#craft bread

by mike speights, co-founder – The Foodery

September 10, 2012

Earlier this summer, we were working on the creation of a turkey, tomato, mozzarella and pesto panini recipe coupled with gazpacho- a medley of perfect tastes for summer and early fall.  Everything was on point with one critical exception, the bread!  We were searching high and low to find a bread to meet our standards- organic ingredients, the right nutrition and of course, the right taste.  That’s when the clouds parted, we stumbled upon Nashoba Brook Bakery in West Concord, found our bread and met some amazing artisans in the process. 

            How It All Started

The Nashoba Brook Bakery was started nearly 14 years ago to the day by high school best friends Stuart Witt and John Gates.  Stu had worked for an artisan bread company in Vermont, and John had just completed law school.  It was a perfect match.  Stu had developed a passion for the craft of bread making while John had developed a passion for the bread eating experience; and, they both wanted to create a business with purpose devoted to employees and community.  Today, Nashoba Brook is thriving with over 160 wholesale accounts including Whole Foods and a café with a line out the door at lunch every day! 

The Craft

We had a chance to catch-up with Stu to learn about Nashoba Brook’s bread making and culture.  Just like other food artisans, the bread making process starts with the purest ingredients.  As we know, most bread on the store shelves and at cafes are tainted with a laundry list of cheap ingredients, additives, conditioners, preservatives and artificial flavoring- things like high fructose corn syrup, potassium bromate, GMO soybean oil and GMO corn are commonplace.  This is the reason why most non-artisan bread last for two weeks, while real breads last for 1-5 days.  We found the perfect casing for our panini- the Whole Wheat Sourdough made from 100% organic wheat flour, 100% organic germ restored whole wheat flour, filtered water, natural sourdough starter derived from local Concord grapes, and sea salt.  Done.

Stu gave us a tour of where the magic happens and an overview of the 18-24 hour process for each loaf.  Here’s a glimpse:

          Those pure ingredients start right here in this bowl which gets attached to a fork mixer.  The mixing is a very delicate process that takes a watchful eye of the baker.  Every batch is a little different and timing is everything.  The baker’s intuition, not a timer, tells her when the mixing is finished.  Nashoba Brook has a number of bakers who have the experience for this but Stu still loves to stay very involved. 

After the mixer, the slowrise process begins.  Then the batch goes to the bench where it’s quickly divided and hand-formed into loaves by the team.  Afterwards….more slowrise.

Time for the oven: a hand-made, 16 ton, Fringand Olympic oven that cooks at a pace of 320 loaves/ hour.   Stu’s eye lit up as he explained the construction- a 2 week process by one Frenchmen and a team of local contractors with no blueprints (the Frenchman has been assembling them around the world for over 40 years).  The oven has a system of pipes that heat it evenly along with a ceramic oven floor that holds and crisps the loaves to perfection.

Some fresh Harvest and Pepper Jack sourdough loaves on display in the café. 

Some Things Never Change

Over the years, Nashoba Bakery has changed quite a bit but there are some things that never will.  Their slowrise process which enhances flavor, texture and nutrition is one of them.  But it means more than that.  According to the website, “Slowrise has another meaning to us which is less practical and more philosophical.  We like to think of slowrise as a symbolic counter point to the culture of instant gratification.  The old saying that anything worth having is worth waiting for resonates with us.  In the course of busy days that sometimes overwhelm us, we try to remember to breathe deeply and not rush always to the next thing.”

The craft is also timeless.  Stu gave us an example with a recent decision to forgo purchasing a spiral mixer which would have saved time, increasing production.  He rented one for 2 weeks.  The bread just didn’t meet the Nashoba standard so he passed.  He never stops practicing and honing the craft and enjoys teaching his bakers.  Lately, he’s been spending time studying Zappos and their CEO Tony Hsieh, who provide us all with a shining example of a culture-based company.  Like Tony, Stu believes that happy employees result in a better product, a better customer experience and ultimately a better bottom line. 

Thanks again to Stu and Laurie.  We’re excited to be sharing their story and breads with our customers!