Hello grain friends,
A rare and unique opportunity landed in my lap last week and now I have 150 pounds of new grain to play with. This is not just any grain; this is Sonora white wheat grown by Sally Fox. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, let me explain.
I first learned about Sally from my dear friend Adele, an extraordinary weaver who makes garments with consciously chosen fibers. Her work was largely inspired by a cotton breeder she kept telling me about who farms her cotton with similar regenerative principles I hear my food friends talk about all the time.
A few years later, I started hearing about this amazing heritage grain that was brought back from near extinction in Northern California. It’s called Sonora wheat and many of the bakers I follow in the Bay Area were touting its flavor virtues. My understanding is that Sonora, also called Trigo Flor, was the first wheat grown in California and it was brought over by Spanish missionaries. It is particularly suited for tortilla-making, but many people I know were trying it as a percentage of their bread formulas. Here’s a little more about its history from Slow Food.
What a surprise to me when my baker friends told me they were getting this amazing grain from a cotton breeder in Northern California who was rotating this crop between cotton harvests. Sally Fox is a visionary farmer who has quietly changed not only her land, but farming itself with innovative practices such as fastidiously bringing back heritage grains, while aggressively creating new breeds of cotton in a sustainable way. As an aside, another visionary woman named Monica Spiller was responsible for getting the seeds of Sonora to Sally Fox to begin with.
Creating loaves with this grain feels like an act of quiet resistance to the machine of power trying to put yield and numbers above process and relationships. This bread would not exist without a powerful network of women (of which I’m extremely honored to find myself in the middle of.)
I am only offering Mama Bread this week
This week’s Mama bread is made with the Sonora white wheat grown by Sally Fox that I talked about above. Because I’m stubborn when someone tells me a thing isn’t possible, I’m making loaves with 100% whole grain Sonora (naturally-leavened as usual, of course). This grain is limited and these loaves are very special to me. They’re dense and hold all the natural sweetness of wheat in their aroma and flavor. They make for extraordinary morning toast.
To place an order, email me to let me know what you want and what day in the coming week you would prefer to get it. You are always welcome to drop by for espresso & morning toast, or we can work out delivery or pick-up via email. I have a limited amount of each item, so the earlier in the week you let me know, the better your chances of getting what you want. For the more spontaneously-minded types, drop me a line whenever and I’ll let you know what I have on hand. Oh, and if you want to pay for the bread on-line, here is the link. Of course, I’m always open to trade…
Savor your week with madcap delight and untamed gratitude,
