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.

Yep.  We will now be delivering bread to the stores once a week, every Wednesday, between 11am-2pm.  If this is not a good time for you to shop, please come find us at one of the Asheville area tailgate markets.  Also, if you would like to reserve bread for pick-up at either the Wednesday or Saturday Markets, please email me. 

Thanks- david

Well, Tailgate Market season is upon us and this is when things get good. I’m looking forward to re-conecting with all of you that I was used to seeing week in-week out. Farm&Sparrow will be at the following markets.

WEDNESDAY:
Downtown Tailgate Market (French Broad Food Co-op) 2-6pm. Beginning April 30th
At this market we’ll, emphasize Rye Breads, Tarts, Pastries, Croissants, Granola, and special bakery experiments. Stop by on your way home from work. When you’re suppossed to make dinner for the family and you flake out, we’ll cover your rear.

SATURDAY:
Asheville City Market (Dept. of Public Works Building) 8-1pm Begins tommorrow!
We’ll have it all at the saturday markets, and then some.

North Asheville Tailgate Market (UNCA) 7am-12pm. Beginning April 26th.
What? 2 places at once? Say hi to Wendy, the newest sparrow.

If you want to have an order held aside for pick-up, please contact me before 8pm on the preceding day.

See ya.

Kamut grain is set to arrive at my doorstep on friday afternoon so if you have been waiting, the day of reckoning is upon us.  I hope to have it in the stores beginning next friday.  Thank you for waiting patiently. 

  For those of you who were not privileged to try Kamut bread while Natural Bridge Bakery was making it, you can learn more about the grain at this websight.    http://www.kamut.com/english/index.htm   It is an ancient relative of modern durum wheat (semolina bread) that has a sweet nutty flavor and a beautiful golden color.  It has been cultivated commerically only relatively recently since it was brought back from Egypt, where it has its roots.   Many folks who have been the victim of GI Joe-style wheat breeding have reported that they suffer no intolerances to the glutens in kamut when it has been properly fermented.

Also on the dock for this market season is a buckwheat levain.  Expect to find it at Tailgate markets only until further notice.  This hearth bread has a beautiful purple inside speckled with black from the buckwheat full.  The flavor is very earthy and it pairs up really well with dry nutty cheeses, think aged sheep and goat cheeses.   Buckwheat info:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckwheat

We will also be offering a product of eastern origins known as “Mugicha“.  This is a traditional tea made of twice-roasted, coarse ground barley.  We will be brick-oven roasting it and selling it at the Tailgate Markets this summer.  I drank copious amounts of it last year and fell in love with it for the sweet, malty flavor and because it is great for beating the heat, whether drank hot or cold.

And finally (I’m very excited about this one….) We will be offering, at the tailgate markets, freshly stone-milled wheat, spelt, and rye flours.  One of the important elements of great breads is fresh flour.  Flour that has not been sitting in a warehouse for months.   Flour that has been milled between natural stones, a process which, while grinding, rubs the flavorful oils of the germ into the white starch, permeating the whole flour with the bouqet of the grain.  We want to encourage you to bake your own bread when you are not enjoying ours and this will be a good first step. 

See you at the markets beginning Saturday April 19th.

Cheers,  the baker

Munchers: I’ll be down at Greenlife this Saturday, 10am-2pm for the Asheville Artisan Bread Festival with bread and croissants.  I’ll also be sampling a new variety being sold for the first time tommorrow.  It is a Buckwheat Levain and for those who like real earthy breads, this is it.  Come say hi.

Rye lovers take note.  Our Korn Rye and Russian Raisin Breads are now back at Greenlife.  They can now be found in the dairy aisle, near the eggs and tortillas, in the cooler.  Why the cooler you ask?  You told us at the market that bread is best kept in a paper bag and NEVER to refrigerate.  Well, traditional rye breads are the exception.  In the old days, when wheat was a luxury, peasants would bake mammoth rye breads (10lbs, 15lbs) and age them in cellars.  Rye is a very fermentable grain and when fermented, develops a very low ph, which combined with high water retention, means you can age these breads for months.  Our offerings are a smaller version of a couple of these breads but they do keep quite well.  Each loaf is individually stamped with its bake day as well as the approximate date that its flavor will be most profound.  It will continue to age and stay fresh for much longer though.    Store it in your fridge (or cellar!) wrapped in plastic or wrapped very thoroughly in linens. 

