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is the owner and founder of Borealis Breads. The story of Borealis Breads starts not in Maine but at Sally Ann's Bakery in Massachusetts. It is there that 15 year-old Jim Amaral was hired as a doughnut dipper and his love affair with food began. Many restaurant jobs, food and traveling experiences later Jim opened Bodacious Breads in 1993 in the basement of a restaurant in downtown Waldoboro, Maine. Due to the lack of artisan bread in the community, Bodacious Breads quickly developed a faithful following. Borealis Breads finally came into being in 1997 when the bakery relocated and Jim held a customer contest to find a new name. The success of Jim's techniques has led to the opening of two more bakeries, one in Wells, Maine and a third in Portland. Having lived in Maine on and off for the past 25 years, Jim is actively involved in the Maine business community as a MEBSR (Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility) board member and a participant of Leadership Maine. A testament to Jim's community involvement, Borealis Bread is also a leader in the effort to use Maine agricultural products. Borealis Breads currently uses Maine-grown wheat in several of their breads, including the French Peasant, Multi-Grain and Aroostook Wheat. In addition, the bakery encourages its customers to "tread lightly on the planet" by purchasing locally grown and produced foods and by respecting all of our food communities both local and global. www.borealisbreads.com.
is an ordained Episcopal Priest, a co-founder of the Common Ground Fair and the Kneading Conference, and co-owner of Maine Wood Heat. Albie founded the Masonry Stove Guild and published the masonry Stove Guild Newsletter. He also co-founded the Masonry Heater Association of North America and the Association of Masonry Heater and Bake Oven Professionals and has authored several books and construction manuals on masonry heater construction. Albie has been an organic gardener for forty years and has studied Plant Spirit Medicine. He conducts Sacred Fires in the Huichol tradition, preserving, growing out and freely distributing the heritage flint corn, Abenaki Rose. Albie travels throughout North America and the world building and teaching how to build masonry heaters and wood-fired ovens. www.mainewoodheat.com.
co-owns La Meunerie Milanaise Mill with Lily Vallières. They have been producing organic cereal grains on their farm in Quebec since 1977. In 1982 they built a small on-farm stone mill using pink granite from North Carolina, well known for its hardness and quality. Stone milling is an art: while there were many stone mills in operation at the turn of the previous century in Quebec, as a contemporary trade it was practically lost. Robert and Lily became skilled in the art of milling the hard way, learning to dress the stones after a certain tonnage by taking apart the mill and resurfacing the stones with a pneumatic hammer.
In 2004 La Milanaise added a steel roll mill to produce its organic white flour from local grains; La Milanaise now grinds 17,000 tons of a broad range of organic grains for specialty flours in Milan. In 2007 Robert opened another milling facility in St-Polycarpe, Quebec; this mill grinds 20,000 tons of local transition and pesticide free wheat in specialty flours for artisan bakers. www.lamilanaise.com.
has provided the technical support for La Meunerie Milanaise, her family’s organic mill just across the border in Quebec. Working with bakers, Sophie is the communication center between the baker and the mill. www.lamilanaise.com.
is the director of the Scatterseed Project, which is dedicated to collecting, propagating, and sharing our seed heritage. Will is an Advisory Board member and major curator for the Seed Savers' Exchange in Decorah, Iowa. Among the seed collections he curates are hundreds of small grain varieties. He also grows subsistence plots of small grains for his own family's use. Aside from seed issues, Will promotes a plant-based system of soil fertility maintenance, including forest materials instead of animal manure. He is the author of a just-released novel, Through the Eyes of a Stranger. www.gardeningplaces.com/scatterseed.htm.
is the owner of Oak Haven Bakery in Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia. Doug mixes and kneads all of his breads by hand, and bakes all of his creations, including naturally-leavened hearty breads made with spelt and kamut flour, pita breads, granola and sweets, in a wood-fired oven. His products can be found in supermarkets across Atlantic Canada and are certified organic by Maritime Certified Organic Growers. He has worked with chefs Michael Smith and Ryan Dunn at local food events in the Maritimes. www.acornorganic.org/farmers/Oakhavenbakery.html.
