Rock the Market 2017

As part of the annual Fourth of July celebration, Rock the Market Night goes down at the City Market this evening with extended hours until 10 pm. Last year over 10,000 people joined us downtown to start off their holiday weekend! There will be two bands at each stage, cooking demos, and loads of other activities. And to top it off, looks like the weather is finally calming down.

Per C&C tradition, we will feature the Drunken Hog loaf at the markets this weekend because...well, there's nothing more American than bacon & bourbon. Over 12 lbs of brown sugar candied bacon and a couple bottles of bourbon were incorporated into this particular batch...if you get your hands on one of these loaves, make sure to toast your slices for full effect!

Also on the menu, we will have Country White Sourdough, Cranberry & Walnut, Olive Oil Semolina, Seeded Country Brown, as well as Jalapeño & Cheddar loaves. If you don't make it out to the markets this weekend, I hope you have a safe and fun holiday full of friends, family, and fantastic food!

Hello Sunshine

Summer solstice was upon us this week and it marked the onset of this here glorious season. In many spiritual teachings, the progress of the sun throughout the year symbolizes ascension and Wednesday was the final climax of this journey as it was the day of most light in the year.

Coincidentally, Wednesday was also the day we walked into the C&C kitchen and marked the ending of one journey as we begun another. It has been a long winding road to transform a dream into a reality and this space into a properly equipped bakery. Now the real work is in front of us and we are as excited as ever to get started. 

On the market menu this week, we will have our Country White Sourdough, Cranberry & Walnut, Rosemary & Olive Oil Semolina, Seven Seed Whole Wheat, as well as Baker & Brewer spent grain loaves. They all came out so beautifully in the new oven and we hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed baking them for you! 

We managed to get a time lapse video of our very first trial bake from Wednesday night...it's quite mesmerizing to watch the process of how it all comes together - check it out by clicking the picture below :)  [direct link HERE ]

Meet the Forno Stratos 🔥

This week has been an exciting time at the bakery as our oven finally made its way from Verona, Italy to Rockford. Since naturally leavened breads require slow wild yeast fermentation, a majority of the production process happens way before any heating element is ever turned on. Thus, peeling the dough onto the hearth of the oven is the final act of baking and the resulting loaves wholly validate all the previous days' efforts. Ovens built specifically for artisan style bread baking provide an intensely penetrating heat from the stone hearth while pumping a generous amount of steam into the chamber which allows for maximum expansion of highly hydrated dough. This combination is what contributes to the breads being voluminous and gorgeous...with a shattering crispy crust and an open tender crumb.

The oven is certainly the heart of any bakery and now that ours has arrived, we feel complete. Over the last couple of months, many people have contributed their time, talent, and resources towards preparing and equipping the C&C kitchen for launch. And a majority of this week has been spent on assembling and running connections to this amazing piece of equipment. The good news is we are 99% done with the renovation. The bad news is this heavy installation week has prevented us from being able to bake for the markets. We will miss seeing you all at City Market tonight and at North End Market tomorrow! Every oven has its own character and quirks, so we will be busy spending all the days until next market to learn and familiarize ourselves with our new friend. I cannot wait to break it in and share with all of you the breads that will come out of it.

Olive who? Olive you. 😝

I was starting to wonder when summer would finally grace Rockford with its presence and, last Friday, there it was...our first gorgeous weather market day. We had record attendance and the riverfront was packed from State street all the way to the Jefferson bridge. We sold out of breads at both Rockford City Market and North End City Market past weekend - and I just want to express how grateful our whole C&C team is for your patronage!

Last year, one of the most popular loaves of the season was the Olive & Three Cheese Semolina and buttery castelvetrano olives were used for them. With a cheesy bread already on the menu, I've been itching to bring back a classic olive loaf and it's happening this weekend! This time around, the star of the show is the kalamata olive. Kalamatas are deep purple olives grown in southern Greece with a smooth, meaty texture. They grow to be twice the size of other olive varieties and are cured in a red wine vinegar brine along with olive oil which gives them incomparable flavor.

The Rosemary & Olive Oil Semolina loaf was a hit last week and it'll be back on the menu this weekend as well. I tell ya, it's a wonder these even make it out of the kitchen because the smell that hits us right when it's coming out of the oven makes us want to eat it all right then and there. But...olive you guys :) so we will bring plenty to go around! Cranberry & Walnut, Seven Seed Whole Wheat, and Country White sourdoughs will also be available.

For the last three weeks, I have been partaking in something called #ToastTuesday on our Instagram. It's been fun and challenging to come up with creative ways to enjoy C&C bread and share it with fellow breadheads. The picture above was from this week's post - it's a combination of mascarpone, fresh cherries, a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of bourbon smoked sugar (a friend brought it back from a trip to Kentucky). If you have other awesome toast ideas I should try, let me know!

