TOP POST: 7 Grain Artisan Bread and Bread Products

Many of you asked to post the list of all that we make. Here it is. 

7 Grain Loaves

Our Breads

7 Grain Loaf 

7 Grain Baguette

7 Grain Sandwich Flats

Buckwheat Sandwich Flats (by order)

Sprouted Loaf

Rye Loaf

Raisi’n’Shine Energy Loaf
Sourdough Bread (NEW)

Double Baked Baguette Chips

Rice Millet Bread (GLUTEN FREE NEW)
Buckwheat Oats Bread (GLUTEN FREE NEW)

Sweets

Banana-Nut Bread

Cinnamon Rolls

Blueberry Muffins 

Wholegrain Biscotti with Flax Seeds

Gluten Free Biscotti (NEW)
Gluten Free Oats Bran Cinnamon Apple Muffins (NEW)

Bread Products

Barley Oat Buckwheat Pancakes

Pre-baked Pizza Crust 8”

Pre-baked Pizza Crust 12”
Spelt Pizza Crust 8" (gluten light)
Spelt Tortillas (gluten light)

Focaccia

Double Baked Baguette Chips

Homemade Pasta with Flax Seeds

Homemade Amaranth Pasta (gluten free NEW)

Mixes and Cereals

Sprouted Loaf

Homemade Granola (gluten free)

Wholegrain Pancake Mix with Flax Seed

Barley Oats Buckwheat Pancake Mix

Wholegrain Cream of Wheat (unavailable)

Organic Corn Grits with Chives (unavailable)

All our artisan bread and bread products are organic and 100% wholegrain. 

To get quotes please contact us (text or send an e-mail).

Can GMO Wheat Molecules Harm Us?

Here's the link on a very disturbing press conference video where biology professors discuss a possibility of GMO wheat molecules damaging human genetics.

http://tv.greenmedinfo.com/gmo-wheats-g-addressed-in-press-conference/

It's definetely worth to consider turning to organic food, ar least to organic flour and bread.

Interesting Facts about Bread

• People are eating bread at least for 7500 years and today it’s still considered to be a staple food.
• The workers who built the pyramids of Egypt were paid in bread.
• In Biblical times bread was called “the Staff of Life”
• First bread in Americas was the unleavened cornmeal cakes that Indians used to make.
• According to the legend Christopher Columbus brought the first leavened bread to the New World. It was a small pot of a sourdough starter.
• First wheat crop in America was grown in 1602 in Massachusetts by British sea captain Bartholomew Gosnold.
• To make one loaf you would need approximately 350 ears of wheat.
• Bread provides more protein, iron, B vitamins and complex carbohydrates per penny than any other food.
• Bread is the major source of fibre in our diet, providing a quarter of our daily intake.
• Bread contains very little fat and virtually no sugar.
• Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented the first commercial slice-and-wrap bread
• machine in 1928. He sold his pre-sliced and wrapped bread in a bakery at Battle Creek, Michigan. By 1933 80% of all bread sold in the US was sliced and wrapped.
• Every year approximately 72 million loaves of bread are sold in the USA.
• 70% of that bread is white! 

With Bread around the World - 2

The Simple French Onion Soup 

(4 servings)

200g (4 slices) of toasted or dried bread

2 qt. water or beef broth or chicken broth

2 medium onions (sliced thinly)

2 Tsp. butter

Salt and pepper

1 1/2 cups of your favorite cheese

Cut the bread into small pieces. In a large saucepan sauté the onions with butter until it golden brown. Add bread pieces and sauté some more. Add hot water or broth and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve you can either use individual oven-proof soup bowls or one large casserole dish. Ladle the soup into the bowls or casserole dish. Cover with the toast and sprinkle with your favorite cheese. Put into the broiler for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until the cheese bubbles and is slightly browned. Serve immediately.

PS Some believe that this recipe was developed by Alexandre Dumas, the author of The Three Musketeers and many other good books. :) I used to make it (without the cheese) many years ago, when I was a poor student and had money only for bread, butter and onions. It was still very good!

Russian Proverbs on Bread

A gift of bread to a good man is a loan, and an alms to others.

The meal is bad where there is no bread.

When a human being is born, a bit of bread is ready for him.