is the creator of the Big Green Truck, a catering operation in New Haven, Connecticut that does pizza parties from a fleet of antique trucks outfitted with wood fired ovens. “I was never a fan of pizza or antique trucks” says Doug. “I am an aging political activist, who got into the food business via the co-op movement after dropping out of Yale.” When the co-op closed up, he became a caterer, convincing other people to underwrite his culinary education. He has been a life-long lover of baking bread (“it began in college- my housemates were too cheap to turn up the thermostat in the morning, but didn’t mind me cranking up the oven if I was making fresh bread”). He got fascinated by wood fired ovens and built a portable wood fired oven after watching the Bread and Puppet Theater build one on the New Haven green for a performance. Word of the portable wood fired oven began to get around and people began to clamor for pizza. After a couple of pizza jobs, he became convinced that this was a) a great way to do a party, b) a good business model for a catering operation, and c) something that required a whole new rig. The Big Green Truck was developed over the next year and a half, and was an instant hit. In the six years since he started, the business has grown from one truck in his driveway to four trucks operating out of a garage with a complete commercial kitchen. www.biggreentruckpizza.com.
began her baking adventures at the Morning Glory Bakery in Bar Harbor, Maine. It was at this bakery that Cate learned the joy of baking delicious bread and sweets in the company of friends, for the enjoyment of the community. During her early years of motherhood, Cate altered her baking repertoire to include whole grains as a way to maximize the nutritious content of the food she prepared for her family. Dancing Embers Bakery was born out of Cate's love of baking and her family's experience with wood fired ovens. Today Dancing Embers Bakery is a small, home based bakery, dedicated to using pure, locally grown and produced ingredients to make delicious and nutritious baked goods to share with her family, friends and community.
is former Chief of the Penobscot Nation in Maine. He has spent the last two decades promoting the traditions of Maine’s indigenous nations and helping his people regain control of their culture and ancestral lands. In recent years, Dana has battled powerful paper companies and their allies in state government in an effort to stop toxic dumping in the Penobscot River, on which his people have depended for food and medicinal plants for 10,000 years. Dana is a graduate of the University of Maine at Orono with a bachelor's degree in education and an associate's degree in forest management.
has been baking bread for nearly a half century and it is his prime avocation. He lately has become a semi-professional baker with eyes on opening a bakery when he retires from his day job, which is being a Professor of Biology and Cooperating Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Maine. He is also a dyed-in-the wool organic gardener, having followed faithfully the traditions he learned from his grandfather in the 1950’s. He has been fortunate to be able to cross his scientific expertise over into his baking, including studies in sourdough and yeast microbiology and the physics of refractory materials and heat flow. He is directing the Maine Artisan Bread Fair for a second year.
is a well known, independent farm consultant and educator whose range of topics and expertise encompasses: transitioning from conventional to organic and biological agriculture; soil, crop, and forage nutrition; and preparing agriculture for peak oil, climate change and economic drift. He also teaches non-electric water technologies, hands-on skills in organic orcharding, organic no-till crop production, grain production, commercial and small scale composting, as well as fundamental rural skills and small farm food preservation.
Mark has studied with some of the greatest names in biological agriculture: Arden Andersen, Neal Kinsey, Dan Skow, Gary Zimmer, Elaine Ingham and Jerry Brunetti, and Norman Uphoff, among others. In recent travels, he has spent time in Australia to attend world renowned Graeme Sait's certificate course in Sustainable Agriculture from Nutri-Tech Solutions LTD, an Australian company that specializes in the relationship between soil, animal, and human health and which has become a recognized world leader in biological agriculture. A continuation of that trip led Mark to the Philippines to study the latest biological farming shift known as SRI (System of Rice Intensification), a cross-over methodology which can be adapted to improve dry land grains and row crop production practices in the U.S. SRI focuses on minimizing water use and maximizing biological soil function and photosynthesis.
