Summary
These stuffed and decorated breads-along with traditional loaves and flavorful breadsticks - are Naga's signature products. They're sold at the Rutland and Middlebury co-ops, but the bulk of the breads disappear at a handful of area farmers' markets. "This isn't maple syrup that's gonna sit on the shelf. We bake it and we get it to our audience immediately," [Doug Freilich] explains. "We have the control over how fresh it is."
Freilich and [Julie Sperling] give their products the charming billing of "consistently inconsistent," because the mix of grains and toppings changes with availability. But they always proffer a wide range of flavorful fare, which can include dense, multigrain loaves, potato knish and salt 'n' caraway sticks. Some customers order between six and 12 loaves at a time and freeze what they can't use immediately. Folks who grew up in Europe, Freilich says, are particularly wild for Naga's dense, hearty offerings. The bakers call the process of making these naturally leavened breads "natural grain alchemy" - hence the business' name.For now, the bakery is buying local flours from other sources, such as Gleason Grains. "Because the grain is grown right here and isn't traveling 3000 miles, the inputs are controlled," Freilich says. And by choosing Vermont wheat, he conjectures, "We're getting two new things: quality grain, which we've always had, at a price point that's equal [to] or actually lower than if we were buying the fluffy, overmilled product that most places are using." Sperling describes these advantages as an "almost unintended consequence" of making the choice to buy local for ethical reasons.See the full content of this document
Extract
Oven Coven
At the 5-year-old Naga Bakehouse in Middletown Springs, making good bread is a family affair. On a typical afternoon, home-schooled ElHs, 7, and Tikko, 10, are mixing up a batch of bread dough while vheir parents, Doug Freilich, 48, and Julie Sperling, 43, make lunch. The grown-ups adorn rolls of their signature sourdough with toppings gathered from their garden or purchased at a recent farmers' m...
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