Friday Bread Basket 8/7/26

7 Aug 2026 — 3 min read

Just a heads up: I will be sending out one last post next Wednesday, but today marks the unofficial start of the Wordloaf summer break, which I will be using to recharge my batteries and to lay the groundwork for my book launch this November (also to go to the beach for a while). Because I have much to do on that front, it's unclear exactly when I'll be back to posting on the regular here, but it'll be sometime in September.

Boston People: Come to the Somerville Fermentation Festival!

Those of you in the Boston area: On 8/16 I'll be leading a panel of local sourdough experts at the Somerville Fermentation Festival and you should join us! I've invited Breadboard Bakery's Daisy Chow, Jason Bond, Ayham Haddad from Mahalab Bakery, and Dana Gilmore, from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts to talk all things sourdough. Come and ask your burning questions and learn about how each of these bakers learned to work with sourdough successfully and how they incorporate it into their bakes. You can use the code SFFFRIEND for 20% of the ticket price.

Hope to see you there!

Whole grain is a given, continued

Back in May, Civil Eats ran a nice piece on some bakers in the mid-Atlantic who have gone all-in on whole grain breads, including D.C.'s Seylou Bakery and Baltimore's Motzi Bread (who are Wordloaf subscribers!):

In 2017, Jonathan Bethony and his wife, Jessica, opened Seylou Bakery in Washington, D.C., baking with fresh, all-organic, whole-grain flour from their own mill. After training in the San Francisco Bay area and Washington State University’s Bread Lab, Bethony brought his passion for bread and local grains to the East Coast.

To make it work, he had to build the supply chain himself. He sought out farmers at markets and on backroads, looking for local food partners who could help bring his vision to life. Bethony sources from regional farms that build soil health through crop rotations and cover crops, and supports them by purchasing as much of the farm’s crops as possible. The result: a business model where he and the farmers share both the risks and the rewards. “I could buy grain from the commodity system from the Mid-Atlantic for a third of the price, but it wouldn’t be in alignment with our philosophy,” said Bethony.

Husband-and-wife duo, Russell Trimmer and Maya Muñoz, opened Motzi Bread in Baltimore, Maryland, six years ago. The couple sources primarily from a local organic farm, with more grain coming from small Amish and Mennonite farms that focus on soil health, and they mill the grain at the bakery. They say many customers find their whole-grain breads easier to digest.