Projects in mainland China include establishment of free range egg production, combined with inter-pasture orchard corridors and intensified vegetable/mushroom and fish production for a commercial organic-oriented farm in Guangdong Province.
Mark addresses to audiences from a wide range of backgrounds and philosophies embrace common sense, science, and cultural wisdom for the times we live in. His lifelong study of the natural world and immersion in agriculture on his own farm and abroad ground his practices in experience. Mark and his wife Paula own and operate Teltane Farm in Monroe, Maine. www.lookfar.org.
is the Department Chair for the International Baking and Pastry Institute at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. Ciril received his Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and then returned to his native Switzerland to complete a three-year apprenticeship as a Pastry Chef/Chocolatier. Ciril has been recognized both nationally and internationally with numerous awards and accomplishments, including Pastry Art & Design magazine's 2007 & 2008 Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America, 2006 Gold Medal National Bread and Pastry Team Championship (USA), and 2002 Silver Medal Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie (France). He has been a guest instructor/expert at many national and international culinary events and schools and served on the Advisory Board of the Bread Bakers Guild of America. He has been featured on the NBC Today Show, The Food Network, The Learning Channel, and Ciao Italia and his decorative bread work was exhibited in 2006 at the COPIA Museum in Napa, CA. He is the author of two books, Baking Artisan Bread and Baking Artisan Pastries and Bread, as well as numerous magazine articles and is the producer of two DVD series, Bread Art and Better Bread. More information about his work can be viewed on his web site: www.breadhitz.com.
is the owner of Wildflours Gluten-Free Market and Bakery in Brunswick, Maine. After being prescribed a gluten-free diet, Kelley began spending her free time in the kitchen playing with recipes in hopes of finding gluten-free alternatives to her favorite baked goods. After building a repertoire of goodies that both gluten-free eaters and gluten-lovers equally adored, she started dreaming about a small bakery of her own. In 2008, she opened Wildflours and has since built a customer base that extends across the country. www.wildflours.com.
While living in Vermont, Roger bought his first gristmill in l972. In one of those twists of fate, he moved to North Carolina and wound up in the town where Meadows Mills is located. He subsequently worked there for 3 ½ years working on gristmills. While on a 100 mile walk-a-about on the coast of California, he met a man hawking bread in front of a country store in a small fishing village named Albion. He was selling warm, desem bread. Where had he learned this art? From Alan Scott. At the end of his walk Roger spent two weeks working with Alan. Roger still makes desem bread and over the years has sharpened mills for many people.
Since then Roger has led workshops in California, Maine, and North Carolina. As local and regional food systems grow to include restoration of grain cultivation, Roger’s knowledge of how to cut and maintain grist mill stones for the small scale mill is a critical and endangered body of knowledge.
is a plant breeder and the director of The Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center of Washington State University in Mount Vernon. His research has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Gourmet Magazine, Discover Magazine, National Geographic News and on the PBS show “Eyes of Nye” (with Bill Nye the Science Guy). Recently he authored the “Sustainable Agriculture” entry and “Wheat” entry for the World Book Encyclopedia. He has a Ph.D. degree in genetics from the University of California at Davis and has been at Washington State University since 1991 where he developed some of the most widely grown winter wheats in the Pacific Northwest. He is working with small grains researchers and farmers from the US Northeast to the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia and Alaska. This is the organization he runs: http://mtvernon.wsu.edu/.
co-own the Stone Turtle Baking and Cooking School in Lyman, Maine. For nearly 25 years Michael was the senior spokesman for the King Arthur Flour Company and conducted baking seminars for them in almost every state in the USA. Michael and Sandy have been operating the Stone Turtle Baking and Cooking school for 3 years and focus on bread making using a beautiful le Panyol wood-fired oven. More information is available on their web site at www.stoneturtlebaking.com.
