OUR STORY

"We took a walk in the woods, and came out taller than the trees."  -Henry David Thoreau

For the last 18+ years I have worked as both baker and pastry chef in the restaurant industry. I started at The Bateaux in Port Royal South Carolina, "prep chef by the sea", peeling hard boiled eggs, filling mascarpone cream hearts, and washing dishes. It was my first job outside of Vermont and away from my family… and it was the first job I was paid for something I enjoyed.  (besides my summers twisting ice cream, but who doesn't enjoy that.)   The seed was planted, and I've been chasing something ever since. Consuming and learning as much as I can from everyone about lamination, fermentation, ingredients, inventory and running a restaurant business. 

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” 

-Ernest Hemingway  

I competed against three other chefs for head pastry chef at Steven Starr's Dandelion in Philadelphia & won, I spent my 60 hour week evenings at the dandelion, and during the day i trained to make croissant at AuFournil in Narberth with Stephane Wojtowicz. Eventually I came back to Vermont to be head pastry chef at the Shelburne Inn, and almost settled into life, until I met Gerard Rubaud. I was looking for housing, and he was looking for someone to deliver his loaves two days a week. Little did either of us know I would become his apprentice. I stood at the opening of his giant Wood fired oven, woke up all hours of the night and day to make a single loaf of bread, and found something I was even more passionate about than pastry… Gerard was a master baker, and offered wisdom, but not breadth of the bread world… So the adventure continued... and I found O’bread.

I worked with Chuck and Carla at O’Bread for six+ years. Chuck and Carla had traveled to Belgium, France and Holland where they learned from other master bakers. They also supported my treks to King Arthur Flour for for baking classes, and encouraged participation in the bread bakers guild. While I was at O'Bread I also picked up shifts at August first, misery loves company, red house sweets, the Essex, Klingers, and staged at red hen. I found opportunities where i had autonomy and freedom to  help design whole bread and pastry programs… & I became the full package for anyone I worked for, market costed out recipes from scratch executed with efficient technique and skill, complimented by custom marketing and incorporation of local ingredients. The service industry is known for one thing though, and eventually it caught up to me.… the burnout!

This is when Doug and I went on a hike: 2200 miles from Georgia to Maine in SIX months! It was a testament to what we could handle, mentally and physically.  We changed, and we  came back to Vermont after the hike to live off the grid for five+ years. We pumped our own water, powered everything with the sun, and harvested all our firewood by hand.… 

we built a life, and we built an oven, & the bread life began calling... 

Instead of letting the fiery passion for bread burn us out, I wanted to hold onto this balance we had found. But our number one problem was we built our off grid life to be away from the world, and now we needed a community. In order to sustain our endless days walking in nature, we couldn't spend half that day driving in every direction to deliver loaves. So we started our search from upstate New York to Skowhegan Maine for a new home… for a community. The amazing homestead we had built and thought we would never leave sold before we knew it. (Duh, it was incredible) 

Our home actually sold before we were even ready. So we emptied our house into our friends and families basements, and waited. We put in bids on homes that fell through. We had inspections on buildings that were beyond hope.  & ultimately the universe has brought me back to where I started, Saint Albans Vermont, born and raised, but it brought me back with a Doug, and a Walnut… And we couldn't be more excited to start our next adventure as a family. We are ready for our next lives... 

"I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one"

-henry david thoreau