Challahman's Bread Blog

Home Pizza Baking Guide

2011-09-03T18:57:00.000-04:00

The secret to our pizza dough is the yeast; we use a wild yeast culture (grown in our bakery) which creates the complexity of flavors that brings out the most desirable qualities for your pizza toppings. So our dough is excellent without adding sugar, fat, or oil; just flour, water, barley malt (sprouted barley), yeast and salt

Here are some hints to making a great pizza and feel free to write us with questions or comments; or leave a comment here.

Dough Preparation. Store the dough in the refrigerator up to two days before use; the dough is ready to use (but thaw overnight in a refrigerator if it has been frozen); no need to let it sit out or “rise.” Just cut the dough ball to the size you want and roll it out to your desired thickness. Generally, one pound of dough makes two eight inch pizzas. Place the rolled out dough directly on an oiled flat sheet pan (or you can use parchment which tends to burn in a hot oven but makes it easier to move/slide the pizza around before baking if needed).

Top as desired. Plain canned tomato sauce works great; a small 6 oz. can is just the right size for 1 pound of dough. There really is no need for cooked sauce or specialty pizza sauce; but they work great. Just check the ingredients on the can; add salt if none is listed. The dough is rugged and can hold a lot, but be sure not to overload the pizza with items that will shed moisture while baking and cause the dough to fall apart.

Bake at high heat. Ideally, pizza is baked between 700 and 800 degrees; this is why you will often see a fire burning inside authentic brick pizza ovens. But you can successfully bake in your kitchen oven or, even better, on your outside grill at lower temperatures. Turn the oven/grill to the highest heat it can go and heat oven for at least 15 minutes, 25 minutes if using stones. Baking stones are ideal as they help keep the oven hot after opening and closing; the stones hold retained heat and release it when the oven temperature goes down thus keeping the highest possible heat. Consumer “pizza stones” are troublesome because they tend to break if they get hot and wet; and their size and shape sometimes don’t work well. We recommend unglazed quarry tile which you can buy cheaply at any hardware store that sells floor tiles; they come in 6 inch squares which you can piece together in your oven/grill as desired and easily remove and store away when cool. For best results bake one pizza at a time and give the oven/grill time to reheat between bakes; this helps keep the oven hot. You can always put a baked-but-cooled-down pizza back in the oven/grill to heat up again. Each pizza should take about 10-15 minutes to bake completely.

The Going Rate to Sell a Loaf of Bread in Philly

2010-05-15T16:36:00.003-04:00

What can be more basic and simple than baking a loaf of bread and selling it to a neighbor? That is what I have set out to do; open a small neighborhood storefront bakery. I found a local developer willing to give me a renovated space for a reasonable rent. All I had to do was put in a floor, oven, front steps, add some sinks and some electrical connections; and supply and other machines I needed. Easy enough!

My naivety is my greatest weakness and also my greatest asset. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I walked into the Philadelphia offices of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) with my home made, and fully to-scale, drawings and they laughed at me:

“You need professional drawings.” The plan reviewer told me.

“But the building is built; I’m just adding some sinks and equipment, and some front stairs. The City is clear that professional plans are not needed for such a thing.” I argued back remembering reading that somewhere on the City web pages.

“You need professional drawings.” He repeated, this time flipping through a rolled up pile 5 inches thick of drawings from some project he was reviewing. “Like these.”

“But this is a waste. The architect plans will say the same thing as in these drawings; where all my equipment is going. What more information do you need that is not in these drawings?”

“You need professional drawings.” The mantra at L&I.

“But….” I gave up at this moment; time to find an architect.

Four weeks later and $1000 poorer (only because of rough economic times for architects; I found a bargain), I show up with my “professional” plans, which had almost the same information as my home made drawings and was told to wait for 40 days to find out if I am approved or not.

Almost forty days later, I get a letter from L&I saying my plans have been approved. But when I pick up my permit, there is a sheet of paper that says they did not review my plans for ADA accessibility, electrical, plumbing, or venting; I would need separate permits for all these things. But these were the only things I needed anyway. I wondered what the point was in getting the “building permit” if I needed separate permits for everything else. I suspected nobody even looked at these plans in any detail.

“Oh well, I have the permit,” I thought to myself. “Time to get to work.”

So the ADA requires that I have a ramp to get into the 15” rise from the sidewalk to the bottom of the front door. Sounds reasonable, except that it is practically impossible to put a 15 foot (each inch requires a foot of ramp) ramp on this property. The ramp would have to switch back with a landing large enough for a wheelchair to turn on; then there would not be any sidewalk left for people to walk on. Streets department wouldn’t allow it. A mechanical lift would be $40,000; not feasible. So what do I do?

Turns out I can apply for a “variance.” But the City can’t give them, L&I just forces people to comply. I have to go to Harrisburg (the other L&I, Labor and Industry) to apply for a variance. This again requires additional architectural drawings and work by the architect explaining the layout and why the ramp is impractical. Another $800 for professional fees (again, a bargain due to dragging economy).

OK, I got the variance a month after applying. It’s slow but I we are moving. I scramble to revamp my budget with all these unanticipated expenses and I have to look to borrow some additional funds.

I need a sign so people can walk or drive by and know there is a baker here. But to put a sign, I need a sign zoning permit. One trip to apply for the zoning permit was pretty laughable; again, L&I requires professional drawings, my sign design work with the original drawings for the build out are not sufficient; another $1000 in architectural fees to me, and approval from Street Department and Art Commission, whatever that is. On the second trip I am told my professional drawings were not competent, lacking some needed written measurements that are easily calculated if measured. So I complain to my architect and he makes me some new ones at no charge. I am shocked by the price of a zoning permit to put up a sign, over $400 and 20 days to review even after the intake reviewer thoroughly reviewed the plans.

Then I need another building permit, for the sign. Not a tough process, but they need professional drawings and some fees; and 20 days; but only after the zoning is approved.

So the bottom line is that to put in some sinks, electrical upgrades, and and an oven, I’m out $7267 plus about a dozen trips to Center City to wait in line for my turn to more deeply understand what Kafka was writing about. This is just to follow City requirements; the actual work is additional. Oh well… could have been much worse, I guess.

I dare not calculate how many loaves of bread I have to bake to recoup this investment. All I know is that some dreams are worth the price. Wish me luck with my final inspections.

The breakdown:

Zoning application and permit $100

Health Department Plan Review $1445

Tenant Fit Out, Application for Building Permit $125

Tenant Fit Out, Building Permit $261

Sign Zoning application fee $100

Sign Zoning permit fee $ 325

Sign building application fee $100

Sign building permit fee $61

ADA variance application fee (State) $100

Plumbing Permit & inspection $600 (estimated)

Electrical Permit inspection and Certification $650

Venting (for the oven) Permit & inspection $500 (estimated)

Architectural fees required for these permits $3000

Total $7267

Some images from the new bakery fit-out

2010-04-03T08:45:00.004-04:00

The new floor; slip resistant abrasive quarry tile. Very strong. That section to the right of the picture is where the new walk-in refrigerator went in. The oven will be facing the camera way back along the far back wall.

The reconditioned bagel former from Empire Baking Machines.

The 1,000 pound Rondo/VMI dough mixer; can mix about 140 pounds of dough at once. We had to enlist the help of the forklift operator at Woodland Building Supply to get in the front door...too heavy to lift.

Misselaneous pieces for the oven; I'm hoping the pro oven installer knows what to do with all this stuff.

The steel base (back right) and two large pices of the oven core. All the grill-like images are pipes that move the hot water throughout the oven; the state of the art Vapor Tube technology.

More pieces of the oven core and stack work. Those bags in the back are insulation that will be stuffed tightly inside the oven to maintain it's amazing efficiency. These natural gas ovens are so efficient, many bakers don't even turn off their ovens; they just leave them on when not using them.

Four Worlds Bakery and the Proposed 42nd and Woodland Starbucks at USP

2010-03-27T12:57:00.002-04:00

Summary: Four Worlds Bakery is opposed to the proposed Starbucks at University of the Sciences (USP) on 42nd and Woodland. Although the direct economic impact on Four Worlds is unknown, the presence of the Starbucks alone will likely have a minimal impact on the financial success of the new bakery location 4634 Woodland. As part of the exploding local food scene, Four Worlds would rather see a locally owned and operated business in that space. Four Worlds Bakery encourages residents to attend the upcoming community meeting at Spruce Hill Community Association to be heard on the subject. But to be fair, we don't think USP should be denied a zoning variance; we just think it's a bad idea to put a Starbucks on 42nd and Woodland and hope USP officials will change their minds after they hear community feedback. Four Worlds Bakery remains an ally with USP regarding the development of the Woodland retail corridor irrespective of the proposed Starbucks plan.

The following is our detailed response to the proposed Starbucks at University of the Sciences at 42nd and Woodland.

Background

Four Worlds Bakery is moving to 4634 Woodland; probably by June 1. These plans have been in the works for awhile and we are at the tail end of the necessary renovations; about ready to start moving in equipment.

The plans are a realized dream for most any baker. We will have 1000 square feet of kitchen space, including a retail storefront; a bakery counter where customer can walk in and buy morning croissant, baguettes, bagels, loaves of bread, freshly roasted and brewed coffee and espresso, cupcakes, granola, canela, and other made from scratch products. Everything is take out, we don’t have the space for seating.

Multiple businesses will be run in the bakery space including a coffee roaster (we are installing a new $25,000 coffee roaster), cupcake baker, and canela baker; all established vendors. All the individuals working in this space share a common story: we all have climbed over many obstacles to do the work we love. Many of our products will be sold to area retailers and some will be sold by us in the store.

While exciting, the venture is full of challenges. Our mission is to bring back the neighborhood scratch bakery, make a positive impact on our community, and make a decent living doing the work we love. The economics are tight; the profit potential extremely limited. This is not a bakery that will be fully stocked with hundreds of different bakery products all day long. We will bake to sell out; and likely offer fresh products early in the morning and later in the afternoon; but probably won’t be open all day long.

We chose Woodland Avenue for many reasons. This corridor, between 43rd (Clark Park & the University of the Sciences) and 49th, is screaming potential. A local investor, Guy Laren, has been buying decaying building and renovating them in an effort to rehab the neighborhood. Bottom line is that we got a mostly renovated space for half the rent of a comparable space on Baltimore Avenue. With a relatively low (but still six digits) start up cost and low monthly overhead, the neighborhood bakery is feasible. Also, a new Mexican food restaurant is
slated to open in June a block away at 46th & Woodland.