Without a bit of bread even a palace is sad, with it a pine-tree is paradise.

The house is beautiful, but unhappiness is there if no bread is in it.

Bread is a head of all.

Bread is a father, water is a mother.

Bread is a gift from God, it is a father, a nurse.

Bread is a good thing everywhere—at home or over the sea.

With Bread around the World -1

Bulgarian Banitsa

Today I want to share with you a simple recipe with bread from Bulgaria. Traditionally Bulgarians serve banitsa on Christmas eve or New Year. Sometimes they bake it with pieces of paper with predictions (just like in fortune cookies) wrapped in a foil. The banitsa is then cut in the way that every piece would contain a prediction. Most common fortunes are “love”, “journey”, ‘wealth”, “ marriage”, “new job”, “baby”. Just like everywhere in the world.

But originally word “banitsa” means “crumbled”. So I guess it was fun way to use crumbled or old bread. J

So to make your own banitsa you will need:

½ lb. of whole grain bread (it’s OK if it’s crumbled)

3 oz. of feta cheese (you also can use fresh goat cheese or fresh mozzarella)

2 Tbsp. of butter

2 eggs

1 cup of milk

Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 400.

Combine together feta cheese and 1Tbsp. of butter and crumble it. Put slices of bread on the bottom of non-sticking casserole dish or pie pan. Put the feta the top of the bread. Beat together eggs, 1 Tbsp. of butter, milk and salt. Pour it on the top of the bread and cheese. Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes or until the egg mixture is set.

To make it more interesting you can also add spinach, parsley, dill or bell pepers.  

Enjoy with your family and friends.

NEW! Raisi’n’Shine Energy Bread

For a long time we wanted to develop a new specialty bread recipe for our friends who lead an active lifestyle, who love sports and fitness and watch what the eat. And here it is!

Raisi'nShine Energy Bread

It’s packed with raisins. They are soaked overnight along with the organic flax seeds, then pureed and serve as the basis for 100% whole grain wheat dough. 

Raisins contain phytochemical compound resveratrol. Resveratrol, a polyphenol anti-oxidant, has anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, blood cholesterol lowering activities. Studies suggest that resveratrol has been found to have protective action against cancers like melanoma, colon and prostate, and diseases such as coronary heart disease (CHD), degenerative nerve disease, Alzheimer's disease and viral/ fungal infections.

The raisins are giving this bread its color, sweetness and the distinct flavor along with apples, organic carrots, cranberries, honey and molasses. Raisi'n'Shine Bread is also full of organic sunflower seeds, organic pumpkin seeds, almonds and pecan nuts. They are high in energy and are incredible source of health benefiting nutrients.

Pumpkin and sunflower seeds contain fatty acids, which help to prevent coronary artery disease and strokes. The are also great source of good quality protein, vitamin E and vitamin B group such as thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, B-6 and folate. 

It has absolutely no oil, no eggs and no dairy products.

You can eat it for a breakfast or as a absolutely healthy and delicious snack, when you need to boost your  energy and help you shine all day long.

And as with all our breads it has to be refrigerated because we don't use any preservatives. Enjoy!

Twelve Steps from Grain to Bread

Did you know that baking bread is a multi step process? 

There are 12 steps from wheat to a crusty fresh bread to be exact. It’s not a rocket science, you know. But choices you make at each step will affects the final result: the taste, shape and texture of a loaf.

So let me to take you through an amazing journey of making handmade bread.

Step 1. Grinding the grain 

Freshly ground grain is first and only way to healthy baking. If you want to eat healthy baked goods than the main ingredient has to be healthy and wholesome. We mill our own flour every time we start a new batch of dough. Our grain is 100% organic and our flour is fresh and wholegrain.  

Step 2. Measuring and Mixing

It’s important to measure a right amount of ingredients. As I said before it’s not a rocket science so you can tweak here and there, play with the recipe in order to reach the desired results. But it’s important to pay attention and do your math, if you don’t want to put too much sugar or forget about yeast altogether. Mistakes at this stage are usually costly.

While mixing baker sets for herself three mail goals: distribute the ingredients evenly, activate the yeast and help the gluten start to develop. At 7 Grain we do everything by hand. It takes about 10 minutes a loaf to mix the ingredients well. And it’s a hard work I have to say!

