Be sure to check out her website too:

Lumi’s first farmer’s market was a success! Only four pastries left at the end of the day. See you all again in two weeks (with more kouign amann)!

Small State Provisions Expands!

More inspirational updates from a small bakery on the east coast, Small State Provisions, that has seen enough success to grow their operation:

Big News Y’all - I am beyond excited to share that this week we will pick up the keys to our second location of Small State Provisions and we’re headed over the hill to AVON! This much needed bigger space will allow me to get a ‘real’ bread oven and so much more that we desperately need to continue to grow.

Anello, the tiny restaurant that's raising the bar for Tucson pizza

This is one of those places that inspires me. 

It's easy to miss Anello. There's no sign on the brick building — formerly a gallery space — in this once-sleepy neighborhood near downtown. But peek through those geometric windows and you'll be struck by a bulbous gray oven and the man standing beside it wearing a Pizzeria Bianco shirt. 

When I was a teenager, I worked at two different pizza places where we made the dough and sauce from scratch. Now, we didn't have wood-fired ovens, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I see one in our future 🪵🔥

Of course, I did work at a pizza place that did have a wood-fired oven...for about two weeks...and couldn't hack it. 

It wasn't the heat. 

It was the fact that at then end of every shift, I had to haul the next day's wood from the basement in trash barrel. It took 4 or 5 trips up and down a 40-step flight of stairs 😓 After being drained from making the pizza during rush hour, I decided they weren't paying me enough. I got a job as a life guard that summer.

Heirloom Bakery & Hearth

I recently came across Heirloom Bakery & Hearth through our Instagram feed. Seeing the former use of the building that they used to build their bakery business in, in conjunction with their 7 year anniversary announcement, was a bit inspirational for me as we embark on a similar journey. 

I wish I could find more information on their backstory, but their Instagram feed offers at little peek:

Today(May 7) marks our golden birthday for Heirloom 🎉. Seven years of grit, grind, hustle, happiness, tears, joy, friends, co-workers

First-of-its-kind bread now available in Bay Area

There is a lot packed into this little article, so be sure to go and read it. In brief, it tells the story of the revived Hourani heirloom grain and some of the grain chain partners that made it happen:

A first-of-its-kind bread will be available in San Francisco Bay Area bakeries in May. The bread — available in bakeries including Rustic Bakery, Jane, Ponsford’s Place, The Bekjr, and Avast — is baked with Hourani flour, a 2,000-year-old heirloom grain.
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