Bread lovers alert! Where can you find all the best bakers in the area in one place at one time? The Artisan Bread Festival! The eighth ASHEVILLE ARTISAN BREAD FESTIVAL will be held this Saturday, March 24, 2012. This is your chance to sample and buy breads from area bakers, AND attend hands-on workshops and lectures about artisan baking, milling, and wheat itself. The fest happens from 9am to 6pm, with the bread tasting & sale from 10 – 2, and workshops from 10 – 4. Everything will be held at AB Tech in the Magnolia Building, with an Open House and a Bakers Guild Dinner to follow the event at 128 Bingham Road (see details for the Bread Fest, Open House, and Dinner below).
Asheville Artisan Bread Festival – Collage from their Website
BREAD TASTING & SALE
10-2 at the Magnolia Building on the AB Tech Campus
Please note AB Tech location! Last year this part of the festival was held at Greenlife Grocery. The bakers will be selling only at AB Tech this year.
This is your chance to SAMPLE and BUY lots of amazing breads…and meet the bakers behind the bread. Buy a loaf and get a ticket to one of the Bread Fest Classes while supplies last.
Featured Bakeries in 2012 are:
Annie’s Naturally Bakery
Braken Mountain Bakery
Bread Technique
Brother Moon Bakery
City Bakery
Hillside Bakery
Farm & Sparrow Bakery
Flat Rock Village Bakery
Loaf Child Bakery
Riverblaze Bakery
Stick Boy Bakery
Tellico Grains Bakery
Wake Robin Farm Breads
West End Bakery
Wildflower Bakery
Author Treska Lindsey will also have a booth selling her wonderfully written and illustrated book – “How Batistine Made Bread”.
HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS & LECTURES
10 am to 4 pm at AB Tech (mostly)
The theme of this year’s festival is “Local Grain, Local Flour, and Local Bread”; the festival will feature experts on local grain production, milling, and baking with local and heirloom wheat. How do you attend a class? Tickets are required for all workshops, andonline ticket sales have ended. BUT (and this is one of the ultra-cool aspects of this event) when you buy a loaf of bread from a baker, you will receive a free ticket to attend one of the classes. You may not be able to choose which class, but any of the classes will be fabulous for bread-enthusiasts who want to improve their baking skills. You have a great chance of attending Peter Reinhardt’s class on Gluten-free baking because the classroom can accommodate 150 people. Check out the class schedule and a mouth-watering slide show of the Bread Fest at: http://www.ashevillebreadfestival.com/
OPEN HOUSE ~ 4:30 to 6:30
Carolina Ground Mill & Annie’s Naturally Bakery
128 Bingham Road, Suite 350, Asheville 28806 (the former Square D facility)
In conjunction with the Asheville Artisan Bread Festival, Carolina Ground http://ncobfp.blogspot.com/ will have an open house at their newly running flour mill. This beautiful mill will grind flour for local artisan bakers, specifically organic grain that was raised right here in North Carolina. Plus Annie’s Naturally will be celebrating their expansion in the same building – a new wholesale and production facility at the former Square D plant at Bingham Road. Directions link.
GUILD HALL DINNER
There will be a Bread Bakers Guild of America Guild Hall Dinner starting at 6:30 in the same building as Carolina Ground and Annie’s (128 Bingham Road, Suite 350, Asheville 28806).The dinner costs $30, includes wine and beer, and will be catered by the Culinary Commandos (recommended by Mark Rosenstein). There are a limited number of seats that are mostly full…so if you want to attend, arrive early and take your chances on getting a ticket.