Of course, we need to attract our customers to the area; Woodland Ave does not have established retail traffic to accommodate Four Worlds. And we hope to attract students from University of the Sciences (USP).

USP has been amazingly hospitable. Early in the project, USP contacted me and expressed overwhelming excitement and support. USP officials helped me plan a way to safely secure the building and offered to promote Four Worlds to faculty, staff and students. And plans are in the works to offer students subsidized coupons for neighboring businesses and other incentives to patronize Four Worlds Bakery.

Enter Starbucks Plan

Through a benign administrative oversight, USP did not inform Four Worlds Bakery about the proposed Starbucks. We happened to get an email by an area activist last week, the night before a Spruce Hill community zoning meeting on the subject. We didn’t know any specifics about the plans, but felt extremely threatened by the prospects. Generating storefront traffic is challenging enough; but a Starbucks on campus would make it even more difficult to attract students and USP staff 3 blocks away to the bakery. Without time to gather information, we sent out some emails to gather support in opposing the Starbucks plans.

Through lightning speed social media outlets, our message quickly went viral and USP was flooded by emails and calls regarding the proposal; completely overwhelming at least one office at the University. Community list servers and comment boards hosted many debates on the subject, some in support of Starbucks and some passionately opposed. In conversations, Four Worlds supporters cited the bakery as one of the most likely victims of the USP plans.

Many residents changed their plans for the evening to attend the community zoning meeting. The meeting is ostensibly a community forum where residents are given a voice in how the City zoning officials will rule on the necessary zoning variances USP needs to build the Starbucks. Starbucks officials will not be at the meeting; this is USP requested a zoning variance for their building, to put in the Starbucks café.

USP contacted us and sincerely apologized for not informing us of the plans and extended a formal invitation to come to the community meeting. A few hours later, they called back to inform us the community meeting was postponed due to the unexpected response from the community.

USP officials quickly set up a meeting with us to discuss the plans to give us an opportunity to formulate our own opinions about the project. This meeting was very cordial and informative and helped us formulate our opinions which appear below.

The Plans

USP entered a contract with Sodexo, their corporate food service provider, to put in a Starbucks at the university. This is not a franchise Starbucks; but a license to use the Starbucks image and products…all the employees will be working for the food service company. The Starbucks café is part of their Barnes & Noble text-book-only bookstore. The plans include sidewalk seating along both 42nd Street and Woodland Ave.

I spent time listening to USP officials, trying to understand why they wanted a Starbucks on campus. USP is making great efforts to connect with and move toward integrating with the neighborhood; a mission that is sincere and incredibly challenging. So I was confused as to why they would want to put a Starbucks on campus; a brand and image with the potential to further alienate USP from the West Philly community. And USP wants to develop the Woodland corridor; so why attract more traffic to center campus? Wouldn’t it be better to attract retail traffic to the area around campus instead? And why not put in a business that would attract neighbors and residents?

I discovered a very carefully balancing act by USP officials. As any business, USP must make income; and attracting qualified students is paramount to their success. Apparently, having a Starbucks on campus is good for business; part of an overall mix in attracting the kind of students they want. And while the Starbucks might incite and alienate many area residents, officials decided the Starbucks was a significant enough boost to their overall business strategy that they are willing to accept the negative impact on their community relations. And while they were hoping, I think, for a smooth and relatively quiet zoning process, the community response has been vigorous and loud.

Our Perspective

So now our community has the opportunity to have a very healthy debate. And to help clarify and focus the debate, I offer my perspective to clarify the likely impact on Four Worlds and the community.

1) Business impact on Four Worlds Bakery. The economic impact on the bakery cannot be known; but the impact is limited to only the retail storefront potential of the business which is part of the overall revenue mix. Online retail sales and wholesale sales will likely not be affected. We are hoping to attract students and staff to the bakery early in the morning, and the Starbucks will make that more difficult. If there is a negative impact, the likely outcome will be a more limited retail storefront presence, ie less hours, or worst case, no storefront at all. But the presence of the Starbucks will not alone cause us go out of business. Ironically, the community debate might actually help business within the West Philly community given the highly visible publicity and favorable comments from existing customers. But to use potential benefits like this as a justification for the project doesn’t sit well with us. With so many variables and risks involved in a business venture, and lack of reliable (and easily manipulated) statistical evidence, there is no reliable way to predict or even determine in the future the effect of the Starbucks on our bottom line.

2) The decision to build or not build the Starbucks rests with USP and Sodexo. The debate is muddied since this is not a Starbucks franchise project; the primary venture is a USP venture in association with their corporate food service company Sodexo; the Starbucks was a requirement to get the Sodexo contract to supply food service. As a neighbor to USP, Four Worlds Bakery depends on the success of USP; a successful university is symbiotic to a successful neighborhood bakery. Our overall community strategy should be to help USP, Four Worlds Bakery, and other local businesses to flourish. So USP is not the big bad corporation here; and USP will be the presenters at the planned Spruce Hill Community Association meeting. But we should tell USP that who they associate with has consequences to their community relations and the economic health of our community; and we should invite them to favor associations to local businesses.

3) Starbucks’/USP Business Practices & the Local Food Community. We leave it to others to inform the community on specific Starbucks business practices that are adverse or beneficial to the local community. I like that locally owned businesses care about the community. When the going gets rough, we can’t just pack up and leave; we live here and so do our families; decision making is made more by human beings who must consider the community interests, not removed board of directors making decisions in a multi-national context that can impact our local community. Many of the local food businesses do business with each other: like we sell croissant to Green Line, Milk & Honey, Cream&Sugar and many other businesses. Starbucks is not likely to sell our products since they distribute their own baked goods that arrive frozen.

4) This is a zoning variance process. USP is voluntarily seeking community response as part of the process of seeking a variance for use of their building at 42nd and Woodland. After they get a response from Spruce Hill, they take their case to the City Zoning Board for an official decision. Residents thus have an opportunity to be heard on the issue, which is an important part of the process of changing a zoning regulation.

Our Official Position. Four Worlds Bakery opposes the building of a Starbucks at 42nd and Woodland because there are other, more beneficial alternatives for the local community. Four Worlds Bakery is part of an exploding local foods movement, and we would much prefer to see a locally owned business go in that space that supports and nourishes the local foods movement and business community. We don’t oppose putting a café in that space; just the Starbucks brand and image which we see as polarizing to the West Philly community and misses out on potential benefits to the local community. While we think Starbucks is a bad idea here, we don't oppose the granting of a zoning variance since we support USP use of the space as a retail cafe. Our hope is that USP will change their mind and decide not to put a Starbucks there.

Four Worlds encourages resident participation at the planned (date/time/place TBA) Spruce Hill Community Association meeting when the zoning debate will take place. West Philly should tell USP, Starbucks and Sodexo what they think about the plans after they hear the full proposal by USP; and we should use the debate to further solidify the already thriving locally owned business community that is flourishing in West Philly. This is a great opportunity to raise awareness about the benefits of locally owned businesses; and we should seize on that opportunity. Four Words Bakery, however, does not see itself as a victim nor do we feel threatened from a business perspective.

We are excited for the prospects of the Woodland retail corridor between 43rd and 50th Street and Four Worlds Bakery is heavily invested in its success. New businesses are coming there and so will our residents; and Four Worlds will be an integral part of the change that is coming. USP has expressed its commitment to foster the success of Four Worlds Bakery and the Woodland retail corridor regardless of the outcome of the Starbucks project. Four Worlds views USP as an integral ally in these efforts and looks forward to working with USP officials; pooling all our resources together for the benefit of our local community.

Now, if it is OK with you, we will go back to doing what we do best. Baking bread and roasting coffee.

We invite your comments below.

Betting on the new local economies: I'm expanding my business

2009-02-02T16:51:00.001-05:00

I own a small bread bakery in West Philadelphia. My business is expanding in a shrinking economy and consumer spending. Why? Keep reading and have a peek at the bright future that is ahead of us; even if it's a challenging road to get there.

A bit about my bakery. I started this bakery in my house with 15 people on an email list. I just sent out a weekly email and said "this is what I'm baking; pre-order and pickup your order on Friday on my front porch." Hand-made sourdough breads, locally grown organic whole grains, milled at the bakery, local ingredients mostly.

Grass roots expansion. The word spread quickly taking on a life of it's own, seemingly totally beyond my control; and the bakery operation slowly crept into my basement with the addition of more ovens, sinks, refrigerators, etc. Seeing the writing on my bare basement walls, I began to look for a real commercial kitchen and spent 1 1/2 years planning and renovating a small space in an existing local cafe to put my bakery; I moved the bakery, got all the required permits and certifications.

Since moving into my own commercial kitchen, I have kept the same business model that I started with: direct sales to people through internet order forms; slow growth with the goal of building lasting connection and loyalty with a strong customer base; high margins (revenues minus costs) and low volume.

Here is a nicely edited video of the bakery move from the basement. We moved the entire contents of the bakery with bicycles, no trucks.

Sustainable Business model. I have been convinced that the high volume, low margin business model is going to very problematic in the emerging economy. The key is flexibility. When low margins, small changes in supply costs (like the huge spike in food prices last year) puts the whole business model in turmoil. I was able to ride the spike in food costs without raising my prices, because I had high enough margins on my products to sustain the changes without changing my business model.

Instead, I got creative. I found new markets for my products and invested in sustainable packaging (reusable bags), used barter and bicycle transportation for delivery, and almost eliminated waste in the bakery. For example, I create only one home-sized trash bag of garbage a month; the rest of my "waste" in composted or recycled.

When the recession hit, I added an option on my order form to donate bread to hungry people. My customers can now donate $1 to $40, or more, to an account that use to give away bread to people. I have matched most of the donations, but essentially the program allows my customers to support the bakery in baking fresh quality bread for people who need bread. A comment from a hunger organization I am working with:

Thank you for your generosity with Intercultural Family Services. Myra and Kim told me how much the families loved the bread and sweets you provided. Oftentimes, people in need of food are used to getting the food that no one else wanted or expired foods. When you are hungry, you usually eat it, because that is all that you have. When you give someone good, wholesome food prepared with care, as you did, I feel that you are also nourishing them with dignity. Thank you again.

And now expansion. This week I am launching a daily fresh croissant and bagel delivery for area cafes and small sweet shops in a 2 mile radius in West Philly. This is a major expansion for my small bakery which will, if all goes well, double or triple my overall sales in just a few months. There is great support in my neighborhood for this venture, and I'm marketing it as a way to help fix the broken economy. Invest in your local economy; in businesses whose CEO's live in your community, send their kids to the same schools as yours, who really care about the employees and where the waste they create ends up. This is the way of the future; and I'm investing and betting on it.

