The return is imminent.  Look for the return of Farm and Sparrow breads to local stores early this February.  All apologies for the delayed re-opening.  We had a handful of logistical and technical delays coupled with severe weather, busted water pipes, and this and that.  

Well I must say that the new bakery is turning out to be a very cool place.   Everywhere I look inside there, I see the contributions of my many talented friends and community members.   And it was made possible in large part by the fiancial faith of friends, family, and customers.  To do business in this way is very fulfilling.

There was lots of chipping in. It began with the tent shelter by Robbie.  Then there was this tank of an oven by Antoine.  Carpentry and shelter building by Matty and Aaron. Metalwork and electronic improvisation by Aaron.  Mike tilled up the bakery garden. Drywall help from Alex and Nicholas (thanks for the bulliet).  Painting by Tara and Eli. Oven tiles by Melissa. Oven doors by Arjuna. Welding by Mr Noble.   Weekly loads of seasoned hardwood from Robert.  Bob rigged up a maze of pulleys and counterweights so that our oven doors are self opening.  One of the humbling contributions to the effort was a 9 ft maple baker’s table by Dan Fredericks of Jewel Hill Wood.  (see links) Tommorrow Dave is gonna help me put some more insulation on the oven.   Soon enough, Zac, Tara and I will begin making food again. 

Other news items. 

1) The North Carolina Organic Bread Flour Project (see links), headed by baker/wheat enthusiast Jennifer Lapidus, has recieved its new stone mill.  It is a beautiful Austrian built stone mill donated by Lila Scott, daughter of the late great Alan Scott, the man who made my type of bakery a reality in this country. The mill will be grinding North Carolina wheat for North Carolina bakeries.  I am proud to be a part of the pilot group of participating bakeries.

2)  John McEntire of Peaceful Valley Farm now has available his new crop of Heirloom Corn.  He mills it into grits (which we use for our  Heirloom Grit Bread) and Cornmeal (which we use in our Black Pepper Cornmeal Cookies).  I have always wanted to find more ways to use his phenomenal corn.  Then one day at a BP station it hit me.  Corn Nuts!  So…….we are beginning work on making corn nuts from John’s corn.  We just need a name for it so the Corn Nut people don’t sue us.  Anyway, look for this and other corny products this year at the markets. 

Stay tuned.  -david

Last post: “Markets Open!”.  Well, I may have failed you as a blogger but in the passing season much has been done to better serve you as a baker.  We have found a new home.  And we’re building a new oven.  And its a real beast.  And as of Thanksgiving, Farm and Sparrow will close its doors in Madison County and enter the gunsmoke territory of Buncombe.  Asheville? Better.  Candler.   

     Our new home will allow us to modestly expand on the path we’ve already taken.  A 620 sq ft garage will serve as the bakery.  A 12×24 outbuilding next door will serve as the mill house.  Much of the land is relatively flat, allowing us to plant wheat trials for heirloom varieties that may some day end up in our breads.  In early October, mason Antoine Guerlain began building our new brick oven based on designs by William Davenport.  While begining with a simple brick oven as a building block, William based much of his design modifications on the ovens being built today by his colleagues in Sweden.   Its my expectation that the new oven will both improve our fuel effiency, improve the bread quality, and reduce the time spent standing at the oven.

    On bread news, our kamut bread is on indefinite hiatus.  While I love it as a grain, the logisitics of ordering it from a far off location and stocking large amounts of it has become unreasonable.  Maybe it will return some day. 

Our delivery schedule is modified due to the demands of our new bakehouse.  There will be no midweek delivery again on Wednesday Nov 18th.  If you need bread, you best visit us at the tailgate markets.  We’ll be at UNCA and the Asheville City Market on the 14th.  Just UNCA on the 21st.  We will deliver to the stores on Tuesday November 24th (afternoon). 

