The Hungry Ghost Bakery: A Rich Community In Its Self

Submitted by LuLu B on November 8, 2009 - 8:04am

The Hungry Ghost Bakery: A Rich Community In Its Self

The Hungry Ghost Bakery is a wonderful sourdough bakery in Northampton Mass. Along with many sourdoughs they make granola, bake pastries and make a great double chocolate cookie. They sell local honey and organic and local fresh pasta. They attract kids (they are located next to the elementary school) and college students, Northampton is a college town. They opened the year I was in kindergarden and we made tiles for the brick oven. The breads they have are listed here:

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French

a classic sour dough white, batard refers to the bread shape more stout than a baguette. It is delicious with most any dish as well as cheeses and dipping oil - organic white flour, water, sea salt

8-grain

whole “grainy” bread, fantastic with soups, salads and chicken. It also is great as toast or as sandwich bread - - 60% organic whole wheat flour, 40% organic germ retained white flour, water, flax seed, sesame seed, sunflower seed, corn grits millet, soy flour, triticale flakes, oats, sea salt

spelt

popular with people who suffer from wheat sensitivities, this bread holds its own with very diverse foods such as spicy Indian or garlic and wine sauces. Try it toasted with orange marmalade - organic spelt flour, Chamomile flowers, water, sea salt

rye

Truly an old world bread, beautifully dense and delicious. This is a great bread to have with soup, meat, eggs or as toast - 50%,rye flour, germ retained white flour (50%), caraway seeds, water, sea salt, topping is toasted black onion seed know as kalanji or charnushka

annadama

The tale of annadama bread states that a fisherman's lazy wife always gave him steamed corn meal mush and molasses for dinner. One day when he came in from fishing, he found the same corn meal mush and molasses for dinner and being very tired of it, he decided to mix it with bread flour and yeast and baked it saying, "Anna Damn Her." The bread was so delicious that his neighbors baked it calling it Annadama Bread. - 60% Organic white flour with retained germ, 40% whole corn flour, molasses, salt starter

rosemary

an aromatic herb bread made of white flour this is a classic bread perfect with Italian food and red meat. Toast it and spread on some blueberry jam for a real breakfast treat - organic white flour (50% germ retained), water, dried rosemary, sea salt

savory fold

Part stuffed sandwich, part calzone, savory folds are loaded with sundried tomatoes, cheddar cheese, mushrooms, onions and spices. They come with a choice of either 8-grain or french bread. Try it as a one handed lunch if you've got a good appetite or share it or combine it with a salad or soup for a light supper. (usually available after noon time.)

olive and semolina fougasse

Totally addictive; crunchy, chewey, the scrumptious flavor of calamata olives and a hint of onion, it is entirely possible to nibble nearly the whole fougasse before you get home. What's a fougasse? Think foccacia, think flat bread, think delcious! -semolina flour, white flour, calamata olives, onion, water, salt, starter

semolina fennel

a unique and delicious bread with semolina flour and fennel seeds, it has the pleasant taste of licorice and works well with garlic and wine sauces or a more traditional tomato sauce. If you are really adventurous try it as french toast - 25% semolina flour, 75% organic germ retained white flour, water, fennel seed, sea salt

country

a versatile peasant bread great for sandwiches or toast and perfect with soup -90% organic white flour, 10% rye flour, water, sea salt, sesame seeds on top

double wheat

our most whole wheat offering. Not only is this loaf made with all whole wheat flour but it is laced with wheat berries as well. Light in texture it compliments just about anything you pair it with and kids love it, too - organic whole wheat flour, water, organic wheat berries, sea salt

raisin

This is more than Saturday morning toast, it’s true the raisins are a sweet treat when dripping with butter but dare to be different match this bread with a tomato curry dish or go ahead and layer on the Gorgonzola - organic whole wheat flour, water, organic raisins, sea salt

Challah

this is not your supermarket challah, made with eggs and honey it is slightly sweet with a crisp crust, available plain, with poppy or sesame seeds or a combination of both seeds and plain with raisins inside. Enjoy this bread for shabot or as a great start to Saturday morning – yummy French toast - organic white flour, honey, eggs, olive oil, water, sea salt

The owner Jonathan along with baking writes poetry. Here is my favorite of his poems:

Wet Cosmic Bloke

I am FLYing through the

soup of summer, doing

what? The backstroke, of

course… Mirroring birds and

bats here on the swimmer’s surface of

the pond. The ripples are my feathers

fluttering through this joke being told

by an immeasurably vast waiter. Maybe it’s

the blue of his eyes reflecting back the color

of water, paralleling the atmosphere’s trick. Just

like I’m echoing the customer’s incredulous query

-what is this bowl doing around my broth?