Step 3. Fermentation (Rising)

It’s a miracle step. That’s the time when yeast starts working and transforming still ingredients into a living dough. Because we are making large batches of dough, we are making a starter (or bulk ferment). Often it’s done one day before actual baking. The flavor and texture of bread to be are developed during the fermentation process. So if your bread is too sour or bland then probably the fermentation didn’t go too well (may be yeast was too old, or it was too cold or too hot). Yes, the dough is rising itself, but it doesn’t mean that baker can relax. While the dough is rising you may need to punch it down few times in order to degas it.  

Step 4.   Dividing

When dough is ready it feels like the baby’s skin. It’s soft and warm. And it’s a pure joy to touch it. You should handle it very gently, but quickly, dividing it into individual units that will become loaves. At 7 Grain we use the scale to make sure that all our loaves are the same.  

Step 5. Pre-shaping

Usually Steps 4 & 5 go together. One of us is dividing the dough, the other forms it in the round balls or torpedo shapes, depending of what we are making to do with them. This step insures that the loaf will have an beautiful smooth crust.

Step 6. Resting

Dough was punched and shaped so it has to rest a little bit before it will get the final shape. It’s needed for gluten that became very tight during the pre-shaping to relax and become more elastic again. The rest time depends on a bread type. It takes from few minutes to few hours. Fermentation process by the way still continues in the units.

Step 7. Final shaping

The dough balls are finally shaped into loaves, baguettes or buns. Don’t think it’s that easy. It’s an art. Every shape has it’s own tricks that you learn over time. If you shape the dough gently, the bread will have large irregular wholes in it. In some types of bread it’s not desirable, so you need press it harder to degas the dough. There are variety of different shapes: traditional brick, torpedo, ball, baguette, round and knotted rolls, braids and wreathes. These are traditional, of course, I’ve seen bread in the shape of bunnies, lambs, letters and even Christmas tree. So some bakers run wild.

Step 8. Panning

This step takes seconds, while you are putting the loaf in a bread pan where it will be baked.

Step 9. Final proofing

The dough “proves” it’s alive and well by filling the baking pan. It grows and takes its final size. This step may be short or long, depending on a temperature and humidity. If you don’t give the dough enough time to proof, the bread will not be as big as it could be. If you give it too much time, the middle of the top can fall down during baking. Any way right timing is everything here or your bread will be small, dense and won’t bake through.

Step 10. Baking

It’s the process of transforming the live dough into bread. A moment of truth so to say, that shows if all the preparations you did were in vain or not. The proteins in the bread coagulated by the heat, the starches gelatinized and sugars caramelized. You’ve done your best, so now you are just admiring the golden glow of the baking crust and enjoying the aroma of fresh bread.

Step 11. Cooling

When you get it from the oven and let it cool, the bread continues to bake for a while, driving off the unnecessary moisture. It’s very tempting and hard to keep yourself from breaking the fresh loaf and biting into the moist and hot bread. But the truth is that bread still is not ready, it doesn’t have the right texture and flavor. To be healthy and digestible the proteins need to cool down and firm up for 6 to 8 hours.      

Step 12. Packaging and Storing

The bread goes into paper or plastic bag and we bring it to the farmers markets for you to enjoy. Our fresh bread has to be refrigerated. It has no preservative that’s why its shelf life is very short. You can freeze it up to one month.

It’s complicated but fun process. We go through it with every type of bread over and over. But we love to bake for you, guys.  

German Proverbs on Bread and Baking

Lena have learned the art of baking from her German grandmother. Germans are enthusiastic bread lovers and their folklore reflects this. So here's a collection of German practical wisdom on bread, baking and everyday life. 

Alles Brod ist guet, aber Kei Brod ist nit guet.

[All bread is good, but no bread is not good.]

Brot and Wein giebt auch eine suppe.

[Bread and wine make a meal.]

Besser ein Stuck Brot in der Kiepe, als eine Feder auf dem Hut.

[Better a bit of bread in the hand than a feather in the hat.]

Ein Ei einer Stundt, Brot eines Tags, Wein eines Jahrs alt is ihre best.

[An egg of an hour, bread of a day, and wine of a year are the best.]

