[M]IDDLESEX — Bread bakers in Vermont have often set up shop in remote corners of the state, working in isolation at ovens hidden from view. But on the occasion of their 20th anniversary, the heads of Red Hen Bakery organized a celebration that brought Vermont bakers together — and put the oven at center stage.
Over the course of the Great Vermont Bread Festival on Saturday, bakers from around the state took turns firing their doughs at a turtle-shaped brick oven constructed by artist and stone mason Thea Alvin just before the event kicked off.
“I was still working on it yesterday,” said Randy George, who founded Red Hen with his wife, Eliza Cain, in September 1999.
Bakers from Red Hen, along with Patchwork Farm and Bakery in East Hardwick, Green Rabbit Bread in Waitsfield, August First in Burlington, The Manghis’ Bread in Montpelier, and more took to the hearth throughout the day, while crowds of bread enthusiasts stood by to sample their goods.
In a nearby exhibition tent, bakers, authors and grain farmers gave talks about the state of Vermont’s grain industry.
“Vermont used to be known as the bread basket of the country,” said Andrew Peterson of Peterson Quality Malts. The 19th century temperance movement depressed grain farming in this region, Peterson said — but a new wave of farmers growing wheat, rye, barley and a number of heirloom grains are helping bakers and brewers source ingredients locally once again. (Most of the beers on tap at the festival were made with malted grains from Peterson’s operation.)
Randy George said he was inspired to put on a bread festival after representing the United States at a similar event in Paris last year. With an effort underway to revive nearby Camp Meade as a community gathering place, and with the bakery’s 20th anniversary approaching, George and his landlord Russ Bennett decided the time was right for a grain-focused gathering.
“Bread is such an elemental food,” George said. “One of my favorite things about a bakery is that people somehow are drawn to it.”
George said he started inviting area bakers earlier this summer, but the details for the event only coalesced in the past six weeks. He hopes to make the festival an annual gathering — and to keep the new oven in use as a community resource. “It doesn’t just go away,” he said.
