2012 KEYNOTES

Two exceptional raconteurs, Ben Hewitt and William Alexander, will start the conference mornings with riveting tales of mighty stubbornness. Ben will describe how one small town refused to die by rethinking its relationship to food.  Bill will retrace his year-long  quest for the perfect loaf, despite mounting evidence that he should surrender.

Ben Hewett

Ben Hewitt was born and raised in northern Vermont, where he currently runs a small-scale diversified hill farm with his family. He lives with his wife and two sons in a self-built home that is powered by a windmill and solar photovoltaic panels. To offset his renewable energy footprint, Ben drives a really big truck. He is also the author of The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food (Rodale), which tells the story of a rural, working-class Vermont community that is attempting to blueprint and implement a localized food system. Ben speaks frequently on issues relating to localized food systems and economies, and is known for his thoughtful, inspiring, and occasionally hilarious presentations. You can learn more about him at www.benhewitt.net.

William Alexander

William Alexander is the best-selling author of 52 Loaves: A Half-Baked Adventure, in which he embarks on a gastronomic odyssey, spanning three continents, a backyard wheat field, two exploding ovens, one herniated vertebra, a thirteen-hundred-year-old monastery  — and a certain Kneading Conference in its inaugural year — in his quest to bake the perfect loaf of bread. An (extremely) amateur baker, Bill became interested in baking bread when, at the age of 50, he had his first taste of “real” bread — his first artisan loaf. As he describes it in 52 Loaves: “This bread didn’t ball up in your mouth like white bread and, like the crust, it was yeasty, just slightly sweet, and exhaled (yes, the bread exhaled) an incredible perfume that, cartoon-like, wafted up from the table, did a curl, and, it seemed, levitated me from the table. I was seduced, body and soul, my senses overloaded.” The next thing you knew (well, 5 years later) Bill had embarked on a mission to re-create this perfect loaf of bread. His first book, The $64 Tomato, which chronicled the joys, perils, and expenses of gardening, was a Quills Book Award finalist and a National Book Festival selection. The New York Times has said of his writing, “his timing and his delivery are flawless.” Baker and author Peter Reinhart has predicted, “What Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance did for, well, motorcycles, 52 Loaves will do for bread.“ When not burning bread or under-watering his garden, Bill is a favorite guest on National Public Radio and contributes regularly to the New York Times and the L.A. Times op-ed pages.  His website is WilliamAlexander.com .