 We walked out of the forest and down the lee side of the spit. The water was the same dense gray as the sky, the islands dark and snow dusted, disappearing into fog where sky and water merged. Two skiffs out in the bay passed close enough for conversation, but from shore we could hear nothing but the wind and gulls. The beach’s contours had changed since the last time I’d walked this way at low tide. The point, when we reached it, was flat and broad where before had been a sharp, current-rippled ridge of sand and pebble. Out of the land’s shelter the wind took us hard. I balled my hands into fists in my pockets as I looked out over the channel, the water an eerie, pale green and frothing white. Birds flocked this shore, the gulls swooping up to drop shells onto the rocks, the ducks crowding the sandy flats, facing into the surf. They lifted up before us, resettling as soon as we’d passed. The wind was picking up, cutting cold through my heavy coat and hat, icing my fingers, stiffening my face. The waves had thrown up new driftwood above the tide line and scattered shells that showed secret purple and mother of pearl green against the dark sand. Down the beach, something large and white stood at the edge of the driftwood. We followed the footsteps of other curious walkers to investigate. The shape sharpened into a padlocked sail chest, a single tie line hanging down its side. In the summer the beach is littered with plastic, but the winter empties the sea of casual boaters and their trash. The chest was the was the only jetsam we found on that whole wild shore. Back at the forest’s edge we turned away from the wind and towards an unexpected piece of abstract art: the wind had painted snow into icy, white racing stripes up the windward side of each exposed tree. Glancing back, I found the forest behind us was dark. Before us, the bold white stripes shone and swayed. A few paces into the trees and the quiet closed around us. The air was still. I took my hands out of my pockets and flexed my fingers. High above, the treetops twisted, shaking down snow flurries. Above the trees, a raven played the storm, wing dipping and rolling, skimming the air, before swinging around in a broad arc to ride down the wind and out of sight. Sophie Owner | Baker THIS WEEK's WEDNESDAY BREAD Order by Sunday night to pick up Wednesday, Feb 13 Red & White Mountain Rye Baker's Choice: Tinned Rye with Raisins & Walnuts - inspired by the rugbrod so many of you loved a few weeks back. 100% Whatcom grown (except for the salt). Happy Valentines! NEXT WEEK's WEDNESDAY BREAD Order this week for pickup Wednesday, Feb 20 Red & White Mountain Rye Baker's Choice: Sour Ring Bread - the daily bread of Finland WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION 4 weeks left! RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: a new rye every week Order ONLINE and pickup on Wednesdays from: Downtown: Cafe Velo, 120 Prospect, 9am - 7pm Fairhaven: Shirlee Bird Cafe, 1200 Harris, 7:30am - 5pm Birchwood: the front step, 8am - 8pm  Look at this! After a January so warm the crocuses are up, the kale is bolting in the garden, and across the driveway, the neighbors’ quince is flowering pink*, it’s snowing in February. Tuesday, perhaps, when I’m biking to the bakery through the predawn dark on icy roads, pursued by marauding cars, I’ll wish for rain, but today being Sunday, I’m giddy as a kid on a snow day. What a perfect day to drink tea and read my (self-assigned) homework. Later, if I’m lucky, there will be enough snow to go skiing! Happy snow day. Stay warm! Sophie Owner | Baker THIS WEEK's WEDNESDAY BREAD Order by Sunday night to pick up Wednesday, Feb 6 Red & White Mountain Rye Baker's Choice: Farmer's Bread 2.0 - a rye & wheat boule with a little fennel, caraway, and blue fenugreek. I'm still tweaking the recipe. Critiques of last week's loaf welcome! NEXT WEEK's WEDNESDAY BREAD Order this week for pickup Wednesday, Feb 13 Red & White Mountain Rye Baker's Choice: Tinned Rye with Raisins & Walnuts WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION 5 weeks left! RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: a new rye every week Order ONLINE and pickup on Wednesdays from: Downtown: Cafe Velo, 120 Prospect, 9am - 7pm Fairhaven: Shirlee Bird Cafe, 1200 Harris, 7:30am - 5pm Birchwood: the front step, 8am - 8pm * I know, from searching my past newsletters, most written at this same table, that two winters ago that quince didn’t flower till April.
