bread news

Thanks for the heads-up. Great news. 

From their Facebook page, they offer the Roadhouse bread, which is excellent with its hint of molasses flavor.

Zingerman's bakes some breads only a couple days a week. So two of my favorites French Mountain and Westwind probably won't be available at Earth to Oven Bakery. But if they have Farm Bread, Roadhouse, and some others, that's great.

I wonder if the store owner is making the trip to Ann Arbor to get the bread.  Zingerman's stopped delivering bread to the Toledo market in the summer of 2008. That caused me to take bread-baking classes at Zingerman's, so I assume that it was a conspiracy. 

I still think that a bread bakery that "focused":http://www.poilane.com/ on a few +naturally-leavened+ sourdough breads would function well in Toledo. It would sell to walk-in customers but also to restaurants, markets, etc. And maybe deliver to places south and east of Toledo.  

We like Zingerman's, but one of my favorite places to visit in this region is "Avalon bread bakery,":http://www.avalonbreads.net/ located in Detroit near Wayne State University. 

Anyway, kudos to Earth to Oven Bakery.


hr.

It seems that Earth To Oven Bakery has been selling Zingerman's bread since at least last year.

"Egg & Honey":https://www.facebook.com/eggandhoney/info?tab=page_info sells sourdough bread at the Toledo Farmers Market, although I did not see her last weekend. It's good bread, although the crust is not baked dark enough.

Unfortunately, it seems that many people  believe that a dark-crusted bread is burnt.  A  dark brown crust, however, has more flavor. The natural sugars contained within the grains caramelize. We need to improve our breaducation. 

At Zingerman's, you can call in advance to order your bread to be baked darker than they would normally bake it. I've done that with their large French Mountain bread.

"All Crumbs":http://www.allcrumbsbakery.com/ sells several bread items at the Farmers Market, but I'm pretty certain that their breads are not naturally-leavened.  When they get settled, they should experiment with maintaining a starter and producing one sourdough bread. And if that works, then add a couple more sourdough bread options. No need to get crazy and offer a zillion choices. Produce one excellent, workhorse, sourdough house bread.

I make breads at home that use instant yeast, and they turn out better than just about anything that you can buy locally (except for Zingerman's). But a bread made with instant yeast is not nearly as good as bread that I make  using my five-year-old starter. The difference is noticeable. 

We bought All Crumbs bread from the Farmers Market in 2014, and it was okay when I didn't have my own bread on hand. But I was a little disappointed with a couple purchases that I made in late 2014, so I stopped buying their bread. I assumed that they had new people or were busy with their expansion plans.

I admire the All Crumbs people for starting a bread bakery business, and it's nice that they will have their own store front on Adams St. I'm sure that we will visit them for their other baked goods, but their breads don't meet my expectations. But as long as others are satisfied with their bread, then that's great. It's just like pizza or coffee or whatever, we all have different expectations. 

In my opinion, bread should not be sold in plastic bags. It definitely should not be stored at home in a plastic bag nor in a refrigerator.

I store bread at home uncovered, face-down on the cutting board. My bread is on the left and Avalon bread on the right. And our homemade porter beer.
!https://igcdn-photos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t51.2885-15/10948876_773071679434428_868694919_n.jpg 320x320!

JnJ, thanks for the link to http://www.eriebread.com 

From their website:

q.
Our breads are hand made in small batches and hearth baked using *long fermentation times* to achieve the flavor and aromatic qualities, as well as crust and crumb development. The majority of our bread is made with our *sourdough starter* and not commercial yeast. 
q..

hr.

The problem is that proper bread baking requires a steam-injected oven, or the bread must be baked within a closed environment to trap steam. The latter works for home use when making one bread.  I either bake within a cast iron dutch oven, or I bake on top of a baking stone but cover the bread dough with a metal bowl. The woSteam is required