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