FLOUR
A good loaf of bread begins with good flour. You will not find any harmful chemicals in our bread. We use only unbleached unbromated flour. A portion of the flour is milled right before mixing the dough. Many of our ingredients are organic or naturally produced. No preservatives, conditioners, or flavor substitutes.
LEAVEN
Each little grain packed with nutrients gives home to a whole community of wild yeast and bacteria specific to the particular type of grain. When flour is mixed with water and provided a comfortable environment, these little guys work hard fermenting the dough, making it nutritionally more valuable, and of course adding impressive flavor to the bread. We use wild leaven in almost every recipe, thus making our loaves both tasty and healthy. Commercial yeast is used sparingly to offset the dough's natural resistance to rising due to heavy whole grain content or addition of eggs, sugar, and oil.
METHOD
For hundreds of years, long before bread making was industrialized, bakers around the world were using similar traditional methods of bread making -- hand kneading, stretching and folding the dough, slow fermentation, shaping loaves in a way that ensures most impressive rise, steaming, boiling, and baking at high temperatures to give bread its chewy crust and beautiful color. Good bread does not tolerate shortcuts and requires patience, skill, and passion to make. We use traditional methods of bread making to bring the best loaves to your table.
BAKER
Yuliya Childers, a.k.a. "The Bread Lady," grew up in Eastern Europe, where traditional bread was a part of daily life. Her family purchased bread daily at a local bakery, often still warm, fresh from the bread factory. Yuliya became interested in bread making after she moved to the US. In 2018 she completed Professional Bread and Pastry Program at San Francisco Baking Institute, which had been a long time dream. "I love making bread and sharing it with my customers. My most cherished moments as a baker are when customers tell me my bread reminded them of the bread of their childhood."