I'm lucky I live in an supportive community for this venture. The local food economy here is strong and growing.

Our collective future. Any stimulus package needs to include motives for small businesses like mine to expand, hire people, and support the community that hosts them. It's the key to our long term future. I don't reject the "global" economy, as long as it's firmly rooted in a strong decentralized local economic engine that builds on the benefits of having access to international trade. We have gone into depending on the global engine as our food; but we are going back to building at our roots. Local, small businesses is the future. And there is great hope; even if the times are challenging. Thanks for listening.

Here is an effort to get you hungry; I'm just a small time baker after all is said and done:

*Update: Here is a link to my web page; many a commenter has been asking: www.fourworldsbakery.com

The most efficient bread machine is really simple...and cheap

2008-11-22T08:38:00.004-05:00

Occasionally I get email newsletters from the baking industry. Little of what I see there is relevant to my little bakery; but occasionally I will follow some links to see what's going on out there. This article had me laughing so hard I was forced to stop myself from laughing because I wasn't getting enough air. It's certainly not meant to be funny; but it's so utterly incomprehensible, even to me as a baker, that I forgot I was reading about a bread machine. Here is a taste:

Pan bread systems have evolved in the last few years to use extrusion on a wider variety of products. “By using multiple metering pumps on the ADD Divider, AMF has been able to increase extrusion line speeds while reducing the work on the dough,” says Larry Gore, AMF Automation Technologies, Richmond, Va. “This has broadened the range of bread styles that can be made using extrusion, and further reduced the cost of production by increasing scaling accuracy and minimizing maintenance.” For those breads that still require volumetric dividing, AMF's new servotech divider and Cycone rounder package uses precise feedback from the servo controls on the ram and knife to accurately scale with minimal pressure.

In other words, they are trying to get their robotic machines to be gentle on the dough and actually scale the dough accurately; without beating up the pans so much they have to be replaced constantly. You know .... trying to replicate the most efficient and effective machine for making bread: Hands!!!

And ... oh yeah ... we could actually hire people with hands to make it.

The making of a wedding challah

2008-10-13T16:45:00.009-04:00

I got my first order for a festive wedding challah and we had a blast baking it. Here is a picture of the happy couple (Zoe and Ken) on their wedding day yesterday, just before saying the blessing over the challah.

This loaf is 3 challah, stacked on top of each other. The tricky part is stacking them in such a way that the top braids don't fall off; and of course, we don't want the whole thing to topple over in the oven during the oven spring.

It worked. Just after they came out of the oven with the proud bakers:

We baked two of them. One we are dehydrating. After it's dried out, we are going to shellac it (to seal out moisture) and use it as a decorative display piece for the cafe. Come by the bakery at 4423 Chestnut and take a look. I will update this posting with a picture of it displayed at Kaffa Crossing when it's up.

This challah was just as delicious as all the Four Worlds Bakery challah. Here is the proof:

This was not staged. I just happened to found him all by himself communing with this challah. And I just happened to have a camera in my pocket. Really! I promise!!

The future is here: Four Worlds Packaging System

2008-09-21T07:56:00.010-04:00

I have spent over two years focusing on the substance of the Four Worlds Bakery product; but until recently, I have put very little attention into packaging. The substance counts big time, but proper outside packaging is necessary in creating a successful product for any market. This week, we are launching the first big leap into a new bakery packaging system. I am writing this to give the details, illuminate the big picture and to invite your efforts to make this work.

The Big Picture. It will take extra effort from all of us to make this work. Although this is just a small step in solving many of our societal problems, this micro-effort is a large symbolic step for the future of business practice: our success will be an inspiration and model for other such efforts in the future. As our economy changes, so must our business and consumer practices. Creating waste no longer makes sense in the emerging economy. But we have to give up some conveniences and put forth some effort; and invest in a long-term waste reduction program. So I invite you to be part of this small effort.

The bakery is making a very large initial financial investment into this system (I had to put up $1200 just to print and buy the bags; and I had to buy labels, tags, washable containers, extra labor in managing the system, new shelves to physically store the bags, etc.), but in the long-term, we save big money in packaging costs. This means increased margins for the bakery products and reduces the likelihood of price increases with inflationary pressures; and might even result in price decreases while other bakeries will be raising prices. As the price of disposables go up, our costs will not be as affected. Our goal is to prove that eliminating waste is not only morally right, it makes financial sense. But we have to break out of the micro-consumer lens of seeing every transaction in isolation; we have to look at the big picture. And we have to be willing to look at and confront the costs of the waste we create with every purchase. This system is such an opportunity because you will have to do your own math and decide what makes sense for you.

The packaging system...the details. The system is quite simple. You pay a one-time $10, non-refundable, fee to get into the system; you opt-in to the system via the online order form, the next time you order. We tag 3 reusable logo-printed bags (pictured) for your exclusive use and we will pack your orders in your bags only. The bakery will technically own the bags, but will grant you exclusive use of the bags tagged with your name. The bags are made of 100% recycled materials; are 100% recyclable, washable, large enough for big orders and small enough for single loaf orders, and reusable. And, most importantly, due to it's white color, they are "flour proof."

Babka will be packed in washable, reusable plastic containers, instead of disposable plastic bags. Every time you pickup an order, you return one of your tagged reusable bags (washed or cleaned if necessary) and washable babka containers at the pickup site. If we go to pack your next order and we don't have a bag for you (due to you not returning your bag), we will charge you $5 for a new bag, which will be tagged with your name on it; so then you will have an extra bag in the system as a cushion for the next time you forget to return a bag. We will wash and sanitize the babka containers before reuse; and label them so you don't accidentally mix them into your other dishes at home. If a bag is damaged or unusable because of our transportation system, we will replace it. The $.25 fee for plastic bread bags will still apply.

You can opt-out of the system and request disposable paper bags, but we will charge you a $1 packaging fee plus another $.25 if you choose optional plastic bagging for the bread. The $1 packaging fee is waived for first time customers.

Croissant containers, for now, are still disposable. We have factored the costs of these containers into the cost of the croissant, but it doesn't work for orders of less than four croissant units. So we charge a $.50 fee for the container if you order less than 4 croissant.

The thinking behind this system.

Financial. Part of my plan in not increasing prices to reduce costs in as many areas as possible without giving up quality in the actual bread products. So one of my targets is the use of disposable bags and packaging. After crunching the numbers, the long term savings are pretty clear. But it will take effort from all of us to realize these savings; we have to give up some convenience.
Moral. Using disposable products reflects a mindset that fails to consider how our everyday actions will affect future generations who have no say in what we do today. While the use of some disposable products might make sense, many such conveniences are just wasteful and not sustainable in the long-term; and are an utter inefficient use of the our communal earth's resources.
Vision. This bakery is so much bigger than just making good bread and pastry. It's about sustainability; a model for business where the consumer is connected to and provides essential feedback for what direction the business will take in the future. It's a cooperative effort to build and maintain our local community and connect with one another; and to become more aware of the blessings in everyday life.
Connection. This is yet another opportunity to connect the baker with the consumer; a never-ending loop of energy exchange which is the essential underlying element that makes Four Worlds Bakery unique. All the outer manifestations (ie great bread) are merely a reflection of this goal of heightening our awareness of this connection.

An invitation. Please consider joining us in this effort by opting into the new packaging system. And realize it's so much more than a $10 fee and an promise to return the bags. This is an investment for your communal future; and a more satisfying way to live. We can be the change we seek. We just have to put forth some effort.

The Nature of Four Worlds Bakery Customers (updated with feedback)

2008-09-13T08:10:00.004-04:00

Last week I published a piece in my weekly email about my relationship as a baker with my customers; and the unique relationship with customers at Four Worlds Bakery. Here is what I wrote:

Insights. I was thinking about the evolution of Four Worlds Bakery last week; especially the unique relationship I enjoy with my customers. During the first year of operation, I noticed an emerging pattern with sales. New customers would show up with great excitement and sometimes even obsession. After a month or two the orders would get smaller and, for many customers, they would just stop ordering after awhile; or just order every month or once every two months. And there was a constant stream of first or second time customers who didn't order again at all. Infusion of new customers has always kept my sales in growth mode, even during seasonal lows tides in the bakery business.

But this pattern of customers falling off worried me until my recent insight on what might be happening and the result. Given my unique distribution system, one really has to go out of their way to get Four Worlds Bakery products. You have to figure out this crazy system, plan ahead and order, remember to pick it up during specific times, actually pick it up at maybe inconvenient locations, and then remember send in a check or pay somehow (or get pestered by me reminding you to pay your balance). And of course, you have to have a certain toleration and appreciation for the inconsistencies inherent in the use of natural yeast starters and my constant need to experiment with very established products. This system will not work or fit into many peoples lives at all. And after the New-ness of the products fade, it becomes a burden few are willing to go through to get a weekly order. But it's the few who have continued to order regularly that is the base of customers that keeps Four Worlds going on a day-to-day basis. And that base is very diverse economically (ie on their income levels).

And that base has grown slowly into a very consistent, loyal following that is the dream of every baker to have. As much as I am after quality ingredients and quality processes to make bread, I am after quality customers with a long, established relationship with the bakery. And it takes time to develop such a strong foundation. So I am no longer worried about customers who disappear for awhile; and I'm more focused on building on the relationship I have with those who have toughed out the inconveniences of my ordering system; those who "really want what I have to offer." And it's that extra burden you have to jump through that really tests your appreciation for the kinds of breads I am baking. And it's this feeling of serving you that keeps me motivated in the long hours I have been working to build up this bakery organically.