Ok, just one more...and then olive the pun-creating up to you!

Rosemary for Remembrance

I was recently reading an article on herbs as the sage, oregano, and mint plants are starting to flourish in our garden at home and the breads from our kitchen are filling the air with these wild aromatics. It said, "Across many different cultures and time periods, humans have cherished a secret meaning of herbs and plants as we seek to connect with others and the natural world around us...remembering this and including them in our daily lives as points for contemplation is a beautiful way to pay tribute to these ties between plants and humans that have existed for thousands of years."

I didn't know this before but apparently rosemary symbolizes remembrance...their piney, earthy, and rich fragrance makes me think of Thanksgiving at my godparents' house and my favorite slice from Woodfire Brick Oven Pizza downtown. This week, we are adding a semolina bread to the menu laced with fresh rosemary and olive oil. The best part about durum wheat is that it produces a melt-in-your-mouth crumb with a characteristic tender bite...and I think the light yellow hue of it, the flecks of green, and the bright flavor will always remind me of summer from now on too.

Speaking of herbs, Black Sage sourdough will be making an appearance at the market again. I made some eggs-in-a-hole this past weekend with a loaf we had saved from last time, drizzled it with a sriracha cream sauce, and sprinkled it with chives from the garden - it turned out pretty delicious. If you've never made an egg-in-a-hole before, here are some good instructions. Trust me when I say, somehow they are way better than eggs on top of toast.

We will also have Cranberry & Walnut, Jalapeño Cheddar, Baker & Brewer, Seven Seed Whole Wheat, and our Organic Country White loaves on the menu. I've been seeing some great stuff from folks who purchased breads from C&C either at Rockford City Market on Friday or North End City Market on Saturday and then send us pictures to show off what they are doing with the loaf. Thanks so much to those of you who brightened my days like that and I can't wait to see what you'll cook up this weekend!

Bring Your Own Sunshine

We set a new record last Friday...for the coldest City Market opening day EVER! I remember last summer, we had perfect weather just about every week we were there for the half season...but such is the nature of outdoor markets - you take the good with the bad. My heartfelt thanks go to all who braved the cold and came out to support us as well as our fellow vendors. We also want to apologize to those who may have missed us at the Saturday morning market due to thunderstorms.

Some bits of rain here and there is what we expect over the next couple of days but at least it will be a whole lot warmer. And if that's not enough, our special for the week should do it for you - the Jalapeño Cheddar sourdough loaves will be debuting at both the downtown and North End markets this weekend! There is a similar garlic & cheese version that goes by the name of Crack Bread...it's just that addictive, I guess :)

We are inching towards the finish line of our kitchen renovation project...a lot of great people are working hard behind the scenes to make it all happen on time and I couldn't be happier with the progress we've all made thus far. I will admit though it's been a bit of a challenge for us to produce breads during this phase but what these challenging times have proved to me yet again is what a great community I am fortunate to be a part of. Last week when we had massive amounts of bread left over from the poor weather days, friends of C&C - Magpie, Octane InterLounge, Five Forks Market, Prairie St. Brewing Co., and Rockford Country Club - all banded together to not let a single loaf go to waste and sold us all out. Please support local and pay them a visit! 

And since our electric work is not yet completed for us to be able to install our bakery equipment, the incredible folks at Alchemy and Woodfire Brick Oven Pizza have kindly offered the use of their kitchens while we get ours up and running. In the process, my daughter even got to learn how to make woodfired pizza! The journey of bringing this bakery to life is a constant reminder to me that food, whether we are making it or sharing it, connects us all unlike anything else...as family, friends, and as a community.  

Rockford City Market Opening Day

DRUM ROLL PLEASE....Rockford City Market will be kicking off its 8th season tomorrow! I can't believe this many years have passed since I was nervously preparing for the very first market night back in 2010. The market has grown from drawing 20,000 visitors that inaugural year to 100,000 visitors as of this last one and has become an amazing place for people in our community to gather and connect. We are so happy and proud to be a part of it and we hope you will come out to break bread with us this summer! Our booth will be located at the same spot as last year, in front of the fountain on N. Water St., in between The Cheese People and Cantina Taco.

I also would like to thank everyone who came by and supported us on the opening day of the North End City Market last Saturday! The weather was absolutely beautiful that day and we had a great time getting to know our fellow vendors and the friendly people of surrounding neighborhoods. We hope to see you again this Saturday and the many after. 

On the menu for this weekend : our classic Organic Country White sourdoughs (pictured below - a photo submission from one of our North End customers of how they used their C&C loaf); Cranberry & Walnut loaves; Seven Seed Whole Wheat breads with quinoa, pumpkin, sunflower, chia, poppy, sesame, and flax seeds; Black Sage sourdoughs - one of my favorites; and a City Market beloved - Baker & Brewer loaves made with spent grain from our friends at the Prairie Street Brewing Co. 

