Seven years ago [July 2001] we built a straw and clay domed wood-fired oven here on the farm, and the following season baked a small number of bread shares for our fledgling CSA program. The oven, nicknamed "Toastie," still stands today, and many of you have had a chance to see it in action during our seasonal celebrations.
The experience of baking 40 to 50 loaves every week for an entire season, however, convinced me that I couldn't be Farmer and Baker at the same time. But then last year, when I met Erin Justus from "Companion Bakers" selling her baked goods at the Santa Cruz farmer's market, the idea of offering our CSA members tasty, rustic loaves of freshly baked bread was rekindled. So for our 07/08 Winter CSA we did a sort of pilot program. Erin baked some wonderful loaves of bread for our winter members and they were a hit, so I am excited about diversifying our shares by offering her bread to our regular season members this year!
Erin shares very similar values and reasons in her passion for baking as we do for farming, and that is to offer our community food that is tasty, of high quality, and produced locally in a sustainable way. Her breads are truly artisan loaves; each is hand made, from her own sourdough starter. Erin also enjoys inspiring others to bake, by teaching classes, offering workshops and job internships. Currently she is in the process of building her own wood-fired brick oven in what she hopes will develop into a community bakery in Santa Cruz. I am happy to welcome Erin and her wonderful Bakery as a part of Live Earth Farm's CSA and encourage everyone to sign up for one of her bread shares this season.
- Tom
About Companion Bakers
Companion Bakers specializes in artisan organic sourdough breads. Our dream of
a small rustic and traditional style bakery started amongst friends and family
and has now grown to a larger group of community members! We currently
bake our breads at Feel Good Foods kitchen, located at 306 Potrero Street in
downtown Santa Cruz. We love providing people with fresh local products and appreciate
the way it brings us all together. We strive to keep it simple! “Simple
bread, baked simply” for our community!Our sourdough loaves are rustic, European style, stone baked breads. We use seasonal organic ingredients and hand-mix all of our batches. Our loaves contain only flour, water and salt, plus whatever goodies we add to vary the loaves (seeds, herbs, dried fruit, olives, garlic, etc.). We use Giusto’s Organic Flour for all of our products. To find out more about Giusto’s grains and wheat please visit their website: www.giustos.com.
Environmental Goals: We are extremely dedicated to using local, organic ingredients
in 100% of our products. We strive to use efficient baking methods and simple
packaging techniques. We support our local community of farmers and sell
directly at our local farmers markets here in Santa Cruz, and now we will be
offering our bread to Live Earth Farm’s CSA members! We are members of
SLOW food, CAFF (Community Alliance with Family Farmers) and Friends of the UCSC
Farm and Garden.The Bread Share: How it will Work
The bread share will be CSA-style, in that you don’t select what type of loaf you get; instead, you will have that special little ‘surprise’ each week as the loaves vary. For example, Erin has made us a 3-seed (sunflower, sesame, poppy) whole wheat, a plain whole wheat, a caraway rye, a whole wheat and flax seed, a whole wheat and sesame seed, but we reserve the right to surprise you with a special or different loaf every now and then! (Olive bread? Rosemary and garlic? Maybe a special ingredient from the farm?)
How to sign up for itPlease contact Debbie at the farm for availability. Use the Contact Us form, call 831.763.2448, or simply email us at farmers@cruzio.com.