Eine Mühle, die nicht umgeht, ein Backofen, der nicht heiss ist, und eine Mutter, die nicht gern daheim ist, sind unwerth.

[A mill that will not go, an oven that will not heat, and a mother who is never at home are worthless.]

Fleiss bringt Brot, Faulheit bringt noth.

[Industry brings bread, laziness brings want.]

Noth sucht Brot wo es sich findet.

[Necessity seeks bread where it is to be found.]

Wer ein Bäcker werden will, gibt keinen Maler.

[Who will be a baker will not be an artist.]

Wer feuerscheu ist, soll kein Bäcker werden.

[Who is afraid of fire should not be a baker.]

Wer Käse ohne Brod esse, er Komme in den Laus turn. 

[Who eats cheese without bread becomes a beggar.]

Wer kein Glück hat, dem verbrennt das Brod in Ofen.

[Who has no luck his bread burns in the oven.] 

And that never ever happens with us. So we must have a good luck. :)

Monster Bread vs. Real Bread

Well, it’s not a secret that most of my life I lived in the different side of the globe. So one thing that really stroke me when I came to US was the bread. Guys, I’ve been in many countries, but bread here, well.. uhh… I don’t want to offend anybody, but it doesn’t taste like a real bread. It’s different than everywhere else in the world. It’s different than in Europe, Middle East, Russia or Central Asia. It’s squishy, too soft, too sweet, too processed. It feels unnatural and even artificial.

Monster Bread

I couldn’t find a good substitute. And it was easy for me to understand why so many people would go on gluten-free diet here and ditch the bread from their menu altogether. So what’s wrong with the flour and bread here?

I ran across an article on the claims of William Davis, MD, author of famous Wheat Belly book. He was saying that modern wheat is toxic and addictive. He calls it “Frankenwheat”. It’s catchy word that indicates that modern wheat is an ugly baby of happily married Mr. Gene Hacking and Ms. Biochemistry Science. So really it’s a monster. It’s dead and dangerous. Monster seeds grown in synthetic soil, fed by pesticides and fertilizers, bathed in chemicals. I guess anyone would grow mutant that way.

According to Dr. Davis it’s has zero nutritional value, packed with extra gluten, bad carbs, so it elevates blood sugar levels, leading to inflammation diseases, all kinds of allergies, heart diseases, fatigue and belly fat. But to make bad thing even worse it’s getting processed. Couple days ago I stopped at the grocery store and tried to find some decent normal flour. I could’t, guys. It’s all bleached, enriched, fortified, fast rising etc. I found one brand that said it’s whole grain flour. But it was nothing “whole” about it, just white flour with bran added to it.

And as monsters usually do that kind of bread leaves you hungry, unsatisfied and craving for more. Considering what written above, “Don’t eat bread at all” seems like a good advice.

So is BREAD that was grown and cultivated by mankind for 6000 years dead?

No. It’s alive. But it was shunned, bad mouthed, forgotten. It’s very hard to find it. But small farms that grow 100% organic grain still exist. There are small artisan bakeries like 7 Grain that stone grind real grain and bake bread in small quantities just as our great grandmothers did before the industrial revolution.

I was thrilled to find out that my friend Lena at 7 Grain bakes a REAL bread. So I couldn’t help but join her.

7 Grain Bread

Just by comparing these two images you'll see the difference. That's how the real bread should look like.

We start out with high quality natural grains and seeds that have been produced without conventional pesticides and fertilizers. We buy only the freshest, organic vegetables we can find.

We guarantee that all our products are certified 100% organic whole grain.

All our bread, pizza, pasta and cereal are handmade product, that’s why sometimes it doesn’t look as commercial products from the store. We don’t use any stabilizers or emulsifiers, like maltodextrin, soy products, flavor enhancers, like MSG, dough conditioners or any modified foods. Because they do not produce clean, healthy and delicious foods like 7Grain’s.

True artisan bread, made by hand, is absolutely different,  incredibly delicious and is nutritious. And I love it!

Our Signature 7 Grain Bread

Many of our friends and customers are asking what our Signature 7 Grain Bread that comes in three shapes (loaves, baguettes and sandwich flats) consists of.  Today I am going to reveal that big secret to all y’all.

Behold, I present you our “Magnificent Seven”.