For Thanksgiving orders, we will be offering a pick-up location at the Wednesday Downtown Tailgate Market on Wednesday November 25th from 2-5:30 pm.  Foremost in our offerings is the Farmhouse bread, a large, dark communal bread that will feed many.  Our Farmhouse breads are made with Heirloom variety “Turkey” Red Wheat.  Our Thanksgiving menu is very simple:

- Stenciled Decorative 3 lb Farmhouse Breads- $12                                                                                                                             -Rustic Apple Tarts- $15                                                                                                                                                                          -Savory Tarts-Squash Sauce, Shrooms, Greens, Gorgonzola- $18                                                                                      

-Croissants (plain($3), chocolate($3.25), apricot ($3.25)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              -Bialys- $17 dozen

This is your last chance to stock up.  On Thanskgiving the bakery will be closed down for at least a month.  We hope to re-open around Christmas sometime but cannot give a firm date.  Please stay posted for updates.  Thank you for your patience and support during our big move.   Cheers, david

Lordy Lordy Lord the winter has passed quickly. (a southern thing I guess) Well, the months of living off of last year’s stockpiled nuts is over.   This Saturday, April 18th marks the beginning of the market season for us.  Zac and I will be in our usual places this Saturday morning and hope that you will be too.  Wednesday afternoon market (by the co-op) will begin on April 29th.  For ease of reference, our schedule is:
 
UNCA Tailgate Market beginning April 18th
Saturdays 8am-12pm
 
Asheville City Market beginning April 18th
Saturdays 8am-1pm
 
Wednesday Afternoon Downtown Tailgate Market beginning April 29th
Wednesdays 2pm- 6pm
 
Delivery to Asheville Stores:
Wednesdays before 2pm.
 
-We plan to be bringing the usual assortment of breads and unusual assortment of pastries.  One new item that I’m particularily into right now is a Buckwheat-Cacao Cookie.  I urge you to give it a try. It will be accompanied by a Cornmeal cookie made from John McEntire’s Heirloom Corn, grown locally in Old Fort.  
-We will be taking orders every week for freshly stone-ground flours, milled in our bakery every friday afternoon for Saturday pick-up.  (We want you to bake for yourself.) 
-We are also currently working on returnable(w/deposit) bread bags.  They are drawstring bags made of unbleached cotton.  We hope to have this system going by the beginning of summer for market sales. 
-And……we will be bringing our first batches of house-made kraut.  Made from locally grown cabbage, these krauts are young and krisp, not sour and soggy.  They are damn good with Rye Bread and Lusty Monk Mustard.
 
For Saturday, we plan on bringing:
Breads: All Market Breads, Farm Bread, Seeded, Heirloom Grit, Country Log, Spelt, Kamut, Sunflower Currant, Semolina
Rye Breads: Korn Rye, Russian Raisin
Bialys: Bialys
Croissants: straight up, chocolate, apricot
Pastries: Sweet Potato w/ ramps, Blueberries/3 Graces Chevre/Lavender
Cookies: Buckwheat-Cacao, Cornmeal-Black Pepper
Granola: Granola
Flour: Please contact us
Kraut: Plain, Garlic
 
We hope to see you Saturday Morning. 

Hello,

    We will be vending our wares at two upcoming events.  

This weekend, 3/22-3/23  is the WNC Organic Growers School.  We will be set up  with Sweetheart Bakery and will be bringing Bread, Granola, Sandwiches, Croissants, and Pastries.  Sweetheart Bakery will have a wide assortment of goodies as well. 

Next weekend, Saturday 3/28 is the annual Asheville Artisan Baking Festival.  We will be set up selling breads with many other bakeries from the region.  Its sort of a bread mongers all you can eat buffet. 

And the great news is that our tailgate markets will be starting up this next month.  Our saturday markets (UNCA & Asheville City Market((downtown)) will begin on April 18th.   Our wednesday afternoon market will begin on Wednesday April 29th.  We will see you there.  Thanks as always for your continued support.

Cheers, david

Hi there,

    Ok, so now that markets have closed up and the holidays have passed us, we are going to begin our new holiday schedule.  Beginning this Tuesday, January 6th, we will begin twice weekly deliveries to the stores in Asheville.  Deliveries will be in the late afternoon on Tuesdays and Fridays to the French Broad Food Co-op, Greenlife, Earthfare(westgate) and beginning this week, at the Grove Corner Market.  

Individual croissants will be available at the Grove Corner Market and the French Broad Food Co-op.  Bagged croissants at all other stores.  Rye Breads will be back from Holiday at Greenlife and the French Broad Food Co-op, located in the refrigerated section. 

