Mill Fire Baking

Mill Fire Baking focuses on the seemingly simple, elemental food that is Bread. For, when approached carefully: Bread is Love. It expresses it. Bread implies connection. It engenders community. Bread is the outcome of processes linking social, natural, and ecological systems in places, through times, and across how livings are made and made meaningful. How bread is made can be revolutionary, suggest intimate acts of love and kindness, and foster healthy and responsible relations in and among people and environments. Continuums of farmers-millers-bakers, of land-life-livelihood, of stewardship-interdependence-humility revolve and evolve around and through Bread. Mill Fire Baking is committed to learning from, maintaining, and strengthening these connections by a simple, direct approach: employing responsibly grown ingredients; freshly milled flour; high heat; and love to craft humble loaves that are a privilege to share. Bread that is for breaking together; for tilling hope, cultivating love, and growing kindness.

My aim is to maintain a direct, transparent connection to the land, farmers, and practices that produce the basic ingredients I use. All grains are responsibly and/ or organically grown in the PNW and Northern California. The focus is on supporting farmers committed to soil health; glyphosate and neonicotenoid coated seeds -- both documented to have deleterious effects on soil, pollinators, wildlife, and humans -- are not used. Organic Certification is not my top priority when selecting grains, however. As it can imply practical and financial burdens to smaller scale farmers. And also shift emphasis from practices that protect and enhance soil health, such as diversified and rotational cropping, to maintaining certification. Flour used is milled in Junction City, OR, by Camas Country Mill; Burlington, WA, by Carinspring Mills; or, here in Bend by me. Nothing is added to the flour; it is freshly milled and full of potential to sustain and enhance life. I employ long, slow fermentation processes and natural leavening to coax as much flavor as possible from the grains, as well as enhance the nutrient availability and overall digestibility in and of bread. My approach is simple: employing love and care to craft humble loaves I feel privileged to share.