 Tracking fermentation (with a nifty little Bluetooth pH meter) in a test batch of Farmer Bread. I spent last weekend in Olympia at the Cascadia Grains conference, talking with farmers and bakers and listening to talks on subjects ranging from business finance to climate change, crop rotations, and the centers of origin for the world’s grains. I came home, as I always do from these industry events, fizzy with anticipation and nerves, invigorated by the in person connections in a way I never am by interactions on social media. I want to build this bakery dream into reality. I want so much more than this little market business can hold. I’ve been deep in the numbers all week, building foolishly complicated spreadsheets, researching costs, working out financial projections. Next up: financing, real estate, incorporation, interviewing contractors and designers and accountants and attorneys. When I think about all the steps between here and my cheerful, light-filled bakery, I want to climb back into the dough tub (metaphorically) and just hang out with the bread. Bread is so wonderfully complex, but also simple, you know? Tangible. Immediate and satisfying in a way the business planning is not. To fight the paralyzing size of this new project, I make task lists. Lots of them. In notebooks, in spreadsheets, on loose scraps of paper. I make task lists for making more task lists. That way, I have one step to take, and then the next. And when the nerves overwhelm the anticipation, I have the stories I’ve written to myself about the bakery. Dozens of little stories, each a window into the dream bakery, to remind me that at the end of the lists is a business as tangible and immediate as the bread it will produce. But bigger. And not at all simple. Sophie Owner | Baker THIS WEEK's WEDNESDAY BREAD Order by Sunday night to pick up Wednesday, Jan 30 Red & White Mountain Rye Baker's Choice: Farmer's Bread 1.0 - a crusty rye & wheat boule, inspired by the Austrian Bauernlaib. Eventually, I'd like to add a rye boule like this to my weekly bread lineup. Help me develop the recipe by letting me know what you think of the sour balance (lactic/acetic), the spice mix and strength (currently a little fennel, caraway, and blue fenugreek), the texture (moisture, density), the keeping quality, and anything else you think is important in your daily bread. NEXT WEEK's WEDNESDAY BREAD Order this week for pickup Wednesday, Feb 6 Red & White Mountain Rye Baker's Choice: Farmer's Bread 2.0 WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION 6 weeks left! RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: a new rye every week Order ONLINE and pickup on Wednesdays from: Downtown: Cafe Velo, 120 Prospect, 9am - 7pm Fairhaven: Shirlee Bird Cafe, 1200 Harris, 7:30am - 5pm Birchwood: the front step, 8am - 8pm  Back when it was cold, back in the beginning of the week, before the rain, when the chill eased through the uninsulated walls of my upstairs bedroom and I slept curled under all my blankets in a tiny island of body heat, the bed a cold sea around me, I woke to frost. The grass was frosted, and the brittle leaves of kale and cabbage in the garden. The fennel, just tufting up between last year’s dead stalks, was wilted and rimmed with white. The gravel in the drive was frosted, and the cars, the garbage cans, the old leaves scattered by the walk. Ice crunched satisfyingly underfoot. The sun is slow to reach us this time of year. It was late morning before light crept all the way to the back fence. When I walked out to the garden at midday to pick my lunch, I found the deep shadows still frozen. The house threw a long, straight frost shadow. The pine and rhododendrons dappled frost across the grass. The trash bins drew precise, frosty parallelograms, the cars, rounded white rhombuses on the gravel. If I had stood in the yard all morning, watching the little puffed up birds flick between bush and fence as the sun warmed my back, I too could have grown a frost twin: a long, cold shadow self, reaching north towards the dark. Sophie Owner | Baker THIS WEEK's WEDNESDAY BREAD Order by Sunday night to pick up Wednesday, Jan 23 Red & White Mountain Rye Baker's Choice: Rugbrød - This hearty tinned bread, made with 100% Whatcom rye, is built on rugbrod recipes sent to me by the Dutch baker Tim van Dalen and French baker Thomas Teffri-Chambelland. The perfect base for smørrebrød (open-face sandwiches). NEXT WEEK's WEDNESDAY BREAD Order this week for pickup Wednesday, Jan 30 Red & White Mountain Rye Baker's Choice: Famer's Bread - a crusty rye & wheat boule, inspired by the Austrian bauernlaib. WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION Sign up to get a loaf every Wedneday through March 6 RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: a new rye every week Order ONLINE and pickup on Wednesdays from: Downtown: Cafe Velo, 120 Prospect, 9am - 7pm Fairhaven: Shirlee Bird Cafe, 1200 Harris, 7:30am - 5pm Birchwood: the front step, 8am - 8pm THIS WEEK's WEDNESDAY