So here is some of the comments customers wrote back to me with:

It is true it is tougher to buy FWB bread compared to Arnold's. However, you
overlooked the value of ritual to individuals. I ride my bike to Pennypack Farm
on Friday afternoons to get the bread order. What is that worth? Your
system isn't so crazy--you've admirably kept the prepay balances correct (ain't
easy and I am impressed). As long as that runs well, the only complaints will be
about bread (and they're few). You have a great model. Indeed, you blaze a trail
for other artists. I ask myself, when I retire, what business could I start and
run like Michael has done? --Customer in Horsham

Michael - thought your insights on customer loyalty were right on. for me, i find that i have a tendency to overorder and the freezer always has some of your breads!! i might add that those of us who live in groups have to negotiate with others even down to what bread we will eat!! -Customer from Havertown area

I'm happy to call myself one of your loyal customers! We were without your products for 2 weeks and I'm so happy to be able to enjoy them again:) --Customer from Havertown area

Some notable comments about the City Paper Article

2008-09-13T08:06:00.004-04:00

City Paper published an article about my baking journey last week; and there has been some interesting comments posted on the City Paper web page, in additional to comments emailed to me:

There are two things the article glosses over. First, Michael's breads are exceptional, the product of the high level of skill and consciousness he brings to the process. Second, what is just as unique is the relation he establishes with his customers. Prior to Kaffa Crossing, all his bread was pre-ordered, and distributed to sites across the Delaware Valley. He has very openly documented his struggles and joys in getting his business going. He has garnered the loyalty of "friends" who buy his product (it costs a little more) and strongly support his efforts. His approach is a good model for any artisan who wants to engage in righteous work. -Horsham customer.

Thank you for this wonderful article about our challahman! Michael was baking his bread out of our house ( the "collective" off of baltimore ave) for two years, and although the smell of hot onion bagels sometimes woke me at 6 am, it was wonderful having Michael's baking energy in the house. I loved watching him juggle pans on the kitchen counter every Friday morning, totally absorbed, with a grin on his face. He's not working in the house anymore, but we still have the delicious fruits of his labors... oy, the babka! --One of my 5 housemates in W. Philly

I just had just found out about Michael's breads a few weeks ago. I see exactly why they call him "Challaman" (The Challa is unreal!!) His story is very inspiring, and should be a wake up call to all. You should be happy in life. -Brett from ?

I knew him when... he was still practicing law in a holistic way. Michael was a great help to me professionally and spiritually. I recall fondly his excitement at his discovery of his love for baking and times we spent talking about his dreams of baking truly extraordinary artisan breads. It brings much joy to watch my young friend take flight. I have also been to see him at Kaffa Crossing. The food there is wonderful and Michael's baked goods are out of these Four Worlds! His croissants are nothing short of amazing. Try some, you'll like them! --C.T. in Jenkintown

Wonderfully well written article about a truly outstanding person. Being Michael's father is not making be biased. We love his baked goods and our only sorrow is that we are in Texas and you have him in Philadelphia. So soon we have to come to Philly to break this great bread with our son.Thanks for your wonderful article. -My parents from Georgetown Texas.

Thank you for the comments. Feel free to leave additional comments here on the blog.

Feedback on your Feedback

2008-09-13T07:55:00.010-04:00

Through a cerain viewpoint, life is just a cycle of energy moving around. As we interact with each other, we are simply moving energy around, whether we are aware of it or not. In this great baking adventure, I have learned much about life through this energy cycle between me, the baker, and the people who eat the baked goods. And in the past few weeks, I have been thinking much about this aspect of my art form.

Here I want to focus a bit about, what we would normally term, "negative" feedback. That is, feedback where a customer comminicates to me "complaining" about a product; or aspect they found not to their liking. Here are some examples of such comments:

"Last week the spelt levain was the best ever. The texture was amazing, and the flavor really full. Bravo! The babka on the other hand, was not my favorite. It had a slightly dry quality, and tasted slightly of "refrigerator", and had a bit of a more slick feeling on your tongue after chewing. Also, I didn't receive the two bagels I ordered." -Customer from West Philly

[Note: this came in the same day as the prior comment] Lately the loaves of spelt levain have been tougher than usual and very hard to chew. did you change ingredients? would like them to be a little more soft. thank you. -Customer from Havertown area.

Labeling Problem: Michael, you advertise loaves by weight. Last pickup, scales were out at Pennypack, so I weighed my loaves. They all came up short. I know this is not because you attempt to defraud customers, but because loaves shrink, because of temperature, humidity, and ingredient variation. Nonetheless, you should make clear what is the contract. Is one buying 2 pounds raw, pre-baked weight, or 2 pounds of packaged bread. -Horsham customer

My mind is interesting to watch when I get comments like this. My first reaction is usually "ego"-based or "small'-mind and it says something like this: "I am a failure since I can't please this person; I expect my products to be perfect, everytime; and it's just not acceptible to have inferior products leaving my bakery." A tyical reaction in my mind to this message is to look outside myself and attempt to blame the customer for the problem.

But this thought doesn't last long before my "large"-mind takes over and says: "Wow, this customer cares enough about my breads to tell me when it doesn't meet their expectations; what an incredible gift to know that people are really paying attention to how my breads are each week, and even take the time to let me know about their experience."

So in checking-in with myself about my reaction, I noticed that this type of feedback has a peculiar effect on me; going way beyond the substance of the comment. That is, the comment itself takes on meaning. The realization that people are "paying attention" prevents me from getting lazy. It's as if all of my customers are watching everything I do in the bakery. This goes beyond a parent figure watching over my actions, judging me. This is about tapping into a resevior of exchange of energy that is taking place as I bake for all the people who are eating the food. There is literally an exchange going on at all times in the process, although much of it is out of our awareness. So every comment I get, positive or negative, is a reminder to me that I am part of this exchange and I am not working alone or in isolation. I am more able then to tap into a higher level of Awareness of the exchange of energy.

But without the feedback, I forget. It's like I need a constant reminder that people are paying attention; and they care about what they are getting. Ultimately, I bake to tap into this Awareness; baking is just a means to make this happen for me. So every comment I get is pushing my Practice along. It's an amazing gift and a blessing.

What is your favorite bakery in Philadelphia?

2008-09-06T08:22:00.003-04:00

Of course, it's Four Worlds Bakery.

Tell the world and help Four Worlds Bakery prosper by clicking here and voting for us. You can also write a review of your experience with FWB.

It's What's In the Inside that Counts: Updated product ingredient list

2008-08-24T08:56:00.007-04:00

(Updated 01/25/2009)

This is the permanent home for the ingredient list for all Four Worlds Bakery products. All weights are raw dough weight without any toppings. Breads lose about 5% of their weight when baked.

Please note: "Wheat Flour" refers to white processed wheat flour; I use king arthur conventional flour. All whole grains are certified organic and freshly milled at the bakery. The spelt is organic, locally grown and purchased directly from the farmer.

Whole Wheat Challah. Ingredients: Org. Whole Wheat Flour, White Wheat Flour, Olive Oil, Yeast, Yeast Culture, Celtic Sea Salt, sucanant, egg wash (as a glaze, unless you ordered it without), and optional toppings. (1.5 lbs loaves; 4 oz. rolls).

Spelt Challah. The same as Whole Wheat Challah but with all Whole Spelt Flour instead of wheat flour.

Egg Challah. The same as Whole wheat Challah but with eggs, olive oil, and white flour instead of whole wheat.

Whole Wheat Water Bagels. Ingredients: Org. Whole Wheat Flour, White Wheat Flour, corn meal, yeast culture, Celtic Sea Salt, Barley Malt, toppings. (4.50 oz.)

Whole Wheat Levain. Ingredients: Org. Whole Wheat Flour, Salt, Org. Sesame Seeds (optional), Yeast Culture, Yeast. (2 lbs.).

Spelt Levain. Same as Whole Wheat Levain, but with 100% Whole Spelt flour, wheat-free. (2 lb.)

Anadama. Spelt Flour, Sucanant, Corn Meal, Rye Flour, Celtic Sea Salt, yeast. (2 lb.)

Cranberry Walnut Levain. Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Org Whole Wheat Flour, Org. Rye Flour, Sweetened Cranberries, Walnuts, Yeast Culture, Celtic Sea Salt. (2 lb.)

Potato Rye Levain. Wheat flour, Org. whole Rye flour, Potatoes, yeast culture, celtic sea salt. (2lb).

Pain a la Biere; Alsatian Beer Bread: Potatoe Rye Levain ingredients for the dough, but with beer, yeast, and rye flour topping. (12 oz. w/out topping)

Multigrain Levain. Wheat flour, Org. whole wheat flour, Org Rye Flour, Org Oats, Flax Seeds, yeast culture, celtic sea salt. (2lb.)

Spelt Babka. Org whole locally grown Spelt flour, butter, chocolate, fair trade cocoa, celtic sea salt, walnuts, sucanant, vanilla extract, almond extract, yeast, cinnamon. (35 oz. for full loaf)

Olive Rosemary Levain. Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Org. Whole Wheat Flour, Kalamata Olives, Fresh Rosemary, Celtic Sea Salt, Yeast Culture. (2 lb)

Caraway Rye. Org. whole wheat flour, Org. whole rye flour, yeast culture, Caraway Seeds, celtic sea salt. (2lb).

French Pan Levain & Baguette. Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Org Whole Rye Flour, Barley Malt, Yeast Culture, Celtic Sea Salt. (2 lb.)

Volkornbrot (100% Rye). Org. whole Rye flour, whole rye berries, flax seeds, yeast culture, celtic sea salt. (2lb).

Croissant. Dough: Wheat Flour, butter, sugar, barley malt, egg, celtic sea salt, yeast. Chocolate Croissant, of course, has chocolate in it. Raisin Croissant has a pastry cream (sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, corn starch, butter) and thompson raisins. And Almond Croissant has Almonds and almond cream with sugar, milk eggs, corn starch, and butter.

On Waste: Something To Be Proud Of

2008-08-09T09:51:00.005-04:00

In building the bakery business at Four Worlds, I have been obsessed with waste. Or really, obsessed with optimizing the lack of waste. It's not just financial. For me it's a moral and ethical requirement that my business is contributing little to the problems of our modern way of living.

So last Monday, after the "soft" opening party, I took out my trash for the first time since moving to the new bakery. One bag in nealy a month of operations. In addition, I generate one blue recycling container every two weeks, and one or two 5-gallon buckets of compost a week.

The hardest aspect of my waste system is controlling the amount of unsold bread. Despite pressure to keep bread "on the shelf," to sell it, I have stubbornly insisted on freezing unsold loaves immediately on the day they are baked; then offering the frozen loaves for sale at a discount. This way it's it is possible for me to operate the bakery without throwing away any finished product at all: unheard of in the bakery business.

I started putting products taken out of the freezer on the display shelves at the bakery. So look for them and know by buying the breads from the freezer, you are making a difference in controlling waste and getting a big discount in the process. Of course, it's never as good as a fresh loaf baked the day you eat it. But it's still pretty darn good.

And thank you Tim for taking the picture of my first garbage disposal. May I oneday reach the point of zero waste.