, the owner of Sullivan St Bakery, originally planned to spend his life as a sculptor. His passion for art and natural beauty took him to Italy, where he found a new medium for that sculptor's urge: bread. In 1994, he started Sullivan St Bakery in Soho, with little more than the wild yeast he cultivated by hand in Italy, and a passion for bringing the exquisite, handcrafted breads of Italy to the American table.
In October 2000, the new headquarters for Sullivan St Bakery opened on West 47th Street in Hell's Kitchen. Today, over 340 of New York's finest restaurants and markets, such as Jean Georges, The Four Seasons, Gramercy Tavern, Marea, Zabar's and WholeFoods showcase the bakery's remarkable bread.
In November of 2006, Lahey's no-knead method drew the attention of the New York Times’ "The Minimalist" columnist Mark Bittman. Jim’s new book, My Bread, inspired by those Bittman articles, has been published to great reviews. Several times a year Lahey invites the public to his "Master Classes for the Home Baker." These hands-on courses about pizza, focaccia and the "perfect loaf" soon led to the formation of The University of Bread at Sullivan St Bakery where he mentors apprentice bakers who hope to open their own bakeries around the world. Recently Jim opened his first restaurant, Co. The name is short for Company, a word whose Latin roots refer to the phrase "with bread," of course. www.sullivanstreetbakery.com.
Dubbed the "Da Vinci Baker" by the national media, Stephen Lanzalotta
has appeared on NBC's Today, CBS Evening News, ABC Nightly News,
CNN and FOX News to discuss his book, The Diet Code, and dietary thoughts. His story
has been featured in hundreds of international publications and on radio
shows from Tokyo to Sao Paulo.
Yankee Magazine dubs him the "legendary baker of mid-coast Maine,"
Port City Life has written that he is "the paragon of artisanal bakers,”
and the Library of Congress National Register's Who's Who establishes
him as an "Honored Professional and Lifetime Member."
USA Today had posted his last bakery, Sophia's, as "one of the ten great stops" in
America and France, and DownEast magazine asserts his Italian
cookies are "unsurpassed even in Florence". Stephen is currently baking pastry and pizza for Micucci Italian Grocery where his unique floppy "luna" bread received the editor's choice by the Phoenix for the best in Portland, ME. www.diet-code.com/author_bio.htm.
has been studying, designing and building wood burning masonry heaters and wood fired brick pizza and bread ovens since 1978. Patrick has studied masonry heater design and construction in Sweden and Finland and has traveled throughout the U.S. building both heaters and bake ovens. In Maine, Pat has built pizza ovens for Café Miranda, Primo, Bricks, Silver Lane Bistro, Fore Street, The Edge, and Black Crow.
In 1999, Patrick founded Masons on a Mission (MOM). MOM builds clean wood burning and vented masonry cooking stoves for Mayan families that live in the mountains of Guatemala. Millions of these families burn open fires within their dwellings with no proper ventilation. This exposes the families to high concentrations of wood smoke which cause respiratory illnesses and for the women who cook over the fires, loss of vision. Patrick travels to Guatemala every January/February to build these stoves, and he brings along with him a few dozen North American volunteers to help him. www.midcoast.com/masonsonamission.
have been farming organically since 1993 on about 1400 acres planted in corn, soybeans, small grains (wheat, spelt, barley, oats, triticale), field peas, winter peas, dark red kidney beans, edamame soybeans and other things too. They also own and operate Lakeview Organic Grain, an organic feed and seed operation serving the needs of organic livestock and grain farmers in New York and throughout the Northeast. They raise organic heifers, pigs, chickens, and most importantly, three children – Peter, Elizabeth and Daniel. www.lakevieworganicgrain.com.