Once a year they have a bread festival.

The festival has local honey, jam, seaweed, cheese, butter, spreads and lots of freshly baked bread and sweets.

They are also involved in local wheat.

The Little Red Hen’s Wheat Patch Project

The bread flour we had been using, as organically labeled as it might be, is road-weary and carries a carbon-heavy burden. Grown in the Dakotas, milled in North Carolina, trucked to us in Massachusetts, it is high-quality but high-priced (in more ways than one) and that is rising every day. Displaced by ethanol-bound corn and soybean crops, the price of wheat is growing in the way the grain should be. Local cultivation, though historically significant, is presently negligible. We need new strategies to address this.

According to some records, Massachusetts was the site of the first wheat harvest in North America in 1602. Within living memory of Amherst resident Steven Puffer (age 93), farmers brought local wheat, rye and corn to his family’s mill on Old Montague Road (now Route 63).

Thanks to some discussions and a local grain conference at Hampshire College last spring, two local farmers have seeds in the ground at present –rye and spelt- and some varieties of spring wheat. In addition to these efforts we are proposing a radical notion: that bread customers begin to grow a portion of the wheat they consume. Imagine receiving a handful of wheat berries along with your loaf of bread and going home to plant them in the backyard -or the front yard or the side yard! The concept is simple, participants with a small amount of garden space receive a specific variety of wheat seed and with simple instructions and some readily available helpful advice, these newly made micro-farmers will then be harvesting the fruit for local flour sometime in late July/early August..

Students from Hampshire and Smith Colleges under the guidance of Hampshire Farm Manager, Leslie Cox are ready to collect scientific data on the progress of the growing wheat. The goal of the Wheat Patch Project is more than a gimmick but a radical approach to food production, economic participation and agricultural re-integration. In experimenting with numerous seed types, dozens of different conditions and soils, we can collectively discover which kinds of wheat (there are tens of thousands) may best be adapted to our region.

The project is long term and within a year or two the idea is to then enlist the participation of larger local farms to begin growing locally sustainable wheat. Pre-testing the varieties helps to reduce the risk a farmer takes in development of a new crop. The experimentation will continue into the fall when varieties of “winter wheat” will be trialed as well.

Hungry Ghost Bread is proud to sponsor this project and we are currently distributing seed some of which are already in the hands, lawns or gardens of more than 70 bread lovers. The goal of the Wheat Patch Project is not just a gimmick of decentralization, but a radical approach to food production, economic participation and agricultural re-integration. In experimenting with numerous seed types, dozens of different conditions and soils, we can collectively discover which kinds of wheat (there are tens of thousands) may best be adapted to our region.

If you have further questions or would like to pick up some seeds please contact us. We also appreciate any monetary donations large or small in order to facilitate the next step in the process, the development of a grain cleaning and milling facility. Coordination with a local nonprofit is underway to further establish this grain cooperative. Thanks for your interest and support.

Submitted by GabrielLeung1 on November 8, 2009 - 9:28pm.

Those descriptions are

Those descriptions are amazing. Engaging too. I hope they do well and get good quality bakeries a good reputation.

Submitted by athagan on November 9, 2009 - 6:58am.

Neat sounding place.

That bakery sounds like an interesting place. I'd love to see it sometime.

I really like the idea the local wheat project.

I don't know why I never thought about anadama bread before even though I've read recipes for it many times, but the way they describe it above made me realize I should have made some by now.

.....Alan.

Submitted by cgmeyer2 on November 9, 2009 - 4:32pm.

oh yum

i wish this place was near me. unfortunately, i live in az

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