Reflections: opening, pizza, and a whole new world

2008-08-09T09:17:00.008-04:00

My work as a baker is done out of sight of most everyone. I work early in the morning; mostly by myself. Very little interruptions from the intense work of preparing the dough and eventually baking it. I purposefully structure my work like this as I am very challenged being the focus of much attention.

Last week, I hosted a "soft" opening where I invited all the Four Worlds customers to a gathering celebrating the gift of wheat and bread. I worked all day making pizza, bread sticks, and focaccia; products I don't sell through the bakery.

Naturally, I was pretty challenged and overwhelmed with how many people showed up to support me and the bakery. Customers who order regularly and have been following the bakery journey for several years, showed up. I experienced intense joy and satisfaction in what I have created around my passion for baking; seeing directly the impact it has on the people I am serving.

I remember a teaching that says something like this:

If one was to suddenly, in one instant moment, experiene all the sadness and misery he/she has brought into world throughout a lifetime, one would be so overwhelmed with grief and regret, one would literal cease to exist. And conversely, if one were to experience all the joy, love and happiness he/she has brought into the world, he would likewise be so overwhelmed with feelings of joy, one would cease to exist; literally explode from too much light.

So we are made in our human form to filter out all but what we can handle without being too overwhelmed. Yet we can, at times, be pushed to our edges; even go a bit beyond our edges to perceive more of the infinate ways in how we impact the world.

Last Monday, I really got to see firsthand how all my hard work is impacting others; adding a source of pleasure of other people's lives. That is what this bakery project is all about for me. With the bakery, I have solid, focused direction for my life and I get to serve others. And I am contually moving beyond my edges; fully engaged in the challenges and refining that comes along with it. I really am blessed to live such a life.

So thank you for allowing me to serve you. And here are some shots from the opening.

I Know It When I See It

2008-08-09T08:45:00.007-04:00

Do you know the feeling of meeting someone who is doing exactly what he/she was put in the world to do? I am at a loss for words on how to descibe this feeling; but I certainly know it when I see it. I think this is one of the great pleasures of life; to meet such a person and spend even a few moments to witness the sight of that person doing what he/she does best; to work with such focus and passion is a near perfect manifestation of humanity, in my opinion. It's rare, but I have met a dozen or so people in my journeys who I would put in this category; and this is a short story of such a meeting.

A week ago a photographer wrote me and asked if he could shoot some pictures of some baking action; he thought it would make some great shots for his growing portfolio and he was interested in the way I was baking; and he likes my bread. I said "sure" and Ryan Brandenberg visited the bakery last Thursday as I was finishing up my morning bake. He whipped out his camera withing 2 minutes of entering the bakery and snapped shots non stop for about an hour.

Ryan is a pro; he works full time at Temple as a photographer and he has his own freelance business (click here to see his webpage). As a signature line on all his emails it says "Can you imagine a world without pictures?"

What struck me is the way I felt when he was taking pictures. I usually feel tense, awkward, and pretty ambivalent when getting my picture taken. But with Ryan behind the lense, I feel at ease and even attracted to the fact I was getting my picture taken; I was even modeling my wares quite voluntarily, even aggressively at times.

Ryan said he wanted to come back again and get some more shots before his busy Fall season hits at the University. He emailed me a few shots he got last Thursday. All these photos were taken by Ryan while he was doing the work that he was destined to do in this world.

Some Recent Pictures

2008-08-03T07:26:00.014-04:00

Every once in a while I see some "kodak moments" in the bakery; so I keep a camera handy. Here are some shots form last week. Above are some shot of your Olive levain being mixed. I'm not sure what it is, but watchng the mixer work on dough is a tranquil meditation; it's just very relaxing to watch the dough hook move round and round through the dough.

This is the Volkornbrot (the 100% rye bread) in the mixing process and final product. Volkornbrot is a very wet dough and usually a very difficult to dough to manage because it's so sticky. But it's a breeze with my spiral mixer.

I am experimenting with new cuts on the Chocolate Babka. What do you think?

Bakers Have to be Innovative With Changing Market Conditions

2008-07-27T09:23:00.004-04:00

About 3 years ago, as I was envisioning Four Worlds Bakery, I moved to the Birkshires for 6 months and visited every small New England bakery I could find. One of the most inspiring bakeries was in Northhampton, MA. It's called Hungry Ghost, named after a Buddist teaching. It's a tiny bakery near Smith College; and when you walk in you see a big round wood-fired brick oven and a lone baker in there busy making bread; and a tiny little retail counter. I hung out there for hours talking with Jonathan who is the local bread guru and a true artisan. I picked his brain for all sorts of information I needed to get my own bakery up and running.

I also met Naftali from El Jardin in Holyoke, who is featured in this article.

So a customer (hat tip to Erin T) emailed me this article and it's all about how bakers in the Berkshires are trying to cope with rising wheat prices.

Instead of baking with organic flour grown in North Dakota that gets trucked to North Carolina for milling, Stevens said, it makes much more sense to look at growing wheat and other grains nearby and milling it locally -- especially since Massachusetts is believed to have been the site of North America's first oat harvest -- on the Elizabeth Islands -- in 1602.
(snip)
'We pride ourselves on baking organic bread,' said Neftali Duran of Ashfield, who owns Holyoke-based El Jardin, with a branch bakery in Deerfield. 'Yet we buy flourfrom 1,500 miles away. It doesn't make sense.

It's hard to image a baker growing his/her own wheat. But the fact we are even thinking about it is quite an incredible phenomenon. We are lucky here in PA because we have some great local growers which don't have to travel far. The Spelt and soft wheat I use is grown locally in PA. And I save a bit by milling my own grains.

I have been thinking about ways to buy in larger quantities, transport myself, and cut down some of the ingredient costs for my breads. Because I mill my own flour, long storage times are not a problem; that's the way the grains are stored at the farm or mill anyway.

I still think that the explosion in wheat prices is an advantage to small bakers like me; especially given my propensity to think out of the box and get creative. I still have not raised my prices on my baked goods since Nov. 2006 when I started the bakery despite a 33 to 75% rise in the costs of ingredients.

I anticipated these changes; as well as more profound ones that are coming. Efficiency is the name of the game to be viable in the future: best us of energy, cut down waste, best financial margins on the baked goods. The high volume, low margin model is doomed, in my opinion.

The bakers that can bake efficiently will still be around in 10 years.

Soft Opening Invitation

2008-07-27T05:55:00.002-04:00

Date: August 4
Time: 6:00pm
Where: Four Worlds Bakery & Kaffa Crossing, 4423 Chestnut

We are celebrating the Lammas Festival, an ancient pagan festival of the first wheat harvest. Basically, it's a celbration of the great miracle of bread; appreciating how it's no small matter that we have bread to eat.

So gather at 6pm. Pizza (some vegan) is going out at 6:30 sharp; and there will be lots of breads to sample and enjoy; and loaves to buy. It's not meant to be a whole meal. I'm only making a limited amount of pizza and when it's gone, it's gone. At 8pm we are showing the film "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the 1935 version.

Please check back here before you come, in case there are any changes. I will update here.

Kaffa is a BYOB, so feel free to bring any alcoholic drinks you might want to enjoy.

There is technically no charge for the event; although we are asking for donations for ~~a non-profit (I will update that info later)~~ West Philly Food Not Bombs, ; and it would be a nice sign of support for FWB and Kaffa if you bought some food or drinks at Kaffa; and a loaf to take home.

So here is the rub. To get to the bakery kitchen, one has to walk through the Kaffa Crossing kitchen, out the back, and into the bakery structure. Because Kaffa will be open and the staff at Kaffa will be working in the kitchen, we can't really have people walking through the kitchen, to and from the bakery. So we won't be showing the bakery. Hence, the soft opening; not the full blown grand opening. Please don't come expecting to see the bakery.

But please come and celebrate the "improbable" (I had to steal that word from Obama) existence of this bakery and cafe; good times; and a wonderful, diverse community of people who support both Kaffa and FWB.

Blessings,

Challahman

Get on the email list form

2008-07-26T14:07:00.004-04:00

News and Order Info for the July 24-25 Bake

2008-07-06T10:32:00.002-04:00

Dreams do come true sometimes. The picture to the left is of the new bakery at 4423 Chestnut at Kaffa Crossing. Click here to see more pictures. From dreaming it, to planning it, to constructing it, to the never ending task of completing and perfecting it, I have found a new home for Four Worlds Bakery.

Last week was intensely and joyously insane on so many levels; parts of the week hardly felt real; yet the drive and determination what flowed through me to get the bakery up and running was quite a unique experience I will not soon forget. I found energy within me that sprang from nowhere; and by Friday my hands were so swollen and tired, I could not even close my fist.

Sunday we moved the bakery (there are some pictures of the bicycle move in the above link to pictures of the new bakery), then I was sucked into the flurry of unpacking, arranging, cleaning and shopping to prepare for the health inspection on Tuesday morning (I passed!). Then I moved right into prep for the weekly bake and working with the new space.

The week was full of adventures. The funniest story involved the new mixer. My electrician didn't know which way to set the phase on the electrical hookups so he guessed on which way the mixer was supposed to turn. He asked me and I said it was right. But I was wrong; the dough hook was spinning the wrong way. So when I loaded the mixer with 40 pounds of dough, the mixer eventually started to push all the dough up and out of the bowl (instead of pushing it down into the bowl to knead it). That was shocker. But it's fixed now.

The greatest challenge has been working with the new ovens. They are much more complicated and I found myself starting the bakes at 1am to give myself plenty of time for "redos" if necessary before the deliveries went out. On Thursday, I burned the bottoms of 8 challahs and had to make more. I'm frantically searching for the appropriate settings to get the tops and the bottoms the right color with the proper inside crumb. It will take time, so you might notice wild inconsistencies in the breads in the following weeks. The ovens are made specifically for bread baking; designed for the utmost control of all aspects of the bake. So I have much to learn which can only happen through experimentation and learning the nuances and subtle quirks in the ovens. I figure it will take a year to really master these ovens.

Some important changes to note. Please read the pickup times carefully this week in your order confirmations (or check on the web page). The times for pickup for West Philly (Walton Ave), Italian Market, Center City has changed.

On the order form, you can now select to pickup and pay for your orders at the bakery at 4423 Chestnut until 9pm when the cafe closes.

This week, I will start offering the "extra" bread at the bakery which you can just walk in, select, and buy right at the retail counter. I will no longer be putting out extras at the Walton Ave pickup site; although you can still select to pick up your pre-orders there. Feel free to call on bake days and I can sell any extras to you over the phone and deliver to whatever pickup site you want.

