Our Very Local Artisan Bread Bakery: Rise Up!

Last night after watching a movie in our community room I stepped into the upstairs hallway and was blasted by a wave of the most intoxicating aroma know to man:  fresh baked french bread.   It still blows me away sometimes that I share my life with landmates that have devoted themselves to baking the finest artisan bread known to man.

5 years ago during the design  phase of our communal building at Full Bloom Jo and Rosie our land partners and founders of Rise Up! Artisan Bread designed into the facility a fully functional artisan bread bakery complete with a traditional “Lopis” wood fired oven with a rotating deck.  Below you can see Jo and his oven:

Even though I’ve heard him speak about why he does what he does, I asked Jo again last night why he bakes bread to see what answer I got (the thing about Jo is he’s going to express what’s actually true for him in the moment rather than giving some rote reply) and last night he spoke about the way baking bread with the hand fashioned wooden peel in a wood fired oven connects him with a baking tradition that stretches back hundreds and hundreds of years.   Baking artisan, organic bread is his way of contributing to a growing effort to reconnect humans with the source of their food, to re-humanize the food growing and preparation process.   Rise Up! does this through creating a baking environment that is sociable, humane, a place people want to be around.  Its no factory, its a hearth.

Jo and employee Melissa shaping loaves in the Bakery.

Jo delivering the fresh baked loaves to the rack with his peel

Watching all that goes into bringing bread to market from mixing doughs, shaping loves, and baking loaves (3 days a week) I’m in awe at the dance that is Rise Up!.  Check them out at  http://riseupartisanbread.com/ (They’re going to have a video on their site soon about their operation).

“Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.“
Nelson Mandela