Carolina Ground & Annie’s Naturally Bakery

In conjunction with attending the Asheville Artisan Bread Festival at AB Tech, many festival go-ers swung by the old Square D building in West Asheville to see the new wholesale production facility of Annie’s Naturally Bakery’s and to glimpse Carolina Ground’s new mill. Annie Ritota (owner of Annie’s bakery) and her husband Joe are both very genuine people who are full of heart. They love

The Mill, Carolina Ground

their new baking facility and (once they sell their home in Sylva) they plan to move to the Asheville area. Right now they have a very long daily commute. We wish them all the best!

The mill at Carolina Ground is up and running after various electrical snags. It is an absolutely beautiful piece of machinery that was hand-made in Austria. Jennifer Lapidus, director of the North Carolina Organic Bread Flour Project, was busy showing folks around and explaining the workings of the mill. As one of the many Kickstarter donors to the mill project, I came home with a bag of Turkey Wheat Flour…freshly ground by the new mill! I can’t wait to bake some bread with it.

This was followed by a delightful dinner of fabulous food and exuberant conversation.

Jennifer Lapidus in front of various grains that are waiting to be milled. The grain was raised organically by Kenny Haines in Eastern NC.

Jennifer Explaining How the Mill Works

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Love your Baker, Get the Flour Mill Grinding

Farm & Sparrow Bakery at the Tailgate Market

Do any of these bakers ring a bell?

Annie’s Naturally

Farm & Sparrow Bakery

Flat Rock Village Bakery

Loaf Child Bakery

Wake Robin Farm Breads

West End Bakery

Wildflour Bakery

You have probably enjoyed at least one of these local breads slattered with butter. I eat bread from five of these bakeries on a regular basis. What is their common bond? Each of these bakeries is involved in the North Carolina Organic Bread Flour Project, a project that is conducting organic wheat trials in North Carolina. The goal is to provide local bakers with access to locally-raised wheat & locally-milled fresh flour ~ for baking the made-with-heart artisan breads we delight in eating.

Annie's Ciabatta

My friend Jen has been heading up the North Carolina Organic Bread Flour Project, and the group has recently organized into Carolina Ground LC3 (an LC3 is a cross between an LLC and a non-profit). There’s a big fundraising push underway to take the project to the next level and get the mill up and running. As I write, 65 people have already donated over $3600. Each of us can jump right in and donate to a yummy cause… Check out their fundraiser site at http://kck.st/dRWAuR.  You get bread for bread!

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Rain, Bread, Books, & BBQ

Rain has fallen at long last. What a relief!  I am imagining that farmers harvesting for the tailgate market this evening are relishing any rain falling on them, and extremely grateful for rain is falling on their crops.

I spent most of yesterday dealing with getting water to my own parched garden. On my way to the nursery to buy another hose, I stopped by the tire store to ask honest Mr. Fender to take a look at my tires.  The conversation turned to gardening.  He got me thinking about soaker hose, so I ended up buying some.  His recommendation?  Pay a little more for a good one.  Don’t make the mistake of buying the dollar store variety that will, according to Mr. Fender, tear up the first time you kick it around.

Food at the markets is tasting really summery. Just about everything is in now, at least in small measure.  Last week the tomatoes were mostly gone by 8:30.  The market itself was packed and lines were forming by 8:05. What did I see?…for starters, cucumbers, squash, peppers, tomatoes, garlic scapes, potatoes, beans, greens, roots, gorgeous sunflowers, and Tom Elmore even had some little Pristine apples.

I went to the North Asheville Tailgate Market so I could buy some bread at the NCOBFP Bake Sale.  All week I have been enjoying sandwiches on Jennifer Lapidus’ Rustic loaf.  Jennifer reports that almost every single item

NCOBFP Bake Sale

was sold at the Bake Sale, and that the bakers loved your enthusiasm.

The Bake Sale was packed, and the line for Farm & Sparrow Bakery snaked past Treska Lindsey’s book table.  She was signing her newly re-published book “How Batistine Made Bread”, of which she donated a portion of the sales to the NC Organic Bread Flour Project. This wonderful picture book is about a little girl making bread from scratch ~ all the way from gathering the grain to ending with a bite of fresh-baked bread.  Batistine is endearing all the way through the story, and the hand-drawn illustrations capture your heart.  When the book first came out in 1985, New Yorker magazine listed it among the best children’s book of that year.

How Batistine Baked Bread by Treska Lindsey

Next, Slow Food Asheville is hosting a Beer & BBQ fundraiser in support of the North Carolina Organic Bread Flour Project.  It’s on Saturday, July 17 from 5-8, and will be held outside next to West End Bakery in West Asheville.  Tickets are $25. and the list of food providers is lip-smacking awesome.  Go to Slow Food Asheville for more info.

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Green Peppers, Edward Avalos, NCOBFP Bake Sale

Green peppers and tomatoes! Last week at the City Market both were for sale.  This hot weather HAS been good for something, cause you know those veggies love some heat.  Cooking with green peppers was heavenly this week (from Gregg Adams, New Moon Herbs).  Love, love, love those summer veggies!  Green beans and just-dug potatoes are showing up and earthy.  Red, white, and blue potato salad makes one gorgeous contribution to your Fourth of July festivities.  Remember to get some eggs for your potato salad too.

I also got to meet and talk with Edward Avalos, the USDA Under Secretary of Marketing and Regulatory Programs.  He spoke at City Market last Saturday morning.  This really nice man spent a lot of his youth doing real, live farmwork in the Southwest.  He went from farmwork – to working in meat processing – to marketing agricultural goods.  Now he is the Under Secretary!  I asked him to remember that small farmers at tailgate markets are not rolling in dough, and to please consider that fact when crafting any regulations.  Some regulations under consideration right now could put our favorite farmers out of business.  We want to see farmers making more money, not less!…so they will keep on farming.  Right?

Farm & Sparrow

OK. There is this really cool Bread Project going on in North Carolina right now.  The idea is to grow wheat right here in North Carolina, and then grind it into flour (locally) that bakers can bake into bread for us locals to eat.  That’s a big yum!  Bread baked from fresh ground flour tastes more complex, alive, and flavorful.  Even better ~ this is organically-grown flour.

SO,  seven WNC bakeries have formed a  bakers co-op, and this Saturday at the North Asheville Tailgate Market these bakers will be having a BAKE SALE fundraiser to raise money for their future mill, Carolina Ground Flour Mill.  The mill itself will be another story to tell.  Lets all show up and spend some “bread” ~ so they can bake us some really tasty bread later on! The bakeries are:  Annie’s Naturally, Farm & Sparrow Breads, Flat Rock Village Bakery, Loafchild Breads, Wake Robin Farm Bread, Wildflour Bakery, West End Bakery, and Natural Bridge Bakery.  The North Asheville Tailgate Market runs from 8 – 12 on Saturday, and is located at UNCA.

One more thought…remember that the veggies in your garden require one inch of rain or water per week.  You may need to provide some water if you want a good harvest.  Put a tuna fish can or rain gauge out in the garden to measure the amount of water that you are actually laying down when your sprinkler is running.

Wake Robin Farm Bread

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