Korn Rye, aka “Volkornbrot” in its native deutsch, is a wholemeal rye bread of german origin, similar to traditional pumperknickel.  100% Rye, it is comprised of Whole Rye Berries, Rye Meal, Cracked Rye, Rye Flour, Rye Culture, Water, and Sea Salt.  The flavor of whole rye fresh off of the mill could surprise those who are used to lighter caraway rye breads.  Awesome with strong cheese, cured meats, mustards, butter, honey, beer, volkswagen etc etc.

Originating a tad to the east, Russian Raisin is a classic Russian Black Bread with the addition of raisins that have been allowed to soak with Kirsch Liquor for a full day.  Its dark dense profile comes from the use of dark roast coffee instead of water.  60% Whole Rye, 40% Whole Wheat, naturally leavened, this is a robust breakfast bread.  Here’s what you do. Slice thin, Toast it, smother on some butter, dollop on some Sorghum.  When enjoyed with strong coffee or tea, it is damned near the perfect winter morning breakfast.

 Another boon for Rye lovers is that Rye has not seen the skyrocketing price increases that wheat has during the past year.  So at this point, we are able to keep Korn Rye as an affordable option against the increasingly expensive wheat breads that we produce.

Enjoy.   GenieBen Sie!

Looking to tide yourself over until the Farmers Market’s begin again?  We will be doing 3 special direct order days this winter at selected dropsights in the Asheville area.  We will be offering granola, bread, pastries, croissants, palmiers, foccacia,  tarts, everything you would normally find at the market but can’t get in the winter. 

We will also be offering sweets from Aimee Mostwill’s Sweetheart Bakery and Empanadas from Cecilia Marchesini. 

The 3 Fridays are February 22nd, March 7th, and March 21st.   For more information, email me at  dave@farmandsparrow.com

• If you are a Farm & Sparrow customer, you have probably noticed that our bread prices, as well of those from other bakers, have risen quite drastically as of late.  And the price of bread rises because the price of wheat and other grain rises.  The article below from The Economist should give you a good idea of whats going on..  I’ve provided a few little tidbits to help entice you.  Mix a stiff drink…….
• FOOD PRICES: Cheap No More, 12/6/07 http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10250420
• “ In early September the world price of wheat rose to over $400 a tonne, the highest ever recorded. In May it had been around $200″
• “Ethanol is the dominant reason for this year’s increase in grain prices. It accounts for the rise in the price of maize because the federal government has in practice waded into the market to mop up about one-third of America’s corn harvest.”
• “According to the World Bank, the grain needed to fill up an SUV would feed a person for a year.”
• “By some measures, global warming could cut world farm output by as much as one-sixth by 2020″
• “As Gary Becker, a Nobel economics laureate at the University of Chicago, points out, if food prices rise by one-third, they will reduce living standards in rich countries by about 3%, but in very poor ones by over 20%. “

Hi Folks,

Ok. Here’s the latest. As many of you know, I currently work out of the Natural Bridge Bakery here in Marshall. Baker Jen Lapidus and Natural Bridge have been operating for 14 years now. First in Sewanee, TN and as of 8 years ago, right here in NC. She was the first one in the region to begin producing naturally-leavened, whole grain breads in a wood-fired brick oven. And people responded. Natural Bridge quickly became an Asheville institution. No wonder. In how many cities can one go to the store on Friday afternoon and get a loaf of Kamut Bread still warm in its bag?

I met Jen through our mutual friend/teacher Alan Scott with whom Jen had apprenticed in California many years before. I was building an oven with Alan in Minnesota when the letter came to him that she was looking for a resident baker with an entreprenurial streak. Someone to step in and share the space. I flew down shortly after to check things out and then moved here to start my bakery. I had never heard of Asheville. I thought it was right next to Dollywood. Jen connected me to her community of food nuts and the rest, for me, is history. And after 14 years of pioneering the brick-oven desem baking renaissance, she has decided to close shop and move on to new adventures. A big Thanks is due to Jen for the nourishment and pleasure she has provided us with. Her bread will be missed but not forgotten.

Beginning January 4th, Farm and Sparrow Breads will be coming to the stores in Asheville on Tuesday AND Friday afternoons, same time. I will be baking this Tuesday, December 18th and then will be closed for the Holiday week. Normal baking schedule will resume on Friday January 4th.

Also, beginning sometime in January we will offer up a couple new varieties. KAMUT and SEMOLINA breads should hit the shelf sometime mid-month.

Happy Holidays.