BREAD Order by Sunday night to pick up Wednesday, Jan 16 Red & White Mountain Rye Honey & Spice (pain d'epices) Baker's Choice: Sweet & Sour Limpa - There are many versions of Finnish limpa. This one is a blend of Whatcom rye and Walla Walla wheat, and balances sweet molasses, orange, and anise, against the acidity of sourdough. Eat with sweet or savory toppings. NEXT WEEK's WEDNESDAY BREAD Order this week for pickup Wednesday, 1/23 Red & White Mountain Rye Honey & Spice (pain d'epices) Baker's Choice: Rugbrod - This hearty tinned bread, made with 100% Whatcom rye, is built on rugbrod recipes sent to me by the Dutch baker Tim van Dalen and French baker Thomas Teffri-Chambelland. The perfect base for smørrebrød (open-face sandwiches). WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION Sign up to get a loaf every Wedneday through March 6 RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: a new rye every week Order ONLINE and pickup on Wednesdays from: Downtown: Cafe Velo, 120 Prospect, 9am - 7pm Fairhaven: Shirlee Bird Cafe, 1200 Harris, 7:30am - 5pm Birchwood: the front step, 8am - 8pm  View from the Samish Overlook on New Years Eve. The view outside the cafe was all concrete and cars, but sitting at the window reading Robert Macfarlane as my coffee cooled, I felt the ghost forest press close. Here around me and stretching out in all directions was the memory of trees over a century gone: fir and spruce, red cedar wider than my outstretched arms, with clouds catching in their peaks and the understory open beneath. I could almost hear the wind and creaking wood, almost smell the forest must beneath the coffee and the wet wool of my sweater. “She came to know her chosen place closely, [and] that closeness served to deepen rather than to limit her vision,” Macfarlane wrote of the Scottish writer and mountaineer Nan Shepherd. I would know this place closely, though it will take me a lifetime of stolen Sundays to learn the landscape, and years of baking to know the fruits of our land. This winter my studies range from rainy runs through the Chuckanuts to an exploration of Whatcom-grown rye through the Bread Subscription. I look forward to every day. Sophie Owner | Baker WEDNESDAY BREAD Order by Sunday night to pick up Wednesday, Jan 9 Red & White Mountain Rye Baker's Choice: Potato Rye Honey & Spice (pain d'epices) WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION Sign up to get a loaf every Wedneday through March 6 RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: a new rye every week  Recipe testing: on the right, Belarusian and Lithuanian potato ryes for this week's Baker's Choice. On the left, sweet limpas for the following week. After the holidays, after the lights, the rooms warm with friends and family, after the gifts, after the tamales and pozole, the roast beef, ragu, and rugelach, the gingerbread and gingersnaps, after eating and eating and eating, I step out into the world. It’s mid afternoon. Damp cold. The sky mottled gray. I start slowly, moving awake after days glutted on food, books, and sleep. The muddy track along the lakeside is quiet. Under the car rumble, I can hear the waves lapping. They roll towards shore from two directions, crossing at a wide angle. Each facet of the water’s surface reflects a different sky. For a while, I stand watching the water, trying to catch the shifting pattern; it eludes me. I run on, under the gray sky, along the gray water, through the lowering dark. I cross a hillside of waterbirds probing the grass. The ducks lift off before me in waves. The geese keep eating, unperturbed. I take the long stairs up from the lake two at a time. One flight after the next. I reach the top gasping, sweating, calves tingling, thighs trembling, face flushed, cold fingers fisted, feet fumbling for the last step. I am wholely alive. Every corner of my body is awake. This is a gift I try to remember: legs and lungs that move me through the world, arms that lift and carry, hands as competent to mix dough as they are to hold a pen. I am glad to have work that demands mind and body both, glad too to live in a community whose support lets me turn that work into a livelihood. Thank you. The bakery is growing steadily, straining the seams of the shoestring operation I’ve been running for the past four years. I have you to thank for that, as well. Because of that growth, I’ve been able to double my donations this year from one percent of sales to two percent. A small change, but a step in the right direction. And because of that growth, I’ll spend the winter planning how to build my bakery dreams into brick and mortar reality. I’ve passed enough hours staring out over the water, watching the light and writing stories in my head. It’s time to run. Happy almost New Year. Sophie Owner | Baker WEDNESDAY BREAD Order by Sunday night to pick up Wednesday, Jan 2 Red & White Mountain Rye Broa Milho Honey & Spice (pain d'epices) WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION Sign up to get a loaf