In other news, our kitchen is coming together day by day. Our bakery equipment is starting to arrive which will allow us to produce more awesomeness for all our customers. We are still rooted in the traditions of artisanal baking but, let me tell ya, everyone at the kitchen rejoiced wildly when the mixer arrived this week (hand-mixing hundreds of kilos of dough is a rough life!). The electrician is working his magic over there now and a bit of demo work starts next week. We estimate that all the renovations will be finished the first week of June and I can't wait to share pictures of the completed space!

North End City Market

Market season has officially arrived! We are thrilled to be joining the North End City Market this year and opening day is tomorrow. This market is located at the southeast corner of the intersection at North Main and Auburn streets and will run every Saturday morning May 13th through October 28th from 9am - 1pm. We will still be at the Rockford City Market on Friday nights and opening day of the downtown market is next Friday, May 19th. We have signed up for the full season at both of the markets and look forward to seeing you all again! 

On the menu for Saturday are our classic Organic Country White sourdoughs, Cranberry & Walnut loaves, and Seven Seed Whole Wheat breads with quinoa, pumpkin, sunflower, chia, poppy, sesame, and flax seeds! The latter two are new to our list of offerings and we are excited for you to try them out. For the time being, unfortunately, we will have limited quantities of loaves available at each of the market locations. As our kitchen renovations are taking longer than expected, we are only able to produce small batches of bread. However, a lot of progress has been made - here's a sneak peek of our custom bakery workbenches being built locally! I cannot wait to be shaping loaves on these beauties...

We also have some new breadheads who have joined the Crust & Crumbles team over the last couple of months, so I believe introductions are in order! We have added a bio page to our website and you can get to know your bakers by clicking HERE . 

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Spring is a time of new beginnings. This spring, especially, holds a lot of meaning for us because we have taken big strides in expanding our little bakery over the last few months. Many have supported, mentored, and dedicated their time, energy as well as resources to help us get to this point. Expansion is hard work full of growing pains. We anticipate steep learning curves and late sleepless nights but we are energized by this opportunity to fully pursue our passions. However, before we dive into the work, we felt it was important to put it all down in writing. What are our goals and what are we trying to achieve? When things become chaotic - what is our true north and what must we always remember - a month from now, a year from now, many years from now? These are the answers we came up with and we wanted to share them with you:

Here at Crust & Crumbles, "For Love and Loaf" is the central theme in all we do and why we do what we do - these four words represent our love and dedication to the artisan baking craft as well as the people we bake for.

In all our actions, big and small, we are guided by the vision and values set forth below.

Authentic. 

Authenticity is integrity - that we are who we say we are; that we do what we say we will do; and that we do not forget where we came from. It means we strive to be transparent in the decisions and actions that affect our stakeholders. It means we have clarity in goals and direction. It means we make honest food through honest hard work. Authenticity is also consistency - as such, we aim to provide consistent value to our customers, employees, and partners. And finally, authenticity is humility - we are cognizant of challenges that come with running a business and remain humble as we face ebbs and flows.

Beautiful.

We believe beauty is in form as well as function; that good food should look beautiful on the outside and make you feel beautiful on the inside. We believe beauty takes extra time, thought, and attention to detail. It means we practice discipline and uphold high standards for the products we create. Beauty by no means indicates perfection - artisan goods are by their very nature a little imperfect because they are not made by machines, but by people. And people are not perfect; we are all different and we draw our collective strength from this diversity by allowing the individuality of our employees to shine.

Connected.

Naturally leavened bread is created with wild yeast that is present in the air around us, on the wheat grain grown by the farmer, and on the hands of the baker that makes it. We are undeniably connected by the bounties of nature and we are conscientious of the earth as we move forward in business. We bake and eat not only to nourish our bodies but to connect with others: our friends, families, employees, customers, and partners - we are all connected in our successes and sorrows. Thus we honor our commitments to the community that has supported us as we share with you our past, present, and future.

And with this in mind, we are excited to usher in a new season of baking. We can't wait to see you all next month when the summer markets begin!

Greetings!

Don't you just love Christmastime? All the twinkling lights, festive decorations, and, of course, presents! This is THE season for baking too...this year's C&C gifts included our classic french-style miche loaves (as pictured above). These behemoth breads are approximately 1.5 feet in diameter, weigh over 2 kilos, and make perfect centerpieces for the holiday dinner table. I hope this time next year that we will be at capacity to bake these for all who wish to gift it to their friends and family as well. In the meantime, my wish for you is that peace, love, and prosperity follow you always.

Have a magical holiday season and see you in 2017!