More changes are coming as this evolves, including a real web page to consolidate all the menu, ordering, and pickup info into one place. So please stay tuned. And your feedback is desperately needed. Check out the new pictures of some of the breads in the menu below.

Mariposa Members Take Note. Mariposa (West Philly members-only coop grocery store) will be selling some of my products beginning this week. I will be delivering the products fresh to Mariposa on Thursdays afternoons around 1pm. Let the staff know if you have any requests for which products to stock there. We walk a fine line with this experiment because both Four Worlds and Mariposa are retailing these products. You will notice a slightly higher price on the shelf at Mariposa that if you order directly from me: Mariposa has to take a "slice" to cover their costs.

Save the Date: Soft Opening. We are planning a "soft" opening on Monday August 4 in the evening. The event will be in conjunction with the annual Lama festival which is a celebration of bread. For fun, I am planning to bake a limited amount of spelt pizza and I will have some Four Worlds products available to sample and buy (hopefully including some test batches of my new croissant); also Kaffa will be offering it's now famous Ethiopian cuisine which is highly praised in the Inquirer Food section. More details in the email next week.

Ordering, Payment, and Pickup Instructions

2008-01-20T08:48:00.009-05:00

Please visit www.fourworldsbakery.com for the updated payment and pickup instruction.

Wheat Prices are on the Rise...Why?

2007-04-15T08:11:00.000-04:00

I have noticed a slight increase in the price of wheat and other grains; and the commodity prices have been rising faster than the wholesale prices which means the businesses are absorbing the increased costs by cutting costs elsewhere. And the prices in countries that import most of their grains is growing even more rapidly...like in Mexico where the price of the tortilla has exploded leading to actual protests and demonstrations in the streets.

So what's going on? Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute and author of an amazing book called Plan B 2.0, is following the situation closely and links the price of food to the massive explosion of ethanol plants to fill our gas tanks. Basically it boiled down to this: since just about any food can be turned into gasoline, the price of food will increase with the price of oil; and we are quickly approacing our ability to grown enough food for the rising planet population. So we reach the collective moral decision that the feeding our addiction to gasoline will mean more poor people are hungry. Read it for yourself here or visit www.earth-policy.org to learn more about this and many other environmental issues. I higly recommend his book, Plan B 2.0, which is free online, if you can stomach it; it's gloomy at first, but he offers all the solutions in a highly optimistic vision of the future.

Matzah, Matzah, Matzah!!

2007-03-10T11:17:00.000-05:00

(Note: This is an old post from Spring of 2007; I am planning another matzah bake for Spring 2008, before Passover starts).

Update If you have signed up for a matzah bake shift, check the schedule below and make sure you are on it for the right shift. You will want to bring a clean apron (if you want one), some sort of hat or head covering, comfortable shoes, and a long sleeved shirt if you want to operate the oven. Also, bring a container with drinking water or other beverage for yourself. You get 2 pounds of Matzah for working a shift, but please order any additional Matzah you want to purchase in advance.

Directions: We will bake at 4834 Walton Ave. in West Philly. From I-76: University Ave Exit. University to Balimore; left on Baltimore Ave. Balimore Ave to 49th St. Right on 49th Street; one block then right on Walton. From Lancaster Ave; head East on 48th Street; 48th to Balimore; then follow directions above.

Here are all the details for the Four Worlds Bakery great matzah bake. This is real matzah, probably much closer to the stuff they ate in biblical times; and almost unrecognizable from the stuff you might buy in a supermarket labeled "matzah." After you try Four Worlds Bakery matzah, you will likely wonder what exactly the supermarket stuff is. So we will baking 100 percent organic whole grain matzah: whole wheat, spelt, and rye.

Ordering Instructions are included in the Four Worlds Bakery weekly email. To get a copy, email challahman@fourworldsbakery.com. All orders must be in by March 21 at midnight.

Sign up for matzah baking. I have limited space available to come and help with the Matzah bake. We will bake all day on Sunday March 25, in two-hour shifts from 8am to 6pm. So you can sign up for one or more of the following shifts:

8am - 10am

Update: This Shift Now Full

10am - 12noon

Update: This Shift Now Full

12 - 2pm

Update: This Shift Now Full

For planning purposes I have to know in advance (by march 21) you are coming. Sign up soon, as once a shift is full, I will close it. Update: I might open additional shifts in the afternoon if needed to fill orders. It's fun to bake Matzah and time goes fast, but I want to be clear that it's fast paced and intense work; and I hope to give everyone an opportunity to do all of the various parts of the process. I expect you to be on time and ready to work. You will get 2 pounds of matzah for each shift you work. To sign up, send an email to challahman@fourworldsbakery.com by March 21.

How we will make the Matzah. The matzah will be made in teams strictly following the 18 minute rule to avoid any fermentation: the dough must be in the oven within 18 minutes of mixing the water with the flour. After each 18 minute round, we will thouroughly clean the surfaces, bowls, rolling pins, and instruments; then start over again. Most of the labor is in the mixing and rolling out the dough, which must be done quickly.

This matzah has no official certification of koshrut. All the flour will be milled here at the bakery in advance of the bake; and the flour does not have kosher for passover certification; but all grains will be certified organic. But we will strictly follow the rules on making matzah, to the extent possible. We will be using tap water for the water ingredient. Feel free to email challahman@fourworldsbakery.com with questions.

Breadies unite to help refuge women of darfur

2007-02-27T18:57:00.000-05:00

Thank you for braving the weather and helping us raise over $500 to help some families in the Iridimi refugee camp in Chad. Here are some pictures: part of the bread spread, Challahman with the bread spread, and Scott Pryor (during his performance).

It was really an amazing event (definately a bread lovers dream) and we felt the presense of all of you who wanted to come but couldn't be there.

Start the Breadies off young

2007-02-25T20:37:00.000-05:00

Here is yet another Four Worlds Breadie, Hanna, who is having a significant internal relationship with this spelt challah. Hanna insists on only the best: it's Four Worlds or no worlds!

What's shabbes without Challahman Challah? That's what I want to know.

Sourdough Bread Workshop Details

2007-02-24T16:33:00.000-05:00

Do you want to learn how to make sourdough bread from your own starter? Mill your own grains?

I am offering a 4 hour workshop on sourdough bread baking: one on March 18 and one on April 29. Both are on a Sunday afternoon from 12-4pm.

Curriculum:

I. Pre-workshop preparation. You will start your own starter and bring an active starter with you to the workshop. If you can't make a starter for whatever reason, you can use mine. I will suggest reading from your choice of several books that have instructions on making a starter and will get you familiar with the overall process. These books also have formulas to make good bread. If you don't want to spend the money, you can surf the web and read about it and find a recipe to get a starter going. I actually made my first starter from a recipe in the Joy of Cooking many years ago; so it's all good.

Reading this material will greatly add to what you will learn in the actual workshop, and hopefully you will come to the workshop with many questions. I will be available pre-workshop for consultation to help you if needed. You should start begin your starter about 10 days before the workshop, 7 days minimum; and, once active, you can maintain it until we meet.

II. Workshop. We will meet for approximately 4 hours on a Sunday afternoon 12:00 to 4:00 pm. Our main goal will be to run through the process of making a basic 100% whole grain (spelt or whole wheat) bread from a sourdough starter; and by hand with no machines. Milling will be included. You can use my formula (recipe) or you can bring your own. Four hours is not long enough for the whole process, so I will prepare a dough before you get here that we will oven bake it while your dough is rising; this way you can observe the whole process and learn some tricks in adapting your home oven to get a good crust. You will take your shaped, rising loaves home and bake them at home. Alternatively, you can choose to add some commercial yeast to your sourdough to speed up the fermentation process and you can bake it here. This will be a hands-on fast paced workshop and you will make your own bread. I will provide all the ingredients while here, but you will need to provide your own ingredients to get the starter going (just flour and water). I will offer you a price list to buy my grains through the Four Worlds Bakery delivery system; but you can use any flour you want to. You also need to bring a mixing bowl, a large mixing spoon, an apron (if needed), a hand towel, and alot of curiosity. As we prepare the dough, I will answer all your questions and we will talk about the bread baking process.

III. Post Workshop. I will continue to offer my grains, from a price list, to you if you choose to use them. I will be available to you for an indefinate, but reasonable, amount of consultation time after the workshop; so when questions come up, you can call or write me. Also, if there is interest we can continue the workshop at a later date to cover more topics (ie baking with Rye). I will also provide you with any formulas you want that I have; and you can take part of my starter as well. And hopefully you will provide me some written feedback and testimonials about your experience with the workshop.

Fee. The total fee for the workshop is $100, which doesn't include any book you will buy before. I request that you pay, at the latest, one week before the workshop unless you make other arrangements with me. You can cancel for no fee anytime until 1 week before the workshop, at which time I will expect you to pay even if you cancel. You can exchange work hours for part of the fee, and we will negotiate that individually.

Class size. Each workshop is limited to 5 people. I will start a wait list after 5 have given me a non-binding comittment (gotta love the new non-binding movement).

Darfur Benefit: you can make a big difference for women in Darfur and Chad

2007-02-10T10:19:00.000-05:00

Please come to a benefit event to support Solar Cookers International, on Sunday February 25th 3pm 4834 Walton in West Philly. A few hours of fun, great food, and music on a Sunday afternoon might save the lives of many refugee women who risk their lives and security every day just to find wood to cook their daily rice. And please forward this email to your friends and listservers.

This event is sponsored by Four Worlds Bakery, Kol Tzedek, P'nai Or Philadelphia, and you.

Music: Scott Pryor will be performing for the event. Thank you Scott for giving your time and talent. Scott Pryor is a West-Philly singer-songwriter whose music explores timeless themes like faith, loss, love, labor, and community. Visit Scott online at http://www.scottpryormusic.com/.

When/Where: Sunday Feb. 25 beginning at 3 and ending around 6pm. The event ~~is currently planned to~~ will be at 4834 Walton (near the intersection of 48th and Baltimore) in West Philly. ~~But if it gets too big we will be moving it closeby. Check on the Four Worlds Bakery blog before you come for the latest update on location or you might find a sign on the front door.~~

RSVP: Please let us know you are coming by email to challahman@fourworldsbakery.com as soon as you are able to. We need to know how many people are coming.

Cost: There is no charge to attend; but we ask that you be present for, watch, and listen to a short program about what Solar Cookers International is doing in Dafur and Chad; and give what you can.