every Wedneday, January 2 - March 6 RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: 10 weeks, 10 ryes Good morning! Today, the not-quite-shortest day of the year, is the last farmers market of the season. Come for the company, the crafts, and, of course, the beautiful food. Until the market starts again in April, you'll need to order bread online through the Bread Subscription (you don't have to sign up for the whole season, though I'd love it if you did!). I'll be back to rambling my sky dreaming and kitchen sink philosophy in this newsletter next week, after I've gotten some sleep. See you at the Market Depot, 10am - 3pm! Sophie Owner | Baker  TODAY AT MARKET Red & White + Oat & Honey Mountain Rye + Vollkornbrot Orange Chocolate Babka Honey & Spice (pain d'epices) Bittersweet Chocolate + Chocolate Malt Chocolate Chip Cookies Quince & Walnut Rugelach Brown Butter + Nibby Buckwheat Shortbread Gingersnaps + Gingerbread! WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION Pick up a loaf every week, January 2 - March 6 RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: 10 weeks, 10 ryes TODAY AT MARKET Red & White Oat & Honey (limited supply- come early!) Mountain Rye + Vollkornbrot Chocolate Malt Chocolate Chip Cookie Bittersweet Chocolate Cookie Brown Butter + Nibby Buckwheat Shortbread Gingerbread Honey & Spice Bread - A traditional pain d'epices made with Skagit-milled rye + Beeworks Honey + spices and aged for 8 months. Orange Chocolate Babka - Is babka a bread or a cake? Rich, and wildly delicious. Skagit-milled flour from Walla Walla wheat, Whatcom eggs + cream, Theo Chocolate. Quince & Walnut Rugelach - Because what's a Jew to do at Christmas but bake like it's still Hanukkah? Walnuts from Broadleaf Farm, membrillo from gleaned quince, Skagit-milled flour from wheat grown in Lynden! WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION Pick up a loaf every week, January 2 - March 6 RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: 10 weeks, 10 ryes. The lineup is still a work in progress. Requests welcome! Holiday Special + Stock Up orders can be placed online or, to avoid the credit card surcharge, at market with check or cash. Order by Dec 16 to pick up at the Dec 22 Farmers Market HOLIDAY SPECIALS Chocolate Orange Babka Honey & Spice Bread Quince & Walnut Rugelach Gingerbread Bundt with Pear Caramel STOCK UP FOR WINTER! The last Saturday Farmers Market is Dec. 22. Fill your pantry (or freezer) with your market favorites to hold you over till the weekly market starts again in April. Red & White Sandwich Mountain Rye (uncut) Vollkornbrot (uncut) Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies Brown Butter + Nibby Buckwheat Shortbread Gingerbread I've been working on holiday recipes for the past weeks and I think I've finally mastered them all, and just in time. The Great Honey & Spice Bread Collapse was a disaster that lasted many bakes; if you have a favorite rum ball or rugbrødslagkage recipe, send it my way! I'm going to be bringing recycled test loaves to potlucks for a long time.
I'm excited to share the end results of all this experimentation with you. Come try the holiday specials at market today, or just take my word that they're excellent and place your Christmas order for pickup at the last market, Saturday the 22nd! See you soon. Sophie Owner | Baker TODAY AT MARKET Red & White Mountain Rye + Vollkornbrot Chocolate Malt Chocolate Chip Cookie Bittersweet Chocolate Cookie Gingerbread Brown Butter + Nibby Buckwheat Shortbread WINTER BREAD SUBSCRIPTION Pick up a loaf every week, January 2 - March 6 RED & WHITE subscription MOUNTAIN RYE subscription BAKER's CHOICE subscription: 10 weeks, 10 ryes! Holiday Special + Stock Up orders can be placed online or, to avoid the credit card surcharge, at market with check or cash. Order by Dec 9 to pick up at the Dec 15 Farmer Market Order by Dec 16 to pick up at the Dec 22 Farmers Market HOLIDAY SPECIALS Chocolate Orange Babka Honey & Spice Bread Quince & Walnut Rugelach Gingerbread Bundt with Pear Caramel STOCK UP FOR WINTER! The last Saturday Farmers Market is Dec. 22. Fill your pantry (or freezer) with your market favorites to hold you over till the weekly market starts again in April. Red & White Sandwich Mountain Rye (uncut) Vollkornbrot (uncut) Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies Brown Butter + Nibby Buckwheat Shortbread Gingerbread No essay this week, but if you're curious about the bread world buzz, check out this article in Eater on bread bros. There have been a cascade of conversations on social media as the article's made the rounds about gender, values, the technicalization of craft, and the power of storytelling to shape our perceptions of a community. You can read a few such responses in these Instagram posts by the California Grain Campaign, Humble Bakehouse, and farmer Mai Nguyen. I also made a short post, sparked by the article if not in direct response, which you can see/read here.
See you soon. Sophie Owner | Baker |