teaches artisan bread baking at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. In addition to teaching culinary students, Richard is renowned for his skill teaching artisan techniques to non-professional baking enthusiasts, and he is a regular guest instructor at venues around the country. He spends the summer months in coastal North Carolina, baking organic hearth breads in the wood-fired brick oven he built with his wife. He serves on the Board of The Bread Bakers Guild of America.
is the owner/manager of his family’s 101-year old farm, Dunbar Farms, in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon. The farm originally produced pears but has transitioned to hay and wine grapes, eventually producing wine under the label Rocky Knoll. Dunbar Farms produces produce for a 50 person CSA and has partnered with local nonprofits to bring children to the farm to learn about agriculture. These accomplishments gave David a practical base in agriculture but he felt that the farm was still missing the true base of the human and farm animal diet, grain.
As a result, using old, laboriously restored combine, seeding and seed processing equipment, David has plunged Dunbar Farms headlong into small grain and other storable, edible seed production. Dave is trialing plots of durum, hard red and soft white wheats, hulless and hulled oats and barley, and rye as well as expanding seed quantities of pre-green revolution varieties for selection to the soils and climate of their region. Educating farmers about grain equipment and placing the necessary tools in their hands is, in Dave’s opinion, the most significant hurdle to the re-establishment of local, bioregional grain production. www.dunbarfarms.com.
of Heritage Wheat Conservancy collects, restores and bakes with almost-lost world heritage grains. She is the director of the SARE-funded program Northeast Organic Wheat, and was the coordinator of the Jordan-Israel-Palestine gene bank cooperative program 'Restoring Ancient Wheat'. Eli manages the Dancing Sheaves farm-bakery in Colrain, MA. www.growseed.org.
is a rabbi, baker and baking teacher, and mental health professional. He is co-rabbi, with his wife, Linda Motzkin, of Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs, New York. In 2004 he started Slice of Heaven Breads, a not-for-profit, volunteer-staffed, charitable bakery which operates out of the synagogue’s kitchen. The bakery has an open kitchen which offers instruction to individuals and groups and provides opportunities for training and employment for differently-abled people. Rabbi Jonathan is also Director of Pastoral Care at Four Winds-Saratoga, a private psychiatric hospital and has worked as a chaplain in a substance abuse program and a state correctional facility. www.templesinai-saratogasprings.org/Bread_and_Torah/index.html.
is an artist who bakes a lot of bread, builds earth ovens and writes about the process. He co-owns Railroad Square Cinema, Maine's premier art house and for many years owned a brick oven cafe. Stu has also co-produced and directed the award-winning film Dead River Rough Cut that happens to be the most requested movie at the Maine State Prison, no joke. Currently he is working on his latest book, Bread Earth and Fire. Way before that, he spent a lot of time driving VW buses across the country searching for great bread, but he never found any, and that's why he learned to bake. Stu maintains the lively blog: iBreadhunter.blogspot.com.
are co-owners of Hungry Ghost Bread in Northampton, Massachusetts. They run an all wood-fired, sourdough-risen shop that is in its seventh year of operation. They are currently working with four local farms producing wheat, spelt and rye and are able to offer some locally-grown grain products every day of the week.
has a bachelor degree from McGill University in agricultural engineering. Since 1995, she has worked as an adviser for farmers that use sustainable agricultural practices on their farms. Through this work she has developed an expertise and a passion for organic farming. From that experience she started to work towards agricultural objectives that touched the transformation aspect of farming. In 2007 she began working for Moulins de Soulanges in St-Polycarpe, owned by Robert Beauchemin. The mill needed the services of an experienced agronomist to work with farmers that grow wheat without pesticide. Her work at the mill is like an extension agent, she works with the farmers and their farms to help them successfully produce wheat without the use of pesticide. Elisabeth frequently presents at conferences and she is also a consultant for cash crop organic farmers. www.moulinsdesoulanges.com/oldindex.html. |