And as we had mentioned all year, Aimee Mostwill (Sweetheart Bakery), Cecilia Marchesini (Empanadas) and myself (Farm&Sparrow) will begin our bi-monthly direct order days.  Menus will be sent on Mondays,  Orders due by Wednesday, Pick-up will be on Fridays with the first pick-up on January 16th.  Stay tuned.  Happy 2009. 

Hi all,

   Oh yes, the holidays are here and so it is holiday market season.  Many of you have have understandably been confused about where to find us on the weekends so here is the info.  See ya.

Saturday 12/6-  Holiday Bazzar(next to the French Broad Food Co-op) 11am-4pm.   Asheville City Market 10am-230pm (Downtown, Off Charlotte St)

Saturday 12/13- Holiday Bazzar 11am-4pm.  Asheville City Market 10am-4pm

Saturday 12/20- Holiday Bazzar 11am-4pm. Asheville City Market 10am-4pm. 

Wednesday Market-  We may attend like normal for one more week.  Beyond that, Wednesday Market pick-up will be by special order only.  If you want to reserve bread or order pastries, email me and they will be waiting for you with one of the vendors. 

See you soon- baker

Yep, that’s right.  The best holiday of the American calender year.  And we have special offerings. All orders are for pick up at the Wednesday Afternoon Tailgate Market the day before.  Here it is.  Hope to here from you.

THANKSGIVING TARTS- $18
Heirloom Squash Sauce, Greens, Garlic Confit, Aged Gouda
Braised Mushrooms, Whiskey Figs, Camembert
Pesto, Kalamata Olives, Artichokes, 3 Graces Chevre
 
RUSTIC APPLE TARTS- $15
(available cedar-planked or traditional)
(cedar planking is baking the tart on soaked cedar planks to give it a woodsy flavor.  You’ll like it.)
 
DECORATIVE FARMERS BREAD- $12
(many of you have seen these large decorated rustic loaves on our market table this fall. They are made with a sifted wheat flour, resulting in about 80% of the whole grain but a light tender texture.   They are perfect for large family feasts and could make you the star of the party.)
 
SEEDED, HEIRLOOM GRIT, MARKET BREADS,
SEMOLINA, SPELT, KAMUT, KORN RYE, RUSSIAN RAISIN, - $5.50 as usual

I am also accepting orders for Aimee Mostwill’s Sweetheart Bakery.  Please email me for a copy of her Thanksgiving menu.

Hey folks,

    We will only be selling at one market this weekend, the Asheville City Market.  Zac will be there with all the usual goodies.  With the weather changing the way it is, you can expect to start finding heirloom squashes and pumpkins scattered throughout the menu.  We’re still scouring apples wherever we can so you can expect at least another few weeks of the apple tarts and pastries. 

Do you have an apple tree?  A Pear Tree?  More fruit than you can use?  Well, thats as good as currency with us so come chat.

 Its also the time of year to eat a bit more of the sweet stuff so we are bringing back our palmier cookies.  We’ll also be introducing a few other new munchies.  Don’t forget, the market season is only a little over halfway done.  We’ll be at markets all the way up to Christmas.  Holiday offerings will include Palmiers, Pannetone/Pandoro, Holiday Rye Breads, Bressone Tarts, Strudels, Brioche, and more.

 See you at market.

Hello,

   Heads up.  We will not be at market this week.  Papa Sparrow is having his 60th birthday and so we must fly to his party.  We will be baking bread for the store.  Delivery this week will be on Tuesday afternoon instead of Wednesday. 

  We have a new bread at the markets and I hope you try it.  Its called “Heirloom Grit.”  This bread was designed to feature the 9th Generation Heirloom Corn being grown by Peacefull Valley Farm right here in Old Fort, NC.  Many researchers believe it to be the oldest corn in the southeasern U.S.  Cooked grits are folded into a germ-rich levain dough.  The bread is then rolled in coarse grits.    Its very very good.  Please come visit us at the Asheville City Market or the North Asheville Tailgate Market and try it.

3 Cheers.  Ahoy- your baker

We will not be at the tailgate markets this 4th of July.  Grannie Sparrow is turning 60 and some of us will be hitting the road to celebrate with her.  We will be at the FBFC market tommorrow.  Come, let us fill you with rye.