1. Organic Hard White Wheat Berries 

It’s the best choice for bread because it contains natural gluten, that let’s bread rise more than other types of grains. It gives light color to breads and pizza crusts without losing the nutrition of whole wheat.

2. Organic Hard Red Wheat Berries

Flour made out of red wheat considered to be “classic” whole wheat and it gives nutty flavor and rich brown color to our bread. It’s a little bit less in carbs than hard white grain and higher in proteins.

3. Organic Durum Wheat Berries

Durum is also high in protein. The flour made of it has a distinct yellow color and good for pasta. When it’s ground it’s called semolina flour. It is used not only for pasta bud also for speciality breads such as chapattis and pitas.

4. Organic Spelt Grain

Spelt is an ancient relative of the wheat. It’s very nutritious and full of light nutty flavor. Even after processing it keeps all the nutritional value. It has less carbs than wheat but higher in proteins. Spelt is a great source of dietary fiber, thiamine, niacin, iron and potassium. Some people use it as a substitute for wheat when making bread because it’s easier to digest. The natural gluten it contains is often tolerated by many wheat sensitive people.

5. Organic millet

Millet is small round grain of creamy yellow color. It’s often used in wheat free diets. Millet is rich in proteins, lecithin and calcium and high in fiber. In Russia and Eastern Europe millet is eaten as a hot cereal. You can bake it in to bread, add to your vegetable salad, put it in casseroles like rice and other grains.

6. Organic Buckwheat (whole and hulled)

Buckwheat is not really a wheat family. It has grain of triangular shape and a black hull. Inside the hull is a greenish yellow color kernel. Buckwheat flour is used for delicious pancakes, French crepes or waffles. Also you can cook it whole and eat as a hot cereal (kasha) or add to salads. It has a unique flavor, rich in iron and dietary fiber.

And last but no least

7. Organic yellow and black flax seeds

They are tiny but mighty, carrying the biggest nutrient payload of all. Technically flax seed is not a grain but it has a similar amount of vitamins and minerals as many grains and even larger amount of dietary fiber, antioxidants and Omega-3 acids.

As opposed to Ezekiel brand 7 Grain bread has no barley, lentils or soybeans.

All our grains and seeds are USDA certified organic, which means they were grown without use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides on the soil that is nurtured, not treated.  Organic grains are not genetically modified. And you can taste the difference!

PS If you are interested in making your own bread or want to experiment with any grain or flour mentioned above, you can place your order with us personally at the Covington Farmers Market or the Camellia City Farmers Market or you can text us at 904-600-8785 and pick it up next Saturday at our stand.

English Bread Proverbs

Bread is one of the greatest discoveries of a mankind. It’s more than a staple, more than food. Bread is one of the vivid and powerful symbols of life itself in many cultures throughout the world. It’s a symbol of hard and honest labor, hope and wealth. Bread was used in many rituals and accompanied man from birth to his last breath.

When two people broke bread together it meant that they came to agreement and made a covenant. The young couple was showered with grain at the wedding in a sign of fruitful and good marriage. The most honored guests were greeted with a loaf of bread and salt. Bread was given as a gift as a sign of blessing and a good intention. Bread or grain was offered as a sacrifice in religious ceremonies.

That’s why bread is mentioned in proverbs and sayings, games, oaths and curses.

Here’s a small collection of English proverbs about bread. I hope you will find them interesting.

All grief’s with bread are less.

Baked bread must be eaten.

Dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad.

Give the birds crumbs; God gives you loaves.

If you hate a man eat his bread, if you love him do the same.

Keep him at least three paces distant who hates bread, music and the laugh of a child. — Lavater.

You cannot both eat your cake and have your cake.

Organic Sprouted Bread

At the markets we offer to try samples of our sprouted bread. It’s dark brown, dense, moist and has unique taste that differs from any other regular bread. Not everybody likes it. But what happens often, if you like it, you love it and would want to eat as often as possible.

So how it’s digger from white flour bread or even our signature 7 Grain Bread? Sprouted bread is made out of red and white wheat kernels and also spelt. Usually on Monday we leave kernels in water for a day and allow them to sprout for 3-4 days. The sprouted kernels are then grounded and baked into the bread.