Food: A big Four Worlds Bakery bread spread will be waiting for you along with your favorite bread spreads. Other desserts, drinks, and snacks will be provided by you.

Program: We have a short 15 minute DVD to show you and we will talk for a few minutes about how big of an impact you can have for endangered women.

What to bring: Bring an open heart and one or all of the following:
(1) Your favorite bread spread (ie what do you like to eat with your bread?)
(2) Your favorite drink or tea you like with your bread (no alcohol please)
(3) Dessert foods or fruit

Things we need for the event: Please let me know by email at challahman@fourworldsbakery.com if you can help with the event by supplying the following:
(1) ~~to borrow: A projector that can project a DVD (we need an operator as well)~~
(2) ~~to borrow: a hot water urne for tea~~
(3) to borrow: folding chairs
(4) reusable plates, forks, cups
(5) small paper napkins

Volunteer opportunities: We need help on the day of the event starting at noon (for set up) and through cleanup (until 8pm) on Feb. 25. If you can be on duty for some of it, please let me know at challahman@fourworldsbakery.com with the times you are available. I will be putting a schedule together.

Blessings,

Michael (Challahman) Dolich
Four Worlds Bakery

Kids and Four Worlds Breads.

2007-01-31T08:17:00.000-05:00

A customer recently sent this picture to me with a note saying their kids are hooked on the Challahman challah. Makes me hungry just looking at the picture.

Conventional wisdom says that kids don't like whole grain bread. So I was confused when I discovered, years ago, that kids liked the whole grain sourdough breads I was making when baking for Elat Chayyim, a retreat center in the Catskill mountains. Well, actually... "liked" is not the right word, they went crazy over it...they ate my whole wheat challah like it was candy about to be taken away from them. Even my neice was eating these breads when she was one year old.

Why do kids like these breads so much?

Please share your kids stories and send pictures. What do they like to eat with the breads? What is their favorite breads?

Part of the Four Worlds Bakery Vision

2007-01-31T08:15:00.000-05:00

A reminder about the Four Worlds Bakery mission. Many bakeries I have worked in and visited are factory-like operations where most bakers are busy but not involved in the creative process. The main goal in such bakeries is producing a consistent product, mostly to please wholesale customers like restaurant chefs and grocery store managers. This is very frustrating for bakers, like me, who strive to express their creativity through the bread baking process. And this, along with economic considerations, is why the best breads are often produced in home kitchens by hobby bread bakers.

Four Worlds differs from most other bakeries in that we value the creative process in bread baking over strict consistency, but still recognize that a balance of both is important. This means that the breads will differ slightly from week to week, as we strive to reach new heights in the quality of the breads while staying grounded in a consistent product design. I guess the question we are trying to answer is this: Are consumers willing to be included in the creative process in the making of their food or do they just want the same, predictible products each time? I think you can figure out where I'm going with this.

One of my customers said to me: "I feel like I'm supporting an artist when I buy your bread." Although I didn't think of myself as an "artist," this statement really resonated with me, helping me articulate exactly what Four Worlds Bakery is all about: bringing back the true artistic (ie "artisan") process in bread baking. But it's interactive, meaning you, the consumer, are part of this creative process. This is why I put out so much effort to communicate with you directly and I have so far turned down invitations to sell these breads in stores.

So thank you for being part of the experiment. Know that ever dollar you spend at Four Worlds is a vote in favor of supporting local food preparation as an expression of true artisanship.

Do you want to know how your bread is made?

2007-01-31T08:10:00.000-05:00

Did you know that Amoroso's bakes 250,000 rolls a day in West Philly? I found this incredible description of their operation; although I don't know when this article was written. It could be old.

It boggles my mind to think about.

And then there is Amoroso’s, which has done much more than survive. It was the first Philly bakery to make a passably authentic Italian roll on an industrial scale, and then figure out how to sell it on an industrial scale. Its bread still commands the same fierce loyalty as a beloved neighborhood baker’s despite being pumped out at a rate of a quarter million rolls a night at Amoroso’s massive brick-and-concrete West Philly plant. The flour arrives by railcar and is poured by the ton into sealed silos, then passes through the labyrinthine building on long steel belts that give the bread — “the product,” as everyone calls it — a brisk 15-minute bake in one of five 100-foot natural gas ovens, and carry it straight to the packing floor. There, the rolls are counted, bagged, and loaded onto 90 white Amoroso’s trucks, or “mobile billboards,” as marketing director Charley Mallowe calls them, kept spotless through twice-weekly power washings. From there, rolls arrive fresh on the morning they were baked, at supermarkets, cafeterias, pizzerias and stadium concessionaires all over the Delaware Valley. Once the dough rises, the rest of the process, including the truck-loading, can be accomplished in less than an hour without the bread once making contact with a human hand.

Read the whole article at http://www.phillymag.com/articles/icons_bread_winners

Nutrition and Four Worlds Breads: Are These Breads Good For Me?

2007-01-31T07:53:00.001-05:00

Information is power. And there are so many different opinions about the nutritional qualities of bread, yeast, and whole grain products, I feel compelled to offer nutritional education about bread and bread-making process so you can make informed decisions about the consumption of Four Worlds’ products. So if this happens to help or hurt business…may it all be for good.

Please come with me on my own educational journey…

Confusion Before Answers

A few weeks ago, I asked, via email, my friend and neighbor Brandon Waloff to write an article about the nutritional aspects of Four Worlds’ products. Brandon, among his many other healing talents, is a certified nutrition counselor and graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City; and an authority in natural food preparation. He also eats and raves about Four Worlds breads.

Brandon responded, via email, reservedly; telling me he could not with integrity recommend the eating of “pulverized grains” (ie flour) products for nutritional content except for the healing benefits of enjoying ourselves with the eating of good food. He said once the grain is pulverized, it loses much of its rich nutritional aspects; and with this spin, he could endorse Four World’s breads.

My immediate reaction was confusion mixed with a bit of unexpressed anger for not getting what I was wanted from Brandon, a full-fledged endorsement of Four Worlds products. My confusion came from the disconnect from what I was hearing from Brandon and: (1) my experience with many years of baking and eating my breads as a major source of protein and nutrition, and (2) my intuitive sense that there are major nutritional benefits to eating naturally fermented whole grain breads.

So I said to Brandon: “Educate me!!!” And Brandon and I met over tea at the Healing House in West Philly, a communal living house with a designated community healing space. Immediately upon entering his home and healing space, I felt different; like I had entered a place that invited me to take a fresh look at my views and beliefs. Of course, sniffing the fermenting sake in Brandon’s kitchen opened me up a bit as well.

The essence of our discussion came down to how the grains are milled. And I quickly learned that Brandon was not aware I was milling the organic grains in the bakery; a fact that changed his opinions about the nutritional benefits of the breads. In Brandon’s own words:

What you don’t usually get in whole grain breads are grains that were naturally milled. This plays a crucial role in the nutrient retention. Most bread that contains whole grain has been milled at higher temperatures, which damage the essential fats and amino acids that we need. Commercial bread companies also use high volumes of grains for shipping and extended storage before these breads reach consumption. This leads to higher levels of rancidity in the grains and is not healthy.

We both agreed that, nutritionally, eating the raw (ie sprouted) wheat berry is optimal when compared to eating it after it’s milled into flour. At that point, I was working on a formula for making a flourless sprouted wheat bread (aka Manna bread). And Brandon seemed very excited that I was going to offer such a product.

Some Four Worlds History on Grain Milling

So Brandon’s words were not new to me. I knew almost all commercially-sold whole grain flours are rancid by the time they are consumed. Even a cursory education about commercial milling processes boggles the mind on how we can make something so simple, so incredibly complicated. For example, whole wheat flour is usually milled the same way white flour is made: the germ and bran is removed from the white endosperm, and then added back later to make whole wheat flour. So whole wheat flour gets MORE processing than white flour. Go figure!!!

When the wheat berry is broken open in the milling process, the oils are exposed and will turn rancid within a week or two if not kept refrigerated or frozen; the high milling temperature (wheat being crushed by big stones or steel rollers releases loads of heat) exacerbates this process, despite the added cooling technology which adds to the processing and energy expense. White flours don’t have this storage problem (although they have nutritional issues of their own) because the oils are contained in the bran and germ that are separated out in the milling process. The resulting rancidity of whole grain flours affects not only the nutritional content, but also the flavor.

Almost four years ago I purchased a manual stone mill with a hand crank and begun milling my own whole wheat flour. I immediately noticed the accelerated fermentation process, as the natural yeast thrived much more vigorously with the food derived from the fresh flour. The flavor of the resulting bread products blew me away. I was left dumbfounded that we, as a society, replaced these breads with Wonder-bread-type products. Amazing!! It’s a sad truth that most people in our communities have never even tasted breads made from freshly milled whole grain flour.

When I started Four World Bakery, I decided I had to mill my own whole grains to make the best breads possible. I was inspired by several bakers I met in New England who had large commercial sized grain mills in their small bakeries. So I purchased an electric stone mill for use at Four Worlds.

More Research into Fermentation Processes

My conversation with Brandon led me to probe further into nutritional information about the Four Worlds breads I consume daily. The fermentation process is equally crucial to the milling process in making nutritionally-conscious grain products. Bottom line: there is a massive difference between using freshly milled grains that are naturally fermented (through the sourdough yeast process I use at Four Worlds Bakery) as opposed to leavening with commercially harvested yeast.

Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, Ph.d. in their book Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (New Trends Publishing, 1999), offers the clearest articulation of this complicated discussion I have found.

The science of nutrition seems to take a step backwards for every two steps it takes forward. When the study of vitamins was in its infancy, researchers realized that white flour lacked the nutrients that nature put into whole grains. One of these researchers was Dr. Weston Price who noted in his studies of isolated, so-called "primitive" peoples that when white flour and other devitalized foods were introduced into these communities, rampant tooth decay and disease of every sort soon followed. But defenders of the new refining process argued that phosphorus in whole grains was "too acid" and was the true cause of bone loss and tooth decay. Warnings against the use of white flour went largely ignored.

Only in recent decades has Dr. Price been vindicated. Even orthodox nutritionists now recognize that white flour is an empty food, supplying calories for energy but none of the bodybuilding materials that abound in the germ and the bran of whole grains. We've taken two important steps forward—but unfortunately another step backward in that now whole grain and bran products are being promoted as health foods without adequate appreciation of their dangers. These show up not only as digestive problems, Crohn's disease and colitis, but also as the mental disorders associated with celiac disease. One school of thought claims that both refined and whole grains should be avoided, arguing that they were absent from the Paleolithic diet and citing the obvious association of grains with celiac disease and studies linking grain consumption with heart disease.