The sprouted bread is flourless, because we add no additional flour. However it’s not gluten free. It contains natural gluten from wheat. We add no sugar, because the sprouts have natural sweetness, but we add molasses that gives dark brown color, additional flavor and chewy texture. It has no preservative, that is why you have to refrigerate it or freeze.  Our bread can be frozen up to 1 month and even after that it still tastes fresh and delicious. It’s a great healthy snack when served with peanut butter or cream cheese. Or you can serve it for dinner with a hearty soup or stew. When fresh it can be hard to slice it because it’s so moist inside, so it can crumble. You will need a sharp bread knife for it or you can buy already sliced half of the loaf. If you buy a whole loaf you might want to wait couple days and then slice it. It will be much easier when bread is dried up a little.

Sprouted bread is higher in protein and less in carbohydrates then whole grain bread, because some carbs are lost in the sprouting process. Also during growth process some minerals as zinc, iron and magnesium are released from bran. It contains natural vitamin B that is usually removed from white flour during refining. Sprouted bread all whole grain breads contain antioxidants and phytonutrients. One slice which is also one serving has about 4 grams of dietary fiber which is about 15% of daily recommended.

If you are eating sprouted bread regularly it means that you lower your risk of coronary heart disease by 20% to 40%. It also reduced the blood sugar response and increases the glucagon response when compared to eating regular breads. And of course with this amount of fiber it definitely helps your digestion.

But even it’s healthy and all people choose our sprouted bread because of it delicious taste and great texture. Just recently we found a new friend, the lady who bought 6 (six!) loaves of sprouted bread at once. She said that she bought one a week before and her family went crazy over that bread. So her husband told her to make sure to buy enough next week. (Thank you, sir!) They ate five loaves and gave one to their friends as a gift. I personally think it’s a very thoughtful gift.

Well next time when you come to the Covington Farmer’s Market or Camellia City Market try our free samples and see if you like our sprouted bread. 

Ode to bread

by Pablo Neruda

Bread, you rise from flour, water and fire.
Dense or light, flattened or round,
you duplicate the mother's rounded womb,
and earth's twice-yearly swelling.
How simple you are, bread,
and how profound!


You line up on the baker's powdered trays
like silverware or plates or pieces of paper
and suddenly life washes over you,
there's the joining of seed and fire,
and you're growing, growing
all at once like hips, mouths, breasts, mounds of earth,
or people's lives.

The temperature rises, you're overwhelmed
by fullness, the roar of fertility,
and suddenly your golden color is fixed.
And when your little wombs were seeded,
a brown scar laid its burn the length
of your two halves' toasted juncture.


Now, whole, you are mankind's energy,
a miracle often admired, the will to live itself.

O bread familiar to every mouth,
we will not kneel before you:
men do no implore unclear gods or obscure angels:
we will make our own bread out of sea and soil,
we will plant wheat on our earth and the planets,
bread for every mouth, 
for every person, our daily bread. 


Because we plant its seed and grow it
not for one man but for all,
there will be enough:
there will be bread
for all the peoples of the earth.
And we will also share with one another
whatever has
the shape and the flavor of bread:
the earth itself, beauty and love --
all taste like bread
and have its shape,
the germination of wheat.


Everything
exists to be shared,
to be freely given,
to multiply.

This is why, bread, if you flee
from mankind's houses,
if they hide you away or deny you,
if the greedy man pimps for you 
or the rich man takes you over,
if the wheat does not yearn for the furrow and the soil:
then, bread, we will refuse to pray:
bread, we will refuse to beg.

We will fight for you instead, side by side with the others,
with everyone who knows hunger.
We will go after you in every river and in the air.
We will divide the entire earth among ourselves
so that you may germinate,
and the earth will go forward with us:
water, fire, and mankind fighting at our side.


Crowned with sheafs of wheat, 
we  will win earth and bread for everyone.
Then life itself will have the shape of bread,
deep and simple, 
immeasurable and pure.
Every living thing will have its share of soil and life,
and the bread we eat each morning,
everyone's daily bread,
will be hallowed and sacred,
because it will have been won
by the longest and costliest
of human struggles.

This earthly Victory does not have wings:
she wears bread on her shoulders instead.
Courageously she soars, setting the world free,
like a baker born aloft on the wind.