I hear about more and more people who are being advised by well-intended nutritionists to avoid all bread and yeasted products. And of course, we are being slowly poisoned by a lot of the bread products in the mainstream market. But are we throwing the “baby out with the bath water” with this blanket prohibition? Sure, if 99 percent of the breads out there are devoid of nutritional value it’s going to take some effort to smoke out the one percent that is good.

So what makes bread nutritionally valuable? Fallon and Enig continues:

But many healthy societies consume products made from grains. In fact, it can be argued that the cultivation of grains made civilization possible and opened the door for mankind to live long and comfortable lives. Problems occur when we are cruel to our grains—when we fractionate them into bran, germ and naked starch; when we mill them at high temperatures; when we extrude them to make crunchy breakfast cereals; and when we consume them without careful preparation.

Grains require careful preparation because they contain a number of antinutrients that can cause serious health problems. Phytic acid, for example, is an organic acid in which phosphorus is bound. It is mostly found in the bran or outer hull of seeds. Untreated phytic acid can combine with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc in the intestinal tract and block their absorption. This is why a diet high in improperly prepared whole grains may lead to serious mineral deficiencies and bone loss. The modern misguided practice of consuming large amounts of unprocessed bran often improves colon transit time at first but may lead to irritable bowel syndrome and, in the long term, many other adverse effects.

Other antinutrients in whole grains include enzyme inhibitors which can inhibit digestion and put stress on the pancreas; irritating tannins; complex sugars which the body cannot break down; and gluten and related hard-to-digest proteins which may cause allergies, digestive disorders and even mental illness.

Most of these antinutrients are part of the seed's system of preservation—they prevent sprouting until the conditions are right. Plants need moisture, warmth, time and slight acidity in order to sprout. Proper preparation of grains is a kind and gentle process that imitates the process that occurs in nature. It involves soaking for a period in warm, acidulated water in the preparation of porridge, or long, slow sour dough fermentation in the making of bread. Such processes neutralize phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors. Vitamin content increases, particularly B vitamins. Tannins, complex sugars, gluten and other difficult-to-digest substances are partially broken down into simpler components that are more readily available for absorption.

Animals that nourish themselves on primarily grain and other plant matter have as many as four stomachs. Their intestines are longer, as is the entire digestion transit time. Man, on the other hand, has but one stomach and a much shorter intestine compared to herbivorous animals. These features of his anatomy allow him to pass animal products before they putrefy in the gut but make him less well adapted to a diet high in grains—unless, of course, he prepares them properly. When grains are properly prepared through soaking, sprouting or sour leavening, the friendly bacteria of the microscopic world do some of our digesting for us in a container, just as these same lactobacilli do their work in the first and second stomachs of the herbivores.

So the well-meaning advice of many nutritionists, to consume whole grains as our ancestors did and not refined flours and polished rice, can be misleading and harmful in its consequences; for while our ancestors ate whole grains, they did not consume them as presented in our modern cookbooks in the form of quick-rise breads, granolas, bran preparations and other hastily prepared casseroles and concoctions. Our ancestors, and virtually all pre-industrialized peoples, soaked or fermented their grains before making them into porridge, breads, cakes and casseroles. A quick review of grain recipes from around the world will prove our point: In India, rice and lentils are fermented for at least two days before they are prepared as idli and dosas; in Africa the natives soak coarsely ground corn overnight before adding it to soups and stews and they ferment corn or millet for several days to produce a sour porridge called ogi; a similar dish made from oats was traditional among the Welsh; in some Oriental and Latin American countries rice receives a long fermentation before it is prepared; Ethiopians make their distinctive injera bread by fermenting a grain called teff for several days; Mexican corn cakes, called pozol, are fermented for several days and for as long as two weeks in banana leaves; before the introduction of commercial brewers yeast, Europeans made slow-rise breads from fermented starters; in America the pioneers were famous for their sourdough breads, pancakes and biscuits; and throughout Europe grains were soaked overnight, and for as long as several days, in water or soured milk before they were cooked and served as porridge or gruel. (Many of our senior citizens may remember that in earlier times the instructions on the oatmeal box called for an overnight soaking.)

All the breads at Four Worlds are made from naturally fermented grains. Occasionally, especially in the colder and drier winter months, I add nominal amounts of commercial yeast to give the breads an extra lift, thus improving volume. But the predominant fermentation is with the natural sourdough starter that I birthed over 3 years ago in the Catskills Mountains of New York. This “starter” is just flour and water that is regularly fed with more flour and water, thus giving the yeast more food to reproduce and ferment the grains into products our bodies thrive on. The diversity of yeast that lives in the starter is vastly superior to the one strand of easily cultivated yeast that we find in commercially harvested yeast; thus we are left with very complex flavors from sourdough breads that we just don’t get from commercially yeasted breads.

The ideal is to make the breads with no commercial yeast at all; just sourdough starter. And in the summer months, there is really no need for it, as the weather aids in the fermentation process significantly; resulting in faster fermentation and more lift.

So the lesson: pay attention to how your grains are processed. Fallon and Enig:

Bread can be the staff of life, but modern technology has turned our bread—even our whole grain bread—into a poison. Grains are laced with pesticides during the growing season and in storage; they are milled at high temperatures so that their fatty acids turn rancid. Rancidity increases when milled flours are stored for long periods of time, particularly in open bins. The bran and germ are often removed and sold separately, when Mother Nature intended that they be eaten together with the carbohydrate portion; they're baked as quick rise breads so that antinutrients remain; synthetic vitamins and an unabsorbable form of iron added to white flour can cause numerous imbalances; dough conditioners, stabilizers, preservatives and other additives add insult to injury.

Cruelty to grains in the making of breakfast cereals is intense. Slurries of grain are forced through tiny holes at high temperatures and pressures in giant extruders, a process that destroys nutrients and turns the proteins in grains into veritable poisons. Westerners pay a lot for expensive breakfast cereals that snap, crackle and pop, including the rising toll of poor health.

The final indignity to grains is that we treat them as loners, largely ignorant of other dietary factors needed for the nutrients they provide. Fat-soluble vitamins A and D found in animal fats like butter, lard and cream help us absorb calcium, phosphorus, iron, B vitamins and the many other vitamins that grains provide. Porridge eaten with cream will do us a thousand times more good than cold breakfast cereal consumed with skim milk; sourdough whole grain bread with butter or whole cheese is a combination that contributes to optimal health.

Be kind to your grains. . . and your grains will deliver their promise as the staff of life. Buy only organic whole grains and soak them overnight to make porridge or casseroles; or grind them into flour with a home grinder and make your own sour dough bread and baked goods. For those who lack the time for breadmaking, kindly-made whole grain breads are now available. Look for organic, stone ground, sprouted or sour dough whole grain breads and enjoy them with butter or cheese.

So I love white breads and I am not advocating the elimination of them. But it’s clear that nutritional value goes up with highere levels of natural fermentation and freshly milled whole grains. It’s all about balance. Sometimes we can enjoy a nice white bread for a special occasion; and you will find options at Four Worlds which celebrates the full diversity of pleasures that may be derived from the grains. Even the buttery croissant is a delicacy that is awesome for us in moderation. But I wholeheartedly advocate a dense whole grain as a daily bread and I offer such bread each week. It tastily brings out the flavor of whatever you put on it and, sorry to be cliché-ish, it’s good for you.

My mission with Four Worlds is to introduce you to and keep you supplied with naturally fermented freshly milled whole grain breads, which, to my knowledge, are not commercially available in Philadelphia fresh. They are the best in overall taste and nutrition. Can it get any better than that? You bet!!!

The Intersection Between Energy and Nutrition

Brandon is firm that there is much more to nutrition than the physical or chemical content in foods. Food carries immeasurable energy along with it, which explains why a home-cooked meal can be more satisfying than even the best culinary treasures made in commercial kitchens by invisible chefs. In Brandon’s own words:

Traditional methods of properly cultivating grains and using them as food had never dealt with quick production and high turnover. So, to choose grains that are being made more traditionally makes a more sensible choice for creating higher levels of nutrient assimilation. Plus, anytime you make your own foods in your own home you get Vitamin ‘H’ and Vitamin ‘L’. These are Vitamin Home and Vitamin Love. There is an energetic effect of eating whole grain bread that has been naturally milled and made in a warm home with love! When talking with Michael about Four Worlds Bakery, his philosophy on bread making made sense to me. While it’s important to know about whole grains and the affects on the body, it’s also about the essence of the bread. It’s the methodology of how the breads are made. It’s about the process and labor in which the breads are created. This has the greatest impact on our health and our lives.

Commercial bakeries often break up the production of bread into 3 parts: mixing, shaping, and oven baking. So the dough is mixed by the mixer, shaped by another person, the shaper, and then baked by the oven baker, yet another person. While this might prove to be optimal in factory efficiency, something is lost in the connection between the baker and, well, the bakee (the bread); not to mention the sacrifice in job satisfaction in doing the same repetitive work for 8 hours or more everyday. The resulting bread, even though it was technically made through a good artisan bread-making process, loses out on much of its potential. And you see that potential with Four World’s breads…the quality is tough to beat. So, as Four Worlds Bakery grows into multiple bakers, I am designing a production system where each baker will follow through in all the stages of the production process, not just part of it.

The other major disconnect is between the baker and the customer. How many bakers do you know personally? How do they make the bread? Even a simple connection between the baker and the consumers makes a huge difference in the quality of the breads. And so I put a lot of time and effort into creating such a connection through my descriptions of the breads before ordering and printed newsletters that come with them. My goal is to empower Four Worlds’ customers with knowing where their bread is coming from.

OK. There is much more I could add, but I will save it for later. This is a good start in the discussion. I invite your reactions, comments, feedback, disagreements, or utter praise for what you got from this article.

Also, feel free to contact Brandon directly. Brandon Waloff is a Holistic Health Counselor, A.A.D.P., leading people on personal wellness programs aimed to produce breakthroughs in people’s lives integrating Eastern and Western Nutrition and Lifestyle Coaching. You can meet Brandon at his free weekly workshops every Wed. night at 7pm. Contact Brandon for further info: The Healing House, 49th and Cedar Ave, (215) 720-5286